Security In Iraq Oct 1-7, 2018

(Shafaaq News)

There was a relatively high number of incidents in Iraq during the first week of October. That was due to a large number of attacks in Baghdad and Kirkuk. Another mass grave was discovered in Kurdistan as well raising the number of casualties.

There were 60 incidents reported in Iraq from October 1-7, 2018. That was the most since 64 during the second week of April. Since that month there has been around 40 incidents per week, but that occasionally goes up to 50, which made this week an exception to the norm. Kirkuk at 16 and Baghdad at 20 were the two areas in double digits in incidents.

Security Incidents In Iraq By Province Oct 1-7, 2018

Anbar 1

Kurdistan 2

Basra 3

Ninewa 4

Salahaddin 4

Diyala 9

Kirkuk 16

Baghdad 20

Casualties In Iraq By Province Oct 1-7, 2018

Basra 3 (3 K)

Diyala 4 (2 K, 2 W)

Ninewa 6 (6 K)

Anbar 7 (1 K, 6 W)

Kirkuk 24 (5 K, 19 W)

Salahaddin 37 (2 K, 35 W)

Baghdad 44 (12 K, 32 W)

Kurdistan 57 (57 K)

88 people were killed and 94 wounded during the week. 54 bodies of people executed by the Islamic State were found in Kurdistan. That left 34 violent deaths. 3 Iraqi Security Forces (ISF), 3 Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), and 82 civilians lost their lives, and 4 Hashd al-Shaabi, 11 ISF, and 79 civilians were wounded. Kurdistan obviously led the country in casualties with 57 because of the mass grave. Baghdad was second with 44. That province has been leading the country most weeks because of an increase in Islamic State activity there.

In the last three months there has been two trends going on in Anbar. First, the number of incidents still remains very low, but they are slowly creeping up. Second, the Islamic State has restarted mass casualty bombings there. In September for instance, there were two suicide bombings. At the start of October there was a car bomb in Fallujah that left 5 wounded. For months, Anbar was a secondary front for IS. Now it is becoming a target.

Baghdad is another province that is getting renewed attention from the insurgents. Incidents have increased there in the last five months. They have gone from single digits in May to the teens in June to now hitting the 20s. From October 1-7 there were 20 incidents in the capital. On October 7 there were 11 incidents alone including 3 suicide bombers being killed. Most attacks occur in the north and south. This has changed as well because they used to be in the outer towns, now they are in the outskirts of the city itself. Re-infiltrating into Baghdad is another bad trend. If IS follows its previous history the next step will be mass casualty bombings.

In Basra two protest activists and a woman beauty shop owner were gunned down.  There have been a wave attacks recently on woman with this being the latest. The deaths of the demonstrators could also be payback for any number of acts that took place during the summer such as burning Hashd and political offices, and the Iranian consulate.

Central Iraq is where IS is rebuilding. Attacks there surged in the summer and then went down. Incidents remained low in Diyala, 9, and Salahaddin, 4, but went up in Kirkuk with 16. In Diyala, there were two gun battles with insurgents. In Kirkuk, three electricity towers were blown up, a mukhtar was kidnapped, and there were two attacks upon checkpoints. Finally, in Salahaddin a suicide bomber hit a bus carrying workers that left 1 dead and 33 wounded. A Turkmen parliamentarian’s house was hit by a mortar in Tuz Kharmato. That could have been ethnic violence instead of the work of insurgents as that town has been split between Arabs and Kurds, with the Turkmen split between Shiites and Sunnis since the area was liberated. The Islamic State has established control of many of the rural areas in all parts of Diyala, southern Kirkuk, and central and northern Salahaddin. There is little government presence in these areas, which has allowed IS almost free reign to regroup and reform.

Ninewa has become a secondary front. There were just four incidents there during the week. Two bodies were found, and there were two shootings. That is an example of the types of incidents that regularly occur there now.

There was another Turkish air strike in northern Kurdistan. That left 3 PKK members dead. Ankara now carries out weekly air strikes, artillery fire, and search and destroy missions against the PKK, with half in southern Turkey, and the rest in Kurdistan. Back in March, Turkey made a major incursion into Iraq and said it would destroy the PKK’s main base in the Qandil Mountains. After Turkish elections in June, that operation wound down and has now stopped. President Erdogan has said he wants to destroy the PKK, but these types of operations will only pressure on it, and likely provoke it into more attacks.

Islamic State Activity in Central Iraq 2018

Diyala	Shootings (Totals)	IEDs/ Sticky Bombs (Totals)	Gun Battles	Attacks on Checkpoints	Attacks on Mukhtars/ Sheikhs	Kidnappings	Attacks on Towns	Mortars	Suicide Bombers	Car Bombs
Jan	20	24	2	7	-	1	-	6	1	1
Feb	14	13	4	3	-	-	-	-	1	-
Mar	29	21	14	5	1	2	1	5	-	-
Apr	13	18	2	2	-	-	-	2	-	-
May	11	11	1	3	1	1	3	4	1	-
Jun	32	17	5	12	-	1	5	4	-	-
Jul	20	19	2	3	-	2	3	1	-	-
Aug	17	18	2	2	1	1	3	3	-	-
Sep	20	12	5	1	-	2	5	5	-	-
Oct	5	7	2	-	-	-	-	-	-	-

Kirkuk	Shootings (Totals)	IEDs/ Sticky Bombs (Totals)	Gun Battles	Attacks on Checkpoints	Attacks on Mukhtars/ Sheikhs	Kidnappings	Attacks on Towns	Mortars/ Rockets	Suicide Bombers	Car Bombs
Jan	13	6	4	1	-	-	-	3	3	1
Feb	21	10	7	3	-	-	-	4	1	-
Mar	22	15	11	2	-	2	1	3	1	1
Apr	18	4	3	1	-	-	8	1	-	1
May	14	28	2	-	2	1	1	4	4	-
Jun	25	12	4	2	-	2	10	6	-	-
Jul	7	20	1	2	-	-	-	-	-	1
Aug	7	20	2	1	2	-	-	2	-	1
Sep	14	25	2	2	1	3	4	2	-	-
Oct	2	11	-	2	1	1	-	-	-	-

Salahaddin	Shootings (Totals)	IEDs/ Sticky Bombs (Totals)	Gun Battles	Attacks on Checkpoints	Attacks on Mukhtars/ Sheikhs	Kidnappings	Attacks on Towns	Mortars/ Rockets	Suicide Bombers	Car Bombs
Jan	11	9	8	-	-	-	-	2	-	1
Feb	7	5	1	1	-	2	-	-	-	-
Mar	23	8	9	2	-	3	-	-	1	-
Apr	6	8	2	2	-	-	-	-	1	-
May	14	10	10	1	1	-	-	1	1	-
Jun	15	15	4	1	-	7	-	-	-	1
Jul	9	6	-	4	-	-	2	1	1	-
Aug	9	15	1	3	-	1	1	1	1	-
Sep	5	10	1	1	-	-	1	1	3	1
Oct	1	1	-	-	-	-	-	1	1	-

(Gun Battles, Attacks on Checkpoints, Attacks on Mukhtars, Attacks on Towns are all subsets of the total number of shootings and IEDs/Sticky Bombs reported)

Suicide-Car Bombs In Iraq 2018

Month	Suicide Bombers	Car Bombs	Totals
Jan	7 (1- Diyala, 3 – Baghdad, 3 - Kirkuk)	6 (1- Anbar, 1 – Diyala, 1 – Kirkuk, 1 – Salahaddin, 2 - Babil)	13
Feb	4 (1 – Anbar 1 – Diyala 1 – Kirkuk 1 - Ninewa)	-	4
Mar	2 (1 – Kirkuk 1 - Salahaddin)	1 (1 – Kirkuk)	3
Apr	4 (1 - Salahaddin 3 – Anbar)	1 (1 – Kirkuk)	5
May	8 (1 – Diyala 1 - Salahaddin) 2 – Baghdad 4 - Kirkuk)	-	8
Jun		1 (1 – Salahaddin)	1
Jul	1 (1 – Salahaddin)	1 (1 – Kirkuk)	2
Aug	1 (1 – Salahaddin)	2 (1 – Anbar, 1 – Kirkuk)	3
Sep	6 (1 – Ninewa) 2 – Anbar 3 – Salahaddin)	2 (1 – Kirkuk 1 – Salahaddin)	8
Oct	1 (1 – Salahaddin)	1 (1 – Anbar)	2

Security In Iraq 2017-18

Week	Security Incidents	Dead	Wounded
JAN 2017	719	1,923	4,374
FEB	628	1,891 + 399	2,511 + 1,634
MAR	720	3,504 + 278	3,302 + 2,925
APR	578	2,933	1,955
MAY	528	2,038	1,563
JUN	534	2,038	1,563
JUL	478	1,490	650
AUG	359	1,949	584
SEP	306	728	549
OCT	286	913	865 + 1,700
NOV	296	1,282	425
DEC	261	763	300
Jan 1-7	71	50	66
Jan 8-14	64	62	70
Jan 15-21	68	156	151
Jan 22-28	68	148	66
Jan 29-31	27	23	22
JAN 2018	298	439 (218 Violent Deaths)	375
Feb 1-7	66	196	67
Feb 8-14	65	63	93
Feb 15-21	59	346	43
Feb 22-28	55	44	72
FEB	245	649 (233 Violent Deaths)	275
Mar 1-7	78	120	84
Mar 8-14	60	84	61
Mar 15-21	67	168	98
Mar 22-28	81	213	61
Mar 29-31	21	26	35
MAR	307	611 (466 Violent Deaths)	339
Apr 1-7	40	174	29
Apr 8-14	64	175	83
Apr 15-21	44	63	72
Apr 22-28	44	62	48
Apr 29-30	12	12	4
APR	204	486 (240 Violent Deaths)	236
May 1-7	51	57	56
May 8-14	56	68	49
May 15-21	39	58	82
May 22-28	51	73	51
May 29-31	21	42	15
MAY	218	298 (273 Violent Deaths)	253
Jun 1-7	55	100	32
Jun 8-14	72	108	88
Jun 15-21	42	83	19
Jun 22-28	52	58	65
Jun 29-30	18	22	14
JUN	239	371 (327 Violent Deaths)	218
Jul 1-7	56	58	91
Jul 8-14	44	57	31
Jul 15-21	54	61	64
Jul 22-28	36	65	21
Jul 29-31	24	26	11
JUL	214	267 (222 Violent Deaths)	218
Aug 1-7	49	57	30
Aug 8-14	47	43	51
Aug 15-21	45	26	45
Aug 22-28	42	29	64
Aug 29-31	33	69	44
AUG	216	224 (209 Violent Deaths)	234
Sep 1-7	45	46	61
Sep 8-14	57	67	127
Sep 15-21	50	93	71
Sep 22-28	47	27	33
Sep 29-30	11	20	29
SEP	210	253 (195 Violent Deaths)	321
Oct 1-7	60	88	94

Violence By Province Oct 1-7 2018

Province	Violence
Anbar	1 Incident 1 Killed 1 Civilian 6 Wounded 2 ISF 4 Civilians 1 IED 1 Car Bomb
Baghdad	20 Incidents 12 Killed 1 ISF 11 Civilians 32 Wounded 2 ISF 30 Civilians 5 Shootings 4 IEDs 7 Sticky Bombs 1 Sound Bomb 1 Grenade 3 Suicide Bombers Killed
Basra	3 Incidents 3 Killed 3 Civilians
Diyala	9 Incidents 2 Killed 2 Civilians 2 Wounded 1 Civilian 1 ISF 5 Shootings 3 IEDs 4 Sound Bombs
Kirkuk	16 Incidents 5 Killed 2 ISF 3 Civilians 19 Wounded 4 Hashd 6 ISF 9 Civilians 2 Shootings 11 IEDs
Kurdistan	2 Incidents 57 Killed 3 PKK 54 Civilians 1 Turkish Air Strike
Ninewa	4 Incidents 6 Killed 6 Civilians 2 Shootings
Salahaddin	4 Incidents 2 Killed 2 Civilians 35 Wounded 35 Civilians 1 Shooting 1 IED 1 Suicide Bomber 1 Mortar

SOURCES

Baghdad Post, "Mortar shell hit hose of Turkmen MP in Tooz," 10/2/18

Bas News, "Basra: Two Women, One Man Assassinated," 10/7/18

- "IS Assassinates Village Chief near Kirkuk," 10/3/18

Ebraheem, Mohammed, "Iraq's Hawija turns dark as Islamic State continues to target electricity pylons," Iraqi News, 9/10/18

- "Iraqi security thwart terrorist attack against Shiite visitors in Baghdad," Iraqi News, 10/7/18

Mostafa, Mohamed, "Corpses of 54 slain by Islamic State found in Kurdistan region," Iraqi News, 10/6/18

- "Islamic State militants kill 3 Iraqis in shoot-and-run attack in Mosul," Iraqi News, 10/6/18

- "One killed, others wounded, including police, in Salahuddin, Anbar blasts," Iraqi News, 10/6/18

Nehal, Mostafa, "Two bodies of kidnapped civilians found, north of Mosul: Police," Iraqi News, 10/4/18

NINA, "1 Policeman Killed, 2 Others Wounded, West Of Kirkuk," 10/7/18

- "2 Electricity Towers Destroyed By IEDs South Of Kirkuk and Electricity In Alam District Halt A Result," 10/4/18

- "An attack by Daesh on two sites of the tribal crowd foiled northeast of Baquba," 10/1/18

- "An officer and a civilian wounded and a terrorist arrested in Kirkuk," 10/6/18

- "Civilian killed in armed attack east Mosul," 10/1/18