Security In Iraq Oct 22-28, 2018

(Iraqi News)

After three weeks with a high number of security incidents things finally cooled off during the fourth week of October. One reason might be the increased security for the Arbaeen pilgrimage going on in Iraq.

There was a total of 31 incidents from October 22-28 in Iraq. That was the lowest weekly total so far in the month with 60 the first week, 50 the second, and 56 the third. Things were so quiet that no incidents were reported in Salahaddin for example. Baghdad was the only province in double figures with 11.

Security Incidents In Iraq By Province Oct 22-28, 2018

Kurdistan 1

Anbar 2

Ninewa 3

Kirkuk 5

Diyala 9

Baghdad 11

Casualties In Iraq By Province Oct 22-28, 2018

Anbar 4 (4 W)

Kurdistan 4 (4 K)

Kirkuk 5 (3 K, 2 W)

Diyala 6 (3 K, 3 W)

Baghdad 8 (6 K, 2 W)

Ninewa 55 (12 K, 43 W)

28 people were killed and 54 were wounded during the week. Ninewa led the country in casualties due to a car bomb with 55. 4 members of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), 5 Iraqi Security Forces (ISF), and 19 civilians died, and 54 civilians were wounded.

There were only two incidents in Anbar, but one of them was a suicide motorcycle bomber that hit a market in Amiriya Fallujah in the east. Luckily only 4 people were wounded. This was the second suicide bombing of the month. Overall, there are still few incidents in the province week to week, but the types of attacks show a decided increase in intensity by the insurgents.

Baghdad had the most incidents in the nation, but there were only 11 of them. Most were shootings. The number of incidents has steadily climbed upward over the last several months showing that the Islamic State is attempting a comeback there. Attacks are still far and few between given the size of Baghdad city however.

Since the summer the number of incidents in central Iraq has fallen off. This week there were no attacks reported in Salahaddin. In Diyala there were 9 and 5 in Kirkuk. The former had 4 mortar attacks and the brother of a police colonel was kidnapped. In Kirkuk a mortar was fired at a checkpoint in the Hawija district in the south, and there was a gun fight with an ISF patrol in the Hamrin Mountains.

Ninewa is another province IS is making a return to. There were just three incidents but one of them was a car bomb that hit a restaurant in Qayara south of Mosul. A total of 7 people were killed and 40 wounded as a result. That was the third car bomb of the month. 5 people were also kidnapped and executed in Baaj in the west for cooperating with the government forces. Like Anbar, there are still few incidents in this governorate each week, but the types of attacks show that IS has renewed interest there.

Finally, another sign that IS is picking up its operations is the number of suicide and car bombs. During the summer there was a major dip in these types of attacks with just 1 in June, 2 in July and 3 in August. In September however there were 8. So far in October there have been 2 suicide bombers and 3 car bombs for a total of 5. Most of these are occurring in outlying towns. The next step will be for IS to target major urban centers. The speed with which the Islamic State has been able to regroup means that could happen sooner rather than later.

Last Turkey continues to hit PKK positions in northern Kurdistan. An air strike killed 4 members of the Kurdish group.

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	11	18	2	-	-	1	-	4	-	-

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	10	27	2	4	1	1	2	2	-	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	2	9	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	2 (1 - Anbar 1 – Salahaddin)	3 (1 – Anbar 1 – Kirkuk 1 - Ninewa)	5

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
Oct 8-14	50	169	48
Oct 15-21	56	88	37
Oct 22-28	31	28	54

Violence By Province Oct 22-28, 2018

Province	Violence
Anbar	2 Incidents 4 Wounded 4 Civilians 1 Suicide Motorcycle Bomb 2 Sound Bombs Dismantled
Baghdad	11 Incidents 6 Killed 6 Civilians 2 Wounded 2 Wounded 7 Shootings 4 IEDs
Diyala	9 Incidents 3 Killed 1 Civilian 2 ISF 3 Wounded 3 Civilians 1 Shooting 2 IEDs 4 Mortars
Kirkuk	5 Incidents 3 Killed 1 ISF 2 Civilians 2 Wounded 2 Civilians 1 Shooting 3 IEDs 1 Mortar
Kurdistan	1 Incident 4 Killed 4 PKK 1 Turkish Air Strike
Ninewa	3 Incidents 12 Killed 2 ISF 10 Civilians 43 Wounded 43 Civilians 1 Shooting 1 IED 1 Car Bomb

SOURCES

Anadolu Agency, "Turkey neutralizes 4 PKK militants in northern Iraq," 10/28/18

Bas News, "Hashd al-Shaabi, Iraqi Army Attacked in Kirkuk," 10/27/18

Ebraheem, Mohammed, "Iraqi policeman killed in Islamic Stat attack on police patrol in Kirkuk," Iraqi News, 10/28/18

Al Forat, "URGENT A suicide bomber blows himself up amid Fallujah," 10/23/18

Al Ghad Press, "3 mortar shells landed on a village in Jalawla, northeast Diyala," 10/24/18

- "Kidnapping of a sheep herder-brother of a police colonel northeast Diyala," 10/26/18

Mostafa, Nehal, "Islamic State executes civilians over cooperation with Iraqi army, west of Mosul," Iraqi News, 10/26/18

- "Mortar missiles fired by Islamic State for the second time, northeast of Diyala," Iraqi News, 10/28/18

- "Three mortar missiles fired, likely by Islamic State members, northeast of Diyala," Iraqi News, 10/23/18

The New Arab, "Seven killed in market car bombing near Iraq's Mosul," 10/24/18

NINA, "Four civilians wounded in suicide bombing in Amiryat Al-Falluja," 10/23/18

- "Two mortar shells landed in an orchard northeast of Baquba," 10/27/18

Reuters, "Car bomb kills six, wounds 30 near Iraq's Mosul," 10/23/18