Security In Iraq Oct 8-14, 2018

(Al Maalomah)

Incidents dropped in Iraq during the second week of October, but casualties were very high due to two mass graves of victims of the Islamic State being discovered in Ninewa.

There were 50 incidents recorded in Iraq from October 8-14. The previous week there were 60 which was the most in six months. Since April there have been 40-50 incidents per week so things were back to the norm. Kirkuk at 11 and Baghdad with 12 led the country in incidents. The capital province again had the most overall violence for the eighth straight week.

Security Incidents In Iraq By Province Oct 8-14, 2018

Babil 2

Kurdistan 2

Diyala 4

Anbar 5

Salahaddin 5

Ninewa 9

Kirkuk 11

Baghdad 12

Casualties In Iraq By Province Oct 8-14, 2018

Babil 2 (2 W)

Diyala 4 (1 K, 3 W)

Kurdistan 9 (9 K)

Salahaddin 13 (4 K, 9 W)

Anbar 15 (15 K)

Baghdad 20 (11 K, 9 W)

Kirkuk 32 (9 K, 23 W)

Ninewa 122 (120 K, 2 W)

169 dead were recorded along with 48 wounded. 108 bodies were found in two mass graves inside Mosul and to the south of the city. That left 61 violent deaths during the week. 9 of those were caused by Turkey. 6 Hashd al-Shaabi, 9 Kurdistan Workers Party (9 PKK), 12 Iraqi Security Forces (ISF), and 142 civilians lost their lives. 3 Hashd, 6 ISF, and 39 civilians were wounded. Because of the mass graves Ninewa had the most casualties with 122. Kirkuk was second with 32.

It appears that the Islamic State’s renewed effort in Anbar continued for another week. In Qaim, there was a shootout that left one soldier died, while 3 more were kidnapped. There was also an attempted infiltration from Syria into the Qaim district in the west. The largest incident was an assault upon the Akkas gas field that left 10 fatalities. For weeks, the province had been a backwater for the militants. There were very few incidents, and all were very small. Now IS is launching mass casualty bombings, and more serious attacks.

Baghdad was again the most violent governorate in the country. There were 12 incidents, which was down from 20 the week before. That was not many given the size and population of the area, and all the attacks were low level like IEDs and shootings. The numbers however have been increasing in recent months, and now they are taking place within the city instead of the outlying towns. This is another sign that IS is rebuilding.

The heart of the insurgency remained central Iraq, but actions have been down there since the summer. There were 4 incidents in Diyala, 5 in Salahaddin and 11 in Kirkuk. In Diyala, a suicide bomber was arrested in the northeast. In Salahaddin a suicide car bomb was stopped and there was a gun fight with militants. Finally, in Kirkuk there was mortar fire in Hawija, a Patriotic Union of Kurdistan official had his house hit with an IED, there was an attack upon a checkpoint, and one car bomb was destroyed in the south and another went off in Kirkuk city. That was the second vehicle bomb of the month. In September, IS launched 8 suicide-car bombs, the most since May. Attempting mass casualty bombings is another escalation by the insurgents who have established themselves in many of the rural areas of these three governorates. Large bombings and then infiltrations into cities would be the next steps, and it appears they have already started those.

In Kurdistan there were two more Turkish air strikes that left 9 PKK dead. These are now weekly occurrences.

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	6	9	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	4	16	-	3	1	1	-	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	2	4	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)	2 (1 – Anbar 1 - Kirkuk)	3

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

Violence By Province Oct 8-14 2018

Province	Violence
Anbar	5 Incidents 15 Killed 2 Hashd 3 ISF 10 Civilians 4 Shootings 2 IEDs
Babil	2 Incidents 2 Wounded 2 Hashd 1 IED
Baghdad	12 Incidents 11 Killed 11 Civilians 9 Wounded 9 Civilians 3 Shootings 3 IEDs 1 Grenade
Diyala	4 Incidents 1 Killed 1 Civilian 3 Wounded 3 Civilians 1 Shooting 2 IEDs 1 Suicide Bomber Killed
Kirkuk	11 Incidents 9 Killed 3 Hashd 6 Civilians 23 Wounded 5 ISF 18 Civilians 2 Shootings 5 IEDs 1 Car Bomb 1 Mortar 1 Car Bomb Destroyed
Kurdistan	2 Incidents 9 Killed 9 PKK 2 Turkish Air Strikes
Ninewa	9 Incidents 120 Killed 1 Hashd 6 ISF 113 Civilians 2 Wounded 1 Civilian 1 Hashd 6 Shootings 1 IED
Salahaddin	5 Incidents 4 Killed 1 Civilian 3 ISF 9 Wounded 1 ISF 8 Civilians 1 Shooting 2 IEDs 1 Sticky Bomb 1 Suicide Car Bomb Destroyed

SOURCES

Baghdad Post, "10 security forces killed in ISIS attack on gas field in Anbar," 10/11/18

- "Car bomb kills one, wounds seven in central Kirkuk," 10/14/18

Boztepe, Muhammed, "Turkish forces 'neutralize' 6 PKK terrorists in N.Iraq," Anadolu Agency, 10/13/18

Bas News, "Mosul: New Mass Grave Discovered," 10/14/18

Ebraheem, Mohammed, "IS attackers kill three policemen, wound others in Salahuddin," Iraqi News, 10/10/18

Al Forat, "The bombing of a truck bomb in Hawija" 10/14/18

- "URGENT A suicide car bomb exploded at the Baiji hospital," 10/8/18

Al Maalomah, "A suicide attack was foiled in Diyala," 10/11/18

- "Three civilians were injured when a mortar shell hit central Hawija," 10/11/18

NINA, "Border Guard Foils An Attack To Daesh On Iraqi-Syrian Border," 10/14/18

- "An explosive device detonated in front of the house of a Kurdish official south of Kirkuk," 10/11/18

- "A Fighter Of The Tribal Mobilization Killed, Unknown Body Found In Kirkuk," 10/12/18

- "A mass grave containing the remains of /30/ civilians was found south of Mosul," 10/10/18

Reuters, "Officer killed, three soldiers seized in west Iraq: sources," 10/11/18

Sotaliraq, "Ankara says three members of the Workers' Party have been killed inside Iraq," 10/9/18