Security In Iraq July 1-7 2019

(Al Ghad Press)

The Islamic State’s spring-summer offensive has not amounted to much. In its second month there have only been two major bombings, and the number of incidents has basically stayed the same.

During the first week of July 2019 there were 20 incidents recorded. There were likely more as two major Iraqi sources have been offline for several weeks now. That compared to 18 the last full week of June, 16 the third week, 25 the second, and 26 the first week of the month. As usually, Diyala with 8 incidents was the most violent province in the country. The inability of the group to launch more operations and carry out more sophisticated attacks raises big questions about the state of its rebuilding.

Security Incidents In Iraq By Province

Province	Jul 1-7
Anbar	3
Babil	1
Baghdad	2
Diyala	8
Kirkuk	3
Ninewa	1
Salahaddin	2
TOTALS	20

Casualties In Iraq By Province

Province	Jul 1-7
Anbar	21 (7K, 14W)
Babil	4 (4W)
Baghdad	2 (2W)
Diyala	14 (3K, 11W)
TOTALS	50 (10K, 40W)

There were 10 deaths and 40 wounded during the week. That was made up of 2 civilians, 3 Iraqi Security Forces (ISF), and 5 Hashd al-Shaabi fatalities and 6 civilians, 17 Hashd, and 17 ISF injured. Anbar with 21 casualties had the most of the four provinces with losses.

There was one major attack in Anbar. That took place on July 5 when Islamic State elements attacked a group of Hashd leaving 5 dead and 10 wounded in Fallujah. A checkpoint was also assaulted in Amiriya Fallujah. Incidents in the province have gone up and down every month. Overall, Anbar is not a major front for the militants.

Babil has very few attacks, but when they do occur they are almost always aimed at the Hashd. IS set off an IED on the Babil-Baghdad highway that wounded the security director for the Hashd in the governorate.

There were just two incidents in Baghdad. Like usual they happened in the outer regions of the province. One was an arrest of a suicide bomber in Abu Ghraib in the west. IS wants to return to the capital to challenge the government and remain relevant. The suicide bomber was attempting to infiltrate into the city itself as part of the summer campaign. Fortunately, the Iraqi security forces have been able to thwart these efforts.

Diyala, Kirkuk, Ninewa and Salahaddin are the main areas where IS is operating. Diyala almost always has the most attacks, and that was true from July 1-7. As usual IS was active in almost every rural area of the governorate during the week. That included two attacks upon checkpoints and another ambush where an IED was detonated and then when the Iraqi forces came to investigate they were set upon by the militants. There were just three incidents in Kirkuk including six IEDs being set off along an oil pipeline in the south. Similarly three IEDs were detected and dismantled on a pipeline in Salahaddin. That was a change because IS has not attacked any infrastructure like pipelines or electricity towers for quite some time.

At the end of the week the government launched a major operation to clear the desert regions of western Anbar, Salahaddin and Ninewa called Will of Victory. It’s supposed to include 20,000 men covering 5,000 km of territory. Despite its size it has not led to any significant results. Like smaller sweeps the Iraqi forces are able to find explosives and arms caches, but very, very few IS members. That likely means they fled before the Iraqi forces moved out just like they have been doing for years now.

Islamic State Activity in Iraq 2018-19

Anbar	Shootings (Totals)	IEDs/ Sticky Bombs (Totals)	Gun Battles	Attacks on Checkpoints	Attacks on Mukhtars/ Sheikhs	Kidnappings	Suicide Bombers	Car Bombs
2018 Totals	45	67	13	4	6	5	7	3
Jan 2019	6	4	1	-	2	1	1	1
Feb	10	11	4	1	1	4	-	-
Mar	2	1	-	-	-	-	-	-
Apr	1	8	1	-	-	1	-	1
May	3	3	-	-	1	-	-	2
Jun	7	2	4	-	1	-	-	-
Jul	2	-	-	1	-	-	-	-
2019 Totals	31	29	10	2	5	6	1	4

Diyala	Shootings (Totals)	IEDs/ Sticky Bombs (Totals)	Gun Battles	Attacks on Checkpoints	Attacks on Mukhtars/ Sheikhs	Kidnappings	Attacks on Towns	Suicide Bombers	Car Bombs
2018 Totals	219	198	47	43	5	13	25	3	1
Jan 2019	21	2	3	8	-	-	1	-	-
Feb	18	2	5	7	-	-	3	-	-
Mar	7	6	1	2	-	-	-	-	-
Apr	13	15	2	4	1	-	1	-	-
May	11	13	3	5	-	-	13 (9 Farms Burned)	-	-
Jun	15	8	2	4	-	1	-	1	-
Jul	3	3	1	2	-	-	-	-	-
2019 Totals	88	49	17	32	1	1	18	1	-

Kirkuk	Shootings (Totals)	IEDs/ Sticky Bombs (Totals)	Gun Battles	Attacks on Checkpoints	Attacks on Mukhtars/ Sheikhs	Kidnappings	Attacks on Towns	Suicide Bombers	Car Bombs
2018 Totals	172	182	39	18	10	14	29	9	6
Jan 2019	8	17	-	4	2	3	-	-	1
Feb	9	5	3	-	-	2	1	-	-
Mar	5	11	2	1	2	-	2	-	-
Apr	5	9	3	-	-	-	-	-	-
May	11	18	2	3	1	-	13 (13 Farms Burned)	-	-
Jun	5	10	1	2	-	-	-	-	-
Jul	-	8	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
2019 Totals	43	78	11	10	5	5	16	-	1

Ninewa	Shootings (Totals)	IEDs/ Sticky Bombs (Totals)	Gun Battles	Attacks on Checkpoints	Attacks on Mukhtars/ Sheikhs	Kidnappings	Attacks on Towns	Suicide Bombers	Car Bombs
2018 Totals	139	74	43	7	5	6	6	2	3
Jan 2019	6	-	-	-	1	-	-	-	-
Feb	8	3	2	2	-	-	1	-	1
Mar	6	1	3	-	-	-	1	-	1
Apr	6	6	1	-	1	2	2	-	-
May	8	8	1	-	1	2	6 (5 Farms Burned)	-	1
Jun	2	5	-	-	1	-	4 (4 Farms Burned)	-	-
July	-	1	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
2019 Totals	36	24	7	2	4	4	14	-	3

Salahaddin	Shootings (Totals)	IEDs/ Sticky Bombs (Totals)	Gun Battles	Attacks on Checkpoints	Attacks on Mukhtars/ Sheikhs	Kidnappings	Attacks on Towns	Suicide Bombers	Car Bombs
2018 Totals	110	102	41	18	1	16	4	9	5
Jan 2019	5	5	3	1	-	3	-	-	1
Feb	7	11	3	-	-	2	1	1	-
Mar	3	5	2	-	-	-	-	-	1
Apr	2	2	1	-	-	-	-	-	1
May	10	9	4	1	1	-	6 (5 Farms Burned)	-	-
Jun	4	3	2	-	1	-	-	-	-
Jul	-	4	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
2019 Totals	31	39	15	2	2	5	7	1	3

(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 2018-19

Month	Suicide Bombers	Car Bombs	Totals
Jan	7 (1- Diyala, 3 – Baghdad/Baghdad, 3 - Kirkuk)	6 (1- Anbar, 1 – Diyala, 1 – Kirkuk, 1 – Salahaddin, 2 - Babil)	13
Feb	4 (1 – Anbar/Ramadi 1 – Diyala 1 – Kirkuk 1 - Ninewa)	-	4
Mar	2 (1 – Kirkuk/Kirkuk 1 - Salahaddin)	1 (1 – Kirkuk)	3
Apr	4 (1 - Salahaddin 3 – Anbar)	1 (1 – Kirkuk/Kirkuk)	5
May	8 (1 – Diyala 1 - Salahaddin) 2 – Baghdad/1 - Baghdad 4 - Kirkuk)	-	8
Jun		1 (1 – Salahaddin/Tikrit)	1
Jul	1 (1 – Salahaddin/Tikrit)	1 (1 – Kirkuk/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/Fallujah 1 – Salahaddin)	3 (1 – Anbar/Fallujah 1 – Kirkuk/Kirkuk 1 - Ninewa)	5
Nov	-	3 (1 – Ninewa/Mosul 2 – Salahaddin/Tikrit)	3
Dec	-	1 (1 – Ninewa)	1
Jan	1 (1 – Anbar)	3 (1 – Anbar 1 – Kirkuk 1 – Salahaddin/Tikrit)	4
Feb	1 (1 – Salahaddin)	1 (1 – Ninewa/Mosul)	2
Mar	-	1 (1 – Ninewa/Mosul)	1
Apr	-	2 (1 – Anbar 1 - Salahaddin)	2
May	1 (1 – Baghdad)	3 (2 – Anbar 1 – Ninewa)	4
Jun	1 (1 – Diyala)	-	1

Security In Iraq 2018-19

Week	Security Incidents (Total/By IS)	Dead (Total/By IS)	Wounded (Total/By IS)
Jan 1-7	62/60	45	63
Jan 8-14	58/56	58/56	66/63
Jan 15-21	62/59	151	151
Jan 22-28	59/51	140/136	65/63
Jan 29-31	24	21	21
JAN 2018	265/ 250 by IS	417/ 409 by IS (196 Violent Deaths)	366/ 361 by IS
Feb 1-7	58/56	192/141	62/60
Feb 8-14	57	58	91
Feb 15-21	53/52	343	43
Feb 22-28	46/44	38/37	70/68
FEB	214/ 209 by IS	631/ 579 by IS (215 Violent Deaths)	266/ 262 by IS
Mar 1-7	68/64	115/108	79/77
Mar 8-14	52	75	59
Mar 15-21	64/59	165/119	98
Mar 22-28	77/64	210/87	61/60
Mar 29-31	19/18	26/25	34
MAR	280/ 257 by IS	591/ 414 by IS (446 Violent Deaths)	331/ 328 by IS
Apr 1-7	38/34	172/140	27/25
Apr 8-14	60/52	173/136	81/72
Apr 15-21	43/35	63/18	72/70
Apr 22-28	40/31	60/30	39/33
Apr 29-30	12/11	14/11	4
APR	193/ 163 by IS	482/ 335 by IS (236 Violent Deaths)	223/ 204 by IS
May 1-7	45/39	52/43	55/54
May 8-14	55/51	68/46	49
May 15-21	35/32	55/26	80/75
May 22-28	49/46	72/62	51/49
May 29-31	16/13	39/30	15
MAY	200/ 181 by IS	286/ 207 by IS (261 Violent Deaths)	250/ 242 by IS
Jun 1-7	50/44	96/87	29/28
Jun 8-14	67/59	107/47	88
Jun 15-21	40/35	82/28	19
Jun 22-28	45/44	53/38	62
Jun 29-30	17/15	21/16	14
JUN	219/ 197 by IS	359/ 216 by IS (315 Violent Deaths)	212/ 211 by IS
Jul 1-7	50/49	56/52	90
Jul 8-14	42/39	56/47	31
Jul 15-21	50/45	59/42	63
Jul 22-28	29/24	61/53	19/15
Jul 29-31	23/21	25/13	11
JUL	194/ 178 by IS	257/ 207 by IS (212 Violent Deaths)	214/ 210 by IS
Aug 1-7	43/39	49/45	30/29
Aug 8-14	43/42	38	44
Aug 15-21	38/35	24/21	40/37
Aug 22-28	35/31	25/19	61
Aug 29-31	27/24	68/30	43
AUG	186/ 171 by IS	204/ 153 by IS (189 Violent Deaths)	218/ 214 by IS
Sep 1-7	38	44	54
Sep 8-14	48/43	63/55	127
Sep 15-21	44/38	90/74	70
Sep 22-28	36/33	22/17	27/26
Sep 29-30	9/6	19/10	29/25
SEP	175/ 158 by IS	237/ 200 by IS (179 Violent Deaths)	307/ 302 by IS
Oct 1-7	54/49	85/25	92
Oct 8-14	43/41	161/152	41
Oct 15-21	54/50	87/72	35
Oct 22-28	24/23	24/20	53
Oct 29-31	23	10	24
OCT	198/ 186 by IS	367/ 279 by IS (177 Violent Deaths)	245 by IS
Nov 1-7	32/31	75/69	36
Nov 8-14	39/31	111/63	19
Nov 15-21	30/27	51/43	29
Nov 22-28	26/21	35/25	30
Nov 29-30	9/8	4	27
NOV	136/ 118 by IS	276/ 204 by IS (183 Violent Deaths_	141 by IS
Dec 1-7	22/15	21/8	11
Dec 8-14	22	15	22
Dec 15-21	23/21	23/16	17
Dec 22-28	30/28	24/18	37
Dec 29-31	15/14	225/220	4
DEC	112/ 100 by IS	308/ 277 by IS (96 Violent Deaths)	91 by IS
Jan 1-7	32/31	17/10	24
Jan 8-14	32/30	97/94	53
Jan 15-21	22/18	17/11	16/14
Jan 22-28	27/22	36/17	31
Jan 29-31	12	7	6
JAN	114	139	130
Feb 1-7	29/28	76	30
Feb 8-14	24	26	18
Feb 15-21	40	112	12
Feb 22-28	25	36	70
FEB	118	250	130
Mar 1-7	13	22	45
Mar 8-14	19/18	75/10	37
Mar 15-21	12/11	66/37	21/11
Mar 22-28	13/12	8/5	1
Mar 29-31	6	8	7
MAR	61	147	101
Apr 1-7	20	22	13
Apr 8-14	41	28	42
Apr 15-21	17/16	9/8	26
Apr 22-28	19/18	45/10	15
Apr 29-30	2	1	4
APR	99	105	100
May 1-7	18/17	9	17
May 8-14	24	31	41
May 15-21	37/36	62	39
May 22-28	43	39	54
May 29-31	13	16	48
MAY	136/135	162	199
Jun 1-7	26	19	44
Jun 8-14	25	29	15
Jun 15-21	21/16	6	13/10
Jun 22-28	18	17	41
Jun 29-30	9	3	9
JUN	99/93	74	122/119
Jul 1-7	20	10	40

Violence By Province Jul 1-7, 2019

Province	Violence
Anbar	3 Incidents 7 Killed 2 ISF 5 Hashd 14 Wounded 1 ISF 13 Hashd 2 Shootings
Babil	1 Incident 4 Wounded 4 Hashd 1 IED
Baghdad	2 Incidents 2 Wounded 2 Civilians 1 IED 1 Suicide Bomber Killed
Diyala	8 Incidents 3 Killed 1 ISF 2 Civilians 11 Wounded 4 Civilians 7 ISF 3 Shootings 3 IEDs 1 Mortar 1 Grenade
Kirkuk	3 Incidents 9 Wounded 9 ISF 8 IEDs
Ninewa	1 Incident 1 IED
Salahaddin	2 Incidents 4 IEDs

SOURCES

Adel, Loaa, "Paramilitary militia thwarts IS attack northeast of Diyala," Iraqi News, 7/6/19

Baghdad Post, "The dismantling of three improvised devices targeting the oil pipeline in Samarra," 7/2/19

- "Five members of the crowd were killed and wounded in northern Babil," 7/7/19

- "Three soldiers were wounded in a terrorist attack on their patrol in Diyala," 7/5/19

Bas News, "IS Attacks Village near Khanaqin, Injures Four People," 7/8/19

Ebraheem, Mohammed, “Iraqi paramilitary forces kill two Islamic State terrorists in Nineveh,” Iraqi News, 7/7/19

- "Iraqi security arrest suicide bomber with explosive belt in Baghdad," Iraqi News, 7/6/19

- “Iraqi security forces kill two terrorists in Baghdad,” Iraqi News, 7/7/19

Faraj, Murtada, "Attack on paramilitary force near Iraqi capital kills 5," Associated Press, 7/5/19

Al Hurra, "Six improvised explosive devices targeting a strategic oil pipeline in Iraq," 7/3/19

Iraq Newspaper, "News Of The Killing Of The Security Director Of The Popular Crowd And With Him Five Others In Babil," 7/7/19

Al Mada, “The Will of Victory will be applied to alternative sites in the desert,” 7/7/19

Al Sumaria, “Al Jazeera Operations announced the destruction of 16 caches and 13 explosives in Operation Will of Victory,” 7/7/19

Trend News Agency, "2 policemen killed in gunmen attack near Iraqi capital," 7/7/19