Security In Iraq Aug 1-7, 2019

(Shafaaq News)

There was a slight increase in attacks in Iraq during the first week of August 2019. That was topped off by a car bomb in Salahaddin. The Islamic State also continued its campaign to move back into the capital.

There were 27 security incidents recorded in Iraq from August 1-7. That was the most since 43 during the fourth week of May. IS has an on-going spring-summer offensive Revenge of the Levant. Incidents have been going down the last two months but the group may have something more to show before the campaign is over.

Security Incidents In Iraq By Province

Province	Aug 1-7
Anbar	1
Babil	3
Baghdad	7
Diyala	7
Kirkuk	1
Ninewa	2
Salahaddin	5
Sulaymaniya	1
TOTAL	27

Casualties In Iraq By Province

Province	Aug 1-7
Anbar	2 (2W)
Babil	5 (5W)
Baghdad	13 (3K, 10W)
Diyala	13 (5K, 8W)
Kirkuk	1 (1K)
Ninewa	3 (2K, 1W)
Salahaddin	8 (3K, 5W)
TOTAL	45 (14K, 31W)

There were 45 casualties during the week. 3 Hashd al-Shaabi, 4 Iraqi Security Forces (ISF) and 7 civilians lost their lives for a total of 14 deaths. 5 Hashd al-Shaabi, 9 ISF and 17 civilians were injured as well leading to 31 wounded. Baghdad and Diyala were tied for the most casualties with 13 each.

Anbar remains a sideshow for the insurgency. There was just one attack there, an IED in the Qaim district in the west. The province has not been a priority for the militants for quite some time.

The Islamic State is slowly but surely increasing its attacks in Baghdad. There were 7 during the week, tied for most in the country. That included 3 IEDs and 2 more being dismantled on August 8. One of those was in the East, which IS also targeted last month with a failed car bomb attempt. In order to remain relevant the organization must make a return to the capital. That would not only challenge the government, but open up new financial opportunities in both legal and illegal businesses which is the main way the group funds itself. The trend is not good as the number of incidents is slowly but surely creeping up over the last four months.

Another area that was hit more was Babil. There were two IEDs and mortar fire on a checkpoint all in the Jurf al-Sakhr district in the northeast. There have only been three incidents in the province for each of the last four months. Almost every one of those is in the same district. This is because it is right next to Anbar allowing access, and it is completely devoid of people having been turned into a Hashd al-Shaabi military base. That provides plenty of targets as well, which is why IS attacks it.

For the second week there was an attack in southern Sulaymaniya. At the end of July, IS launched a sophisticated attack there upon the Kurdish forces. That was followed by an IED on the district security chief in the same area at the start of August. The group might be testing new areas for weak spots. These are the first times the Kurds have been challenged in years.

Diyala, Kirkuk, Ninewa and Salahaddin is where IS is most active. Diyala had 7 incidents tied for most with Baghdad. 6 of those were in the Jalawla-Khanaqin area in the northeast which is the militants’ favorite target. The central government took control of Kahanqin after the Kurds’ 2017 independence referendum. Since then it has not sent enough forces to adequately secure it and now it is routinely hit. Kirkuk only had once incident, which was an IED in the Hawija area in the south. IS retreated rather than fight when Kirkuk was liberated and now it is concentrated in the south in districts like Hawija. Ninewa had two incidents, one of which was an attack upon a village in the south. Salahaddin had five attacks. That included an assault upon a town, a car bomb, and the execution of a Hashd commander. The Iraqi government launched major security operations in many of these provinces last month and there was a large drop in attacks. That might not have been directly correlated as IS usually simply moves from one area to another while the government is conducting sweeps. Its annual offensive might be winding down as well. In August there were continued government operations, but they didn’t have an effect upon security incidents this time.

Islamic State Activity in Iraq 2018-19

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	7	12	2	4	-	-	2	-	-
Aug	3	4	-	1	-	-	-	-	-
2019 Totals	95	62	18	35	1	1	20	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	2	10	-	-	-	1	2	-	-
Aug	-	1	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
2019 Totals	45	81	11	10	5	6	18	-	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)	-	-
Jul	2	2	-	-	1	1	2	-	-
Aug	1	1	-	-	-	-	1	-	-
2019 Totals	39	26	7	2	5	5	17	-	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	3	6	2	1	-	-	-	-	-
Aug	3	1	-	-	-	-	1	-	1
2019 Totals	37	42	17	3	2	5	8	1	4

(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
Jul	2 (2 – Baghdad/Malif)	-	2
Aug	-	1 (1 – Salahaddin)	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	130/128
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	20/19	15	18
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	137/136	163	200
Jun 1-7	26	19	44
Jun 8-14	25/24	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	11	39
Jul 8-14	14	31	10
Jul 15-21	17	14	37
Jul 22-28	23	14	20
Jul 29-31	8	13	13
JUL	82	83	119
Aug 1-7	27	14	31

Violence By Province Aug 1-7, 2019

Province	Violence
Anbar	1 Incident 2 Wounded 2 Civilians 1 IED
Babil	3 Incidents 5 Wounded 5 Hashd 2 IEDs 1 Mortar
Baghdad	7 Incidents 3 Killed 1 Civilian 2 ISF 10 Wounded 4 ISF 6 Civilians 1 Shooting 6 IEDs
Diyala	7 Incidents 5 Killed 1 ISF 2 Hashd 2 Civilians 8 Wounded 3 Civilians 5 ISF 3 Shootings 4 IEDs
Kirkuk	1 Incident 1 Killed 1 ISF 1 IED
Ninewa	2 Incidents 2 Killed 2 Civilians 1 Wounded 1 Civilian 1 Shooting 1 IED
Salahaddin	5 Incidents 3 Killed 1 Hashd 2 Civilians 5 Wounded 5 Civilians 3 Shooting 1 IED 1 Car Bomb
Sulaymaniya	1 Incident 1 IED

SOURCES

Baghdad Post, "Explosive device explosion injures two farmers in Diyala," 8/2/19

- "One soldier killed and another injured by sniper fire in Jalawla," 8/3/19

Bas News, "Garmiyan: Head of Security Survives Bomb Attack," 8/2/19

- "Iraqi Police Officer Killed in Roadside Bomb near Hawija," 8/1/19

- "Kurdish Farmer Killed by Bomb Blast in Diyala," 8/2/19

Ebraheem, Mohammed, "Bomb explosion kills two Iraqi paramilitary fighters in Diyala," Iraqi News, 8/6/19

- "Landmine explosion wounds two civilians in Iraq's Anbar," Iraqi News, 8/3/19

- "Two Iraqi citizens wounded as bomb blast rocks Iraq's Baghdad," Iraqi News, 8/6/19

Iraq Newspaper, "Daesh Executtes Daham Al-Mufraji, Head Of The Tribal Crowd In Aziz Balad, North Of Baghdad," 8/6/19

-, "Daesh Terrorist Launched Two Attacks On The Security Forces in Qadiriya And Tikrit In Salahaddin Province And The Arrest Of Attackers In Kola Jawi," 8/3/19

- "The Islamic State Announced Tuesday The Invasion Of Attrition," 8/6/19

Al Maalomah, "Foiled a criminal attack on lieutenant at an army post northeast of Diyala," 8/4/19

- "Three soldiers were wounded in a bombing targeting an army patrol northeast of Baquba," 8/4/19

NINA, "A farmer was wounded in a bomb explosion northeast of Baquba," 8/2/19

- "A man, and his son killed and his wife wounded in an armed attack south of Mosul," 8/2/19

Al Sumaria, "Dismantling a device in Baya, Baghdad," 8/6/19

- "IED dismantled south of Baghdad," 8/6/19

- "Three people wounded in a bomb explosion near a popular stadium east of Baghdad," 8/6/19

- "Two civilians wounded in a bombing north of Baghdad," 8/6/19

Xinhua, "2 Iraqi security members killed, 5 wounded in attacks in Iraq," 8/6/19