Security In Iraq Jun 8-14, 2020

For the third week in a row violence declined in Iraq. There was a large jump in attacks in May as the Islamic State announced a new offensive. That appears to be over for now.

There were a total of 16 incidents reported in the media during the second week of June in Iraq. 4 of those were rocket attacks by pro-Iran groups in Baghdad. The Baghdad International Airport, the Green Zone, and Taji Base twice were hit. This coincided with the start of negotiations between Baghdad and Washington for a new security agreement. Hashd units aligned with Tehran are trying to send a message to the U.S. that they can be harassed at any time and they are not wanted in the country. This is a long time goal of Iran to expel the Americans. That left 12 incidents by the Islamic State down from 17 the first week of June, 30 the fourth week of May and 65 the third week of May. For the week there were 4 incidents in Diyala, 3 in Ninewa, 2 each in Kirkuk and Salahaddin, and 1 in Babil.

There were 25 casualties. That consisted of 2 civilian and 8 Iraqi Security Forces (ISF) deaths and 3 Hashd al-Shaabi, 4 ISF and 8 civilians being wounded. Diyala had the most casualties with 14.

IS hit the Jurf al-Sakhr district once again in northeast Babil. An IED wounded 2 Hashd. That district was emptied of civilians by the Hashd and turned into a major Kataib Hezbollah base. That’s the reason why it’s attacked every month by the insurgents.

There were four incidents in Diyala. There was an infiltration attempt in the Naft Khanna basin, a village was hit by mortar fire in the Jalawla sub-district, and the village of Dara was attacked leaving 8 dead and 6 wounded. All three of those incidents took place in the Khanaqin district in the northeast. The fourth was a mortar attack on a village in the Muqdadiya district in the center. The government continued sweeps through those two districts since they are the main support areas of the insurgents in Iraq. On June 14 there was an sweep through the Mijas area after the attack upon Dara, along with an operation in the Sansal basin in Muqdadiya.

An army position was hit by mortars in the Daquq district in southern Kirkuk leading to 1 dead soldier and 4 wounded, and IS set up a fake checkpoint on the Kirkuk-Baghdad road attempting to kidnap the head of the 36^th Hashd Brigade. That failed. Almost all the attacks in Kirkuk occur in the south where the insurgents were never expelled during the war.

Ninewa had three incidents. A sticky bomb went off in the Qayara district in the south, and there were two IEDs in and around Mosul. The government also conducted three sweeps, one by the Syrian border, one around Ninewa Island, and the third in the southwest desert. These rural areas are mainly used to infiltrate men and material into the province from Syria. The security operations are aimed at interdicting these operations.

There were two attacks in Salahaddin. A checkpoint was attacked along with the deputy governor’s house both of which occurred in the Ishaqi district in the south. Security forces also went through Tikrit Island and an area in the east. The province saw a large spike in violence last month, but like the rest of the country incidents have since declined.

           

Security Incidents In Iraq By Province

Province	Jun 1-7	Jun 8-14
Anbar	4	-
Babil	-	1
Baghdad	-	4 Pro-Iran
Diyala	5	4
Irbil	1	-
Kirkuk	5	2
Ninewa	-	3
Salahaddin	2	2
TOTAL	17	16/ 4 Pro-Iran

Casualties In Iraq By Province

Province	Jun 1-7	Jun 8-14
Anbar	4 (4K)	-
Babil	-	2 (2W)
Diyala	10 (5K, 5W)	14 (8K, 6W)
Irbil	4 (2K, 2W)	-
Kirkuk	14 (2K, 12W)	6 (1K, 5W)
Ninewa	-	1 (1W)
Salahaddin	-	2 (1K, 1W)
TOTAL	32 (13K, 19W)	25 (10K, 15W)

Islamic State Activity in Iraq 2018-20

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
2019 Totals	185	112	33	63	2	6	29	2	-
Jan 2020	13	6	-	2	-	1	-	-	-
Feb	16	5	2	8	-	1	-	-	-
Mar	15	10	4	2	-	-	-	-	-
Apr	20	17	4	2	-	-	-	-	-
May	38	18	8	9	1	5	17	-	-
Jun	6	-	-	-	-	1	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
2019 Totals	77	116	24	19	6	8	18	-	1
Jan 2020	10	1	2	2	-	1	-	-	-
Feb	5	-	2	1	-	2	1	-	-
Mar	1	-	-	1	-	-	-	-	-
Apr	17	7	6	3	-	2	1	1	-
May	15	10	1	7	1	4	10	-	-
Jun	1	2	-	-	-	1	3	-	-

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
2019 Totals	63	49	14	3	9	6	17	-	3
Jan 2020	7	5	2	1	-	1	-	-	-
Feb	5	5	-	-	1	-	-	-	1
Mar	2	5	1	-	-	-	-	-	-
Apr	8	8	1	4	-	1	1	-	-
May	5	9	-	2	-	-	2	-	-
Jun	2	1	-	-	-	-	-	-	-

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
2019 Totals	60	54	32	5	2	6	8	2	6
Jan 2020	4	-	-	1	1	-	-	-	-
Feb	5	-	1	-	-	1	-	-	-
Mar	5	2	3	-	-	-	-	-	-
Apr	4	3	3	-	-	1	-	-	-
May	21	6	9	5	-	2	2	-	-
Jun	2	-	-	1	-	-	1	-	-

           

Security In Iraq 2019-20

Week	Security Incidents (Total/By IS)	Dead (Total/By IS)	Wounded (Total/By IS)
Jan 1-7	32	17/10	24
Jan 8-14	32	94/31	53
Jan 15-21	22	17/11	16/14
Jan 22-28	27	36/17	31
Jan 29-31	12	7	6
JAN 2019	114	139	130/128
Feb 1-7	29/1	76/16	30
Feb 8-14	24	26	18
Feb 15-21	40	112/37	12
Feb 22-28	25	36	70
FEB	118/1	250/115	130
Mar 1-7	13	22	45
Mar 8-14	19	75/10	37
Mar 15-21	12	66/37	21/11
Mar 22-28	13	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	9/8	26
Apr 22-28	19	45	15
Apr 29-30	2	1	4
APR	99	105	100
May 1-7	20	15	18
May 8-14	24	31	41
May 15-21	37/1	62/25	39
May 22-28	43	39	54
May 29-31	13	16	48
MAY	137/1	163/125	200
Jun 1-7	26	19	44
Jun 8-14	25/1	29	15
Jun 15-21	21/2	6	13/10
Jun 22-28	18	17	41
Jun 29-30	9	3	9
JUN	99/3	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
Aug 8-14	18	13	13
Aug 15-21	20	33	15
Aug 22-28	27	24	72
Aug 29-31	11	19	10
AUG	104	103	141
Sep 1-7	39	39	38
Sep 8-14	30	35	43
Sep 15-21	23	27	26
Sep 22-28	24/1	15	20
Sep 29-30	7	6	4
SEP	123/1	122	131
Oct 1-7	3	1	2
Oct 8-14	14	25	17
Oct 15-21	19	29	13
Oct 22-28	22/1	33	10
Oct 29-31	12/1	4	11
OCT	70/2	92	53
Nov 1-7	6/1	4	1
Nov 8-14	9/1	2	25
Nov 15-21	15/1	11	2
Nov 22-28	17/1	24	33
Nov 29-30	8/1	6	37
NOV	55/5	47	98
Dec 1-7	36/3	33	44
Dec 8-14	19/3	19	19
Dec 15-21	26	44	25
Dec 22-28	30/1	30	38
Dec 29-31	9	8	7
DEC	120/7	134	133
Jan 1-7	25/7	16	84
Jan 8-14	24/3	12	34
Jan 15-21	23/2	11	12
Jan 22-28	11/1	10	8
Jan 29-31	8/1	4	1
JAN 2020	91/12	53	139
Feb 1-7	22	13	11
Feb 8-14	18/1	5	38
Feb 15-21	16/2	42	18
Feb 22-28	25	15	34
Feb 29	4	5	2
FEB	85/3	80	103
Mar 1-7	17/3	11	17
Mar 8-14	15/2	13	33
Mar 15-21	14/2	5	19
Mar 22-28	14/1	13	11
Mar 29-31	9	5	10
MAR	69/8	47	90
Ap 1-7	27/1	27	37
Apr 8-14	24	25	51
Apr 15-21	33/1	19	34
Apr 22-28	22	8	40
Apr 29-30	5	2	4
APR	111/2	81	165
May 1-7	44/1	47	36
May 8-14	49	21	47
May 15-21	66/1	45	64
May 22-28	30	9	21
May 29-31	7	3	12
MAY	196/2	125	180
Jun 1-7	17	13	19
Jun 8-14	16/4	10	15

Violence By Province Jun 8-14, 2020

Province	Violence
Babil	1 Incident 2 Wounded 2 Hashd 1 IED
Baghdad	4 Pro-Iran Incidents 4 Rockets
Diyala	4 Incidents 8 Killed 2 Civilians 6 ISF 6 Wounded 6 Civilians 2 Shootings 2 Mortars
Kirkuk	2 Incidents 1 Killed 1 ISF 5 Wounded 1 Hashd 4 ISF 1 Shooting 1 Mortar
Ninewa	3 Incidents 1 Wounded 1 Civilian 2 IEDs 1 Sticky Bomb
Salahaddin	2 Incidents 1 Killed 1 ISF 1 Wounded 1 Civilian 2 Shootings

SOURCES

AIN, "The crowd announces the launch of Island of Ninewa sweep to eliminate the remnants of ISIS," 6/8/20,

Anadolu Agency, "Daesh/ISIS storms home in eastern Iraq, kills 6," 6/14/20

Baghdad Post, "Armed attack on the house of the Deputy Governor of Salahaddin," 6/13/20

Buratha News, "Salahaddin Operations announces direct military operation in Tikrit Island," 6/11/20

Ghafuri, Lawk, "Suspected ISIS attack targets Kakai Kurds near Iraq-Iran border," Rudaw, 6/14/20

Al Maalomah, "The crowd carries out an inspection to pursue ISIS east of Salahaddin," 6/13/20,

NINA, "/12/ soldiers and civilians were killed and wounded in an ISIS attack on a village in Khanaqin," 6/14/20

- "A Car Bomb, Dens, tunnels, and IEDs Found In A Security Operation In The Desert, Southwest Of Nineveh Governorate," 6/13/20

- "Completing the sectors of clearing of the Sensal basin in Diyala," 6/15/20

- "Explosions Heard Near Al-Taji Camp, North Of Baghdad," 6/14/20

- "Joint forces Carry A Massive Security Operation In Baghdad Belt Areas And Anbar Desert," 6/11/20

- "A Military Operation Launched Towards Iraqi-Syrian Border, West Of Mosul," 6/8/20

- "A Missile Hits The Green Zone / More," 6/10/20

- "The PMF Thwarts A Plot To Target Oil Facilities In Diyala," 6/9/20

- "A Security Operation To Secure The Vicinity Of (Mijas) Village From ISIS Attacks In Khanaqin, Diyala," 6/14/20

- "Two members of the popular crowd were injured in an explosive device, north of Babylon," 6/12/20

- "A Stun Bomb, Placed In A Vehicle Belonging To The Dissolved Nineveh Governorate Council In Mosul, Exploded," 6/9/20

- "A Village In Jalawla Attacked By Mortar Shells," 6/12/20

- "A Village, Northeastern Baquba, Hit By A Mortar Attack," 6/11/20

NRT, "Two Rockets Fall In Iraq's Taji Base, No Casualties Reported: News Agency," 6/13/20

Shafaaq News, "A missile landed in the vicinity of Baghdad International Airport," 6/8/20

- "Mortar bombing kills an Iraqi soldier and injures others in Kirkuk," 6/10/20

- "A policeman was killed by an ISIS attack in Salahaddin," 6/9/20

- "A regimental commander in the crowd survived an assassination attempt on the outskirts of Kirkuk," 6/12/20

- "Wounded by two explosions in Mosul," 6/14/20

Xinhua, "8 killed in IS attack in eastern Iraq," 6/14/20