Security In Iraq Jan 22-28, 2024

Security news during the fourth week of January was dominated by attacks by pro-Iran groups, which led to American retaliation. There was only one Islamic State incident but it was significant.

 

There were a total of 11 security incidents in Iraq reported in the media from January 22-28. That compared to 10 during the third week of January, 7 the second week and 10 the first week.

 

Four out of the last 6 weeks the Islamic State carried out 4 incidents. That was far more than the last four months of 2023 when the group was only averaging 1 incident per week. During the fourth week of January however the group only carried out one attack but it was important. That’s because it was a suicide attack upon a Hashd base within Tikrit the capitol of Salahaddin province. The insurgent was killed before he could carry out his task.

 

The last time there was a suicide bombing in the country was on October 24 when the security forces came across a group of IS fighters and one detonated his bomb vest. Just as important the last time there was an incident in an urban area was at the end of April 2023 when an IED went off in Kirkuk city.

 

One of the main reasons why the Islamic State has not been able to rebuild in Iraq is that it lost all of its networks into the nation’s cities. This attack doesn’t mean it has renewed them but does point to a bold attempt to announce that it is still active in the country.

 

Pro-Iran groups continued their campaign against US troops in Iraq and versus Israel. They carried out 10 attacks during the week.

 

There were 6 drone strikes on the Asad airbase in Anbar and one on Irbil city.

 

A combination of rockets and drones were used against the Khor Mor gas field in Sulaymaniya which shut down the facility and led to a number of power outages. The facilities there had not been targeted since August 31. This was an expansion of the conflict as the factions had just been hitting Irbil beforehand.

 

The Islamic Resistance also claimed it carried out two more drone operations against Israel. There have been five total during the month. The Resistance wants to show that it can hit Israel during the Gaza War as has been attempting to do so since December.

 

The Sayid al-Shuhada Brigades even announced a naval blockade of Israel in the Mediterranean. It has no capabilities to do so but was another attempt by organizations aligned with Tehran to show that they were in the fight against Israel itself.

 

Finally, the U.S. carried out its second retaliatory strike during the week after.4 of its soldiers were wounded in a ballistic missile attack upon Asad airbase. On January 23 America hit a Kataib Hezbollah military college in Babil’s Jurf al-Sakhr and other targets in Qaim, Anbar which left 2 dead and 4 wounded.

 

In response Harakat al-Nujaba said that it would step up its operations and even threatened to go after the U.S. Embassy and Iraqis that worked with the Americans. This all shows that the spillover of the Gaza War is worsening the security situation in Iraq and will not end anytime soon.

 

Security Incidents In Iraq By Province

Province	Jan 1-7	Jan 8-14	Jan 15-21	Jan 22-28
Anbar	2 Pro-Iran	-	3/1 Pro-Iran	6 Pro-Iran
Baghdad	1	1	-	-
Diyala	-	1	1 Pro-Iran	-
Irbil	2 Pro-Iran	2 Pro-Iran	2 Pro-Iran	1 Pro-Iran
Israel	2 Pro-Iran	-	1 Pro-Iran	2 Pro-Iran
Ninewa	-	1 Pro-Iran	1	-
Salahaddin	3	2	2/1 Pro-Iran	1
Sulaymaniya	-	-	-	1 Pro-Iran
TOTAL	10/6 Pro-Iran	7/3 Pro-Iran	10/6 Pro-Iran	11/10 Pro-Iran

 

Casualties In Iraq By Province

Province	Jan 1-7	Jan 8-14	Jan 15-21	Jan 22-28
Anbar	-	-	9 (5K, 4W)	-
Baghdad	4 (4W)		-	-
Diyala	-	2 (2W)	-	-
Ninewa	-	-	2 (2W)	-
Salahaddin	10 (5K, 5W)	4 (3K, 1W)	1 (1K)	-
TOTAL	14 (9K, 5W)	6 (3K, 3W)	12 (6K, 6W)	-

 

Security In Iraq 2022-23

Week	Security Incidents (Total/By IS)	Dead (Total/By IS)	Wounded (Total/By IS)
JAN 2022	87/41 Pro-Iran	33	59
FEB	42/14 Pro-Iran	10	29
MAR	46/12/1 Pro-Iran	19	21
APR	111/22 Pro-Iran	34	103
MAY	73/13 Pro-Iran	41	51
JUN	40/14 Pro-Iran	7	33
JUL	43/6 Pro-Iran	33	54
AUG	57/7/1 Pro-Iran	24	54
SEP	41/1/3 M	9	64
OCT	28/2/3 M	17	45
NOV	23	10	28
DEC	33/1 Pro-Iran	42	38
JAN 2023	29/4 Pro-Iran	12	15
Feb 1-7	6/2 Pro-Iran	1	5
Feb 8-14	1	-	2
Feb 15-21	4	4	8
Feb 22-28	9/1 Pro-Iran	7	3
FEB	20/3 Pro-Iran	12	18
Mar 1-7	3	10	4
Mar 8-14	2	2	1
Mar 15-21	2	1	3
Mar 22-28	1	2	-
Mar 29-31	1	3	-
MAR	9	18	8
Apr 1-7	5	1	7
Apr 8-14	4	-	1
Apr 15-21	5	3	-
Apr 22-28	2	1	-
Apr 29-30	1	1	-
APR	16	6	8
May 1-7	2	1	1
May 8-14	6	4	3
May 15-21	3	2	6
May 22-28	3	1	3
May 29-31	2	-	3
MAY	15	8	14
Jun 1-7	-	-	-
Jun 8-14	4	7	4
Jun 15-21	2	1	2
Jun 22-28	4	2	4
Jun 29-30	-	-	-
JUN	10	10	10
Jul 1-7	1	-	-
Jul 8-14	3	2	1
Jul 15-21	2	-	1
Jul 22-28	2	-	2
Jul 29-31	3/2 Pro-Iran	-	-
JUL	11/2 Pro-Iran	2	4
Aug 1-7	4	-	4
Aug 8-14	2	1	3
Aug 15-21	2	-	5
Aug 22-28	2	-	2
Aug 29-31	3/1 Pro-Iran	1	9
AUG	13/1 Pro-Iran	2	23
Sep 1-7	1	-	1
Sep 8-14	1	1	-
Sep 15-21	2	-	4
Sep 22-28	1	1	1
Sep 29-30	-	-	-
SEP	5	2	6
Oct 1-7	-	-	-
Oct 8-14	-	-	-
Oct 15-21	7 Pro-Iran	-	-
Oct 22-28	7/5 Pro-Iran	-	8
Oct 29-31	3 Pro-Iran	-	-
OCT	17/15 Pro-Iran	-	8
Nov 1-7	11/9	4	2
Nov 8-14	12/10	-	3
Nov 15-21	6 Pro-Iran	-	8 Amer
Nov 22-28	4 Pro-Iran	-	-
Nov 29-30	2	11	16
NOV	35/29 Pro-Iran	15	29
Dec 1-7	10/8 Pro-Iran	1	9
Dec 8-14	8/6 Pro-Iran	-	2
Dec 15-21	6/2 Pro-Iran	1	2
Dec 22-28	7/6 Pro-Iran	-	3 US
Dec 29-31	4 Pro-Iran
DEC	35/26 Pro-Iran	2K	16W
Jan 1-7	10/6 Pro-Iran	5	9
Jan 8-14	7/3 Pro-Iran	3	3
Jan 15-21	10/6 Pro-Iran	6	6
Jan 22-28	11/10 Pro-Iran	-	-

 

SOURCES

 

Bas News, "Militia Group Claims Responsibility for Fresh Attack on Ain Al-Asad," 1/22/24

 

Buratha News, “Eyewitnesses reveal the places attacked by the criminal American occupation,” 1/23/24

 

Al Hurra, "Agencies: Drone and missiles hit a gas field in northern Iraq," 1/25/24

- “At Biden’s direction Austin announces the targeting of Iranian-backed militia facilities in Iraq,” 1/23/24

 

Mahmoud, Sinan, "Major gasfield in northern Iraq comes under rocket attack," The National, 8/31/23

 

Middle East Monitor, “Following Yemen’s Houthis, Iraq resistance announces naval blockade on Israel,” 1/24/24

 

NINA, "The Anti-Terrorism Service kills (3) terrorists after clashses in Kirkuk," 10/24/23

- "Targeting Ain al-Assad base with drones," 1/26/24

- "Targeting Ain al-Assad base with drones," 1/28/24

 

Al Rafidain, "Security Sources: Two Drones Were Shot Down Targeting The Ain Al-Assad Military Base In Anbar," 1/24/24

 

Reuters, "Armed drone targets base housing US forces near Iraq's Erbil airport: Sources," 1/24/24

 

Salem, Amr, "Suicide attack on PMF headquarters in Salah Al-Din thwarted," Iraqi News, 1/23/24

 

Shafaq News, “The Iraqi Resistance announces the targeting of 3 American military bases in Iraq and Syria,” 1/24/24

- "The Iraqi Resistance announces the targeting of Ain al-Assad with a drone," 1/27/24

- "The Iraqi Resistance says it bombed 4 American bases in Iraq and Syria and an Israeli naval facility," 1/28/24

- "A policeman died of his injures after responding to an attempted bombing in Kirkuk," 4/29/23

- "Two drones target Ain al-Assad in western Iraq," 1/23/24

 

Al Sumaria, “Al-Nujaba talks about the secret presence of Americans in all aspects of the state … and threatens traitors in the Afghanistan scenario,” 1/27/24

 

Watson, Eleanor, “U.S. strikes Iranian-backed militias in Iraq over wave of attacks on American forces,” CBS News, 1/23/24