Islamic State Continues To Fade In Iraq While Pro-Iran Groups Restart Attacks In April 2024

April was dominated by attacks by pro-Iran groups. The Islamic State on the other hand almost disappeared.

 

There were a total of 9 security incidents in Iraq reported in April. That compared to 18 in March, 2 in February and 42 in January. Violence has obviously been declining in the country overall.

 

There were just two incidents involving the Islamic State. At the start of April in the Makhmour district of Ninewa a checkpoint was attacked. At the end of the month the security forces (ISF) set up an ambush for insurgents in the Samarra district of Salahaddin. Two ISF were killed in the fighting. That meant there was only one attack by IS during the month. That tied for the second lowest monthly total since 2003.

 

The other 7 incidents were done by pro-Iran groups. 4 of those were aimed at Israel which has been a constant target since January. It appears that some factions became unsatisfied with the truce with the Americans and launched three other assaults. That included targeting the Ain Al-Asad airbase in Anbar with a drone, firing rockets from western Ninewa at an American base in eastern Syria, and a drone strike upon the Khor Mor natural gas facility in Sulaymaniya which killed 4 Yemeni workers. The Iraqi Resistance claimed it didn’t authorize any attacks upon the U.S. and blamed a rogue group. Iran was likely unhappy with the turn of events and the Resistance had to backtrack as a result.

 

Overall attacks by these factions are on the uptick. There was just 1 in February, 6 in March and 7 in April. That’s because they want U.S. forces out of Iraq now and the process to accomplish that will take a long time and they don’t have the patience for it.

 

Security Incidents In Iraq By Province

Province	Apr 1-7	Apr 8-14	Apr 15-21	Apr 22-28	Apr 29-30	Totals
Anbar	-	-	1 Pro-Iran	-	-	2/1 Pro-Iran
Israel	2 Pro-Iran	1 Pro-Iran	1 Pro-Iran	-	-	4 Pro-Iran
Ninewa	1	-	1 Pro-Iran	-	-	2/1 Pro-Iran
Salahaddin	-	-	-	-	1	1
Sulaymaniya	-	-	-	1 Pro-Iran	-	1 Pro-Iran
TOTAL	3/2 Pro-Iran	1 Pro-Iran	3 Pro-Iran	1 Pro-Iran	-	9/7 Pro-Iran

 

Casualties In Iraq By Province

Province	Apr 1-7	Apr 8-14	Apr 15-21	Apr 22-28	Apr 29-30	Totals
Salahaddin	-	-	-	-	2	2
Sulaymaniya				4 Yemenis	-	4 Yemenis
TOTAL	-	-	-	4 Yemenis	2	6/4 Yemenis

 

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/1 Iranian	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	-	-
Jan 29-31	3 Pro-Ira	-	-
JAN	42/28 Pro-Iran/1 Iranian	14	20
Feb 1-7	1 Pro-Iran	-	-
Feb 8-14	-	-	-
Feb 15-21	-	-	-
Feb 22-29	1	-	-
FEB	2/1 Pro-Iran	-	-
Mar 1-7	4/2 Pro-Iran	1	4
Mar 8-14	8/1 Pro-Iran	4	8
Mar 15-21	2	-	2
Mar 22-28	2 Pro-Iran	-	-
Mar 29-31	2/1Pro-iran	1	1
MAR	18/6 Pro-Iran	6	15
Apr 1-7	3/2 Pro-Iran	-	-
Apr 8-14	1 Pro-Iran	-	-
Apr 15-21	3 Pro-Iran	-	-
Apr 22-28	1 Pro-Iran	4	-
Apr 29-30	1	2	-
APR	9/7 Pro-Iran	6	-

 

SOURCES

 

Aldroubi, Mina, “Iran-backed Iraqi militias resume attacks on US forces,” The Naitonal, 4/22/24

 

The National, "Iraqi Kurdish authorities working to resume Khor Mor gas supply after deadly attack," 4/27/24

 

Reuters, "US forces in Iraq, Syria attacked twice in under 24 hours," 4/22/24

 

Shafaq News, "An Iraqi army force confronts an attack launched by ISIS members in Makhmour," 4/7/24

- "Two members were killed in clashes with ISIS members in Samarra," 4/30/24