Review Of Security In Iraq 2024

2024 saw the further decline of the Islamic State into obscurity in Iraq while the pro-Iran Iraqi Islamic Resistance launched a campaign against Israel for its war in Gaza but stopped operations in December due to foreign pressure.

 

In 2024 there were a total of 298 security incidents reported in Iraq in the media. 65 of those were by the Islamic State and 233 by the Iraqi Resistance.

 

Incidents by the Islamic State have gone down every year since its defeat in 2017. In 2022 there were 491 incidents by the group declining to 135 in 2023 and 65 in 2024. Some of those incidents were not even attacks. In December 2024 for instance there were 5 incidents all the result of security sweeps by the Iraqi forces leading to gun battles or leftover IEDs going off. There were also 29 out of 48 weeks during the year when there were no incidents by the insurgency at all. That only happened 6 times in 2023 and never occurred in 2022.

 

The group tried to re-organize by taking over rural areas in central Iraq, threatening the population, extorting money and driving out the security forces. This failed however as it was never able to rebuild its leadership, networks or manpower. Probably the largest factor was the threat of the Iraqi forces. During the war vs IS they carried out sectarian cleansing throughout central and northern Iraq just as they did in Baghdad and its environs during the civil war period of 2005-08. There are several areas in Salahaddin and Babil where the entire population was forced out and they have never been allowed back. Many Sunnis probably decided the costs were too high to support the Islamic State with the threat of killings, intimidation, houses being destroyed and entire villages being emptied.

 

Most of the violence during the last year came from the Islamic Resistance. It continued its campaign of drones and missiles aimed at Israel for the Gaza War. Most of these attacks actually came from Syria. It also targeted Iraqi bases that housed U.S. forces to try to get them to withdraw from the country as well as Irbil and Sulaymaniya because of the Kurds close ties to the U.S. and Turkey which these pro-Iran factions disagree with. All those attacks were stopped in December however as the Resistance feared Israeli or U.S. retaliation. The overthrow of Assad in Syria has thrown another wrench in their plans denying it launching areas to strike Israel.

 

Attacks by the Resistance have gone up and down over the last few years. In 2022 there were 133 aimed at American forces and the Kurds. There were 80 in 2023 as a ceasefire was brokered by the Sudani government and Iran only to shift to going after Israel at the end of the year. There were then 233 in 2024.

 

2024 Security Incidents In Iraq By Province

Province	Totals
Anbar	28 (13 IS/15 Pro-Iran)
Baghdad	8 (6 IS/2 Pro-Iran)
Diyala	8 (7 IS/1 Pro-Iran)
Irbil	7 Pro-Iran
Israel	202 Pro-Iran
Kirkuk	13 (12 IS/1 Pro-Iran)
Ninewa	6 (4 IS/2 Pro-Iran)
Salahaddin	22 (21 IS/1 Pro-Iran)
Sulaymaniya	4 (2 IS/2 Pro-Iran)
Totals	298 (65 IS/233 Pro-Iran)

 

2024 Casualties In Iraq By Province

Province	Totals
Anbar	46 (13K, 33W)
Baghdad	14 (4K, 10W)
Diyala	27 (10K, 17w)
Kirkuk	43 (14K, 29W)
Ninewa	11 (4K, 7W)
Salahaddin	68 (40K, 28W)
Sulaymaniya	8 (8K)
Totals	217 (93K, 124W)

 

2022-2024 Violence In Iraq

Year	Incidents	Killed	Wounded
2022	624 (491 IS/133 Pro-Iran)	279	579
2023	215 (135 IS/80 Pro-Iran)	89	158
2024	298 (65 IS/233 Pro-Iran)	93	124

 

 

Security In Iraq 2022-23

Week	Security Incidents (Total/By IS)	Dead (Total/By IS)	Wounded (Total/By IS)
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 (8 Amer)
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	-
May 1-7	3 Pro-Iran	-	-
May 8-14	6/5 Pro-Iran	5	5
May 15-21	11/9 Pro-Iran	1	6
May 22-28	6/2 Pro-Iran	11	12
May 29-31	1 Pro-Iran	-	-
MAY	27/20 Pro-Iran	18	22
Jun 1-7	4 Pro-Iran	-	-
Jun 8-14	2 Pro-Iran	-	-
Jun 15-21	2/1 Pro-Iran	1	-
Jun 22-28	5 Pro-Iran	-	-
Jun 29-31	1 Pro-Iran	-	-
JUN	14/13 Pro-Iran	1	-
Jul 1-7	2 Pro-Iran	-	-
Jul 8-14	4	10	4
Jul 15-21	4 Pro-Iran	-	-
Jan 22-28	2 Pro-Iran	-	-
Jul 29-31	-	-	-
JUL	12/8 Pro-Iran	10	4
Aug 1-7	3/2Pro-Iran	-	10 (5 Amer)
Aug 8-14	2	2	-
Aug 15-21	2/1 Pro-Iran	-	2
Aug 22-28	2 Pro-Iran	-	-
Aug 29-31	4/1 Pro-Iran	4	8 (7 Amer)
AUG	13/6 Pro-Iran	6	20 (14 Amer)
Sep 1-7	3/1 Pro-Iran	5	4
Sep 8-14	3/1 Pro-Iran	4	5
Sep 15-21	5/2 Pro-Iran	-	7
Sep 22-28	18 Pro-Iran	-	-
Sep 29-30	8 Pro-Iran	-	-
SEP	37/30 Pro-Iran	9	16
Oct 1-7	21/18 Pro-Iran	6	14
Oct 8-14	17 Pro-Iran	-	-
Oct 15-21	9/8 Pro-Iran	1	-
Oct 22-28	17 Pro-Iran	-	2 US Soldiers
Oct 29-31	6 Pro-Iran	-	-
OCT	70/66 Pro-Iran	7	14 (2US Soldiers)
Nov 1-7	18 Pro-Iran	-	-
Nov 8-14	19 Pro-Iran	-	-
Nov 15-21	10/9 Pro-Iran	3	3
Nov 22-28	2 Pro-Iran	-	-
Nov 29-30	-	-	-
NOV	49/48 Pro-Iran	3	3
Dec 1-7	-	-	-
Dec 8-14	1	2	2
Dec 15-21	-	-	-
Dec 22-28	2	6	2
Dec 29-31	2	3	5
DEC	5	11	9