Southern Iraq (South Central and South East Regions)
Incidents in the South Central Region held at nine this week, albeit including the aforementioned serious attacks on pilgrims. Heightened security in Karbala during the Shabaniya pilgrimage failed to prevent a double VBIED attack in the city, with Wasit and Diwaniyah also recording high profile attacks with a VBIED and truck VBIED respectively.
This was the third VBIED attack in as many weeks in Wasit. AQI is attempting to develop a launch pad for VBIED attacks into southern Iraq via the Aziziya-Suwayrah region in the north of the province. Violence in Babil decreased slightly this week, possibly due to a sustained ISF campaign by the 17th Iraqi Army division in the north of the province. Nevertheless, Babil still accounted for the majority of attacks for this reporting period.
In the “deep south,” Basra saw the greatest number of incidents, with three IEDs, an under-vehicle bomb and a grenade attack. As with the current trend of reporting from Basra, these incidents were all non-lethal and against a varied target-set (civilians, tribal leader, and an ISF member). Having recorded the most incidents for the region last week, Dhi Qar was without incident this week. Maysan also recorded no incidents and there was only a single IED in Samawa, Muthanna province, leading to the injury of a civilian
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