Violence in Iraq and Afghanistan- Pre and Post “Surge”: PART IV
October 28th, 2008by Bill Greer
Key Finding #4
The percentage of total attacks that are IED related has increased by 13.19% in Afghanistan, and 14.75% in Iraq, from the beginning of 2005 to the end of the 1st quarter of 2008. The pre-surge average for the percentage of IED attacks in Afghanistan was 18.81% and 35.66% in Iraq. After the surge, averages show that 23.76% of attacks in Afghanistan were IED attacks and 41.59% of attacks in Iraq were IED attacks. Both countries are favoring IED attacks over other types of attacks such as suicide bombing and assassinations.
Figure 1: Percentage of IED Attacks to Total Attacks. Shows increase in the usage of IED’s in attacks in both Iraq and Afghanistan. Break in the Chart shows the break between pre-surge and post-surge.
Table 1: Percentage of attacks by type of attack by country from 2005 to the end of Q1 2008
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Interestingly, suicide attacks in Afghanistan have been increasing as a percentage of total attacks, and decreasing in Iraq. This shows that Afghanistan is seeing an increase in both IED attacks and suicide bombings, while suicide attacks in Iraq are falling. This could indicate a move of more radical elements from Iraq to Afghanistan.
Figure 2: Percentage of Suicide Attacks Compared to all Attacks. It shows the percentage of suicide attacks compared to all attacks in Iraq and Afghanistan. The break in the chart shows the break between pre-surge and post-surge data.
After doing an analysis using the spreadsheet of the violence data, Maker! was then used to present findings visually as well as show the spatial aspect of the trends.
Figure 3: IED Attacks as Percent of All Attacks for Afghanistan
Figure 4: IED Attacks as Percentage of all Attacks for Iraq
The dataset for these maps can be found here.
Here we can see the locations that IEDs are most heavily utilized. These maps show the percentage of IED attacks compared to total attacks for both Iraq and Afghanistan, and are drawn to the same scale. Iraq IED attacks are centralized around Baghdad and the main roads leading to other major cities, whereas the IED attacks in Afghanistan are dispersed mostly near the Pakistan border.
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November 3rd, 2008 at 2:42 pm
[…] in Afghanistan. This could indicate a move of more radical elements from Iraq to Afghanistan. Blog Post Here 5. From January of 2005 to March of 2008, there was a decrease in reported attacks on energy […]
April 3rd, 2009 at 7:20 am
[…] Another expected rising star for military operators are “mashups” - essentially data and services pulled from multiples sites and source on the Internet to create a new and better site. Al Jazeera created an influential crowdsourced mapping mashup in January 2009 focused on Gaza and this Mashup of the War on Gaza influenced perceptions by quickly pulling together and presenting data on Israeli activity. Similarly, Sokwanele created an engaging mashup of violence in Zimbabwe following the March 2008 elections and subsequent violence. Even more relavent, Bill Greer at Off The Map presents a Mashup of IED attacks in Iraq and Afghanistan pre- and post-Surge. […]