For the first time since 2013, Iraq is holding provincial elections today, December 18, 2023. According to a senior Department of Defense official, this should have a delaying impact on the number of attacks seen against U.S. and Coalition locations throughout the country for a couple of days.
However, there is an expected uptick in hostile events based on the results of the elections. “Considering the Iraqi Shiite Sardist party has withdrawn all of its’ candidates and others from the party were fired recently at MSS Euphrates, it is likely hostilities will resume immediately following the announcement of the results of the elections,” the Defense official commented.
The Iraqi Shiite Sardist party’s candidates withdrew their nominations because of rumors of election rigging in favor of the other parties. With this being the first election in a decade, it has the potential to be the cause of even more instability throughout the country, depending on how the government and population respond to the results.