By Heather Murdoch @ VOANews.com, Dec. 7, from MOSUL, IRAQ

[....] On average, IS has conducted 75 attacks a month in Iraq in 2018, claiming more than 1,500 civilian lives, according to new report by the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington-based research group.

The death toll is considerably less than in 2017, when IS still held physical territories, but the group appears to be refocusing its efforts on government targets, the report says.

"Islamic State militants are seizing on local grievances," it reads, "taking advantage of ungoverned space by operating from cell structures to conduct hit-and-run attacks, kidnappings for ransom, targeted assassinations, and bombings using improvised explosive devices."

Iraqi security forces are conducting near-daily operations to thwart these attacks, capturing and killing fighters as well as launching airstrikes, including a cross-border offensive in neighboring Syria that killed 40 militants last month, according to the Iraqi military [....]