Western Anbar offensive (2017) | |||||||||
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Part of the American-led intervention in Iraq (2014–present) and the War in Iraq (2013–2017) | |||||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||||
![]() Supported by: ![]() | ![]() | ||||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||||
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Units involved | |||||||||
| Military of ISIL | ||||||||
Strength | |||||||||
Thousands | 8,000–10,000 [2] [3] | ||||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||||
Unknown | Unknown |
The Western Anbar offensive (2017) was a military operation by the Iraqi Army against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, in the western districts of the Province of Anbar and on the border with Syria.
The offensive was concurrent another offensive by the Iraqi government, the Hawija Offensive (2017), as well with the Raqqa campaign conducted by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) against ISIL's former de facto capital city and stronghold in Syria, the Central Syria campaign (2017), and the 2017 Mayadin offensive.
Al-Qaim was known as a hotbed of jihadist insurgency, after the 2003 invasion of Iraq, with coalition forces carrying out repeated operations against Al-Qaeda jihadists. The strategic and porous border started becoming a route for foreign fighters entering Iraq from Syria, who was accused by Iraqi government of ignoring it. [4]
The towns of western Anbar were captured by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant in 2014. [5] Before the 2017 offensive, Iraqi forces had dislodged the group from key cities of Anbar including Ramadi and Fallujah but the areas near border with Syria including Anah, Rawa, Al-Qaim and the vast rural areas across the province remained under militant control. [6] An Iraqi operation was launched towards west Anbar in January 2017, but was suspended after recapture of towns of Sagra and Zawiya because of preparations for retaking the western bank of Mosul. [7]
The operation on Euphrates Valley was the first since recapture of Tal Afar in August 2017. According to Iraqi military, it aims to retake militant held-towns of Al-Qaim, Rawa and Anah, which formed one of the last two enclaves still held by ISIL in Iraq. [8] From September 11 to September 16, Iraqi aircraft carried out airstrikes in the area, killing 306 militants, according to the Iraqi Army. [9] On the evening of September 15, Iraqi warplanes dropped leaflets over Akashat, Anah, Rawa and Al-Qaim towns, urging civilians to take cover and calling on the militants to surrender. [10]
On September 16, Iraqi forces began the offensive, supported by the United States-led air alliance, to dislodge ISIL from the border with Syria to the south of the Euphrates, also aimed at tightening Iraq's hold on its border with Syria. According to military statements, the offensive on the Akashat region containing natural gas reserves, was also meant to pave the way for capturing ISIL-held towns along Euphrates valley. [11] Later in the day, Iraqi military announced that it had captured Akashat. [12] Lt. Gen. Abdul Amir Yarallah from the Iraqi Joint Operations Command (JOC) said the Hashd al-Shaabi and Iraqi border guards had also reopened a nearby strategic road besides capturing the town. In a separate statement, Hashd al-Shaabi added that troops captured the area after destroying defensive lines of the militants, used as a corridor to move between Syria and Iraq, leaving many of them killed and wounded. [1]
On September 19, the Iraqi forces backed by US airstrikes began an assault on the militants in western Anbar. Iraqi military stated that a force composed of army units, police and tribal fighters launched the attack at dawn near the town of Anah. [2] On the same day, Iraqi forces captured the village of al-Rayhana in the area. An Iraqi colonel told Agence-France Presse that the forces attacked it from three directions and seven militants were killed, with rest retreating to Anah. [13] Yarallah from JOC announced on 21 September that Iraqi forces had completely captured Anah. [14] A security source on the same day told Alghad Press that Mostafa Anwar Nayef, an ISIL field leader, was killed in al-Shishan district of the town. [15]
On September 23, a security source stated that ten ISIL leaders fled from Al-Qaim to unknown places. [16] On the next day, Iraqi Defense Ministry's War Media Cell stated that five militants were killed while an ISIL headquarters in Rawa was destroyed by airstrikes of CJTF-OIR. [17] Rageh al-Eissawi, a member of Anbar province council's security commission, stated on September 25 that Iraqi forces had launched wide-scale combing operations on roads leading to Rawa in preparation for an assault on it. He added that it coincided with air raids by Iraqi warplanes in the area. [18] Iraqi Army's 7th Division backed by PMU killed 11 militants, including a wali, on September 26, in an assault on outskirts of Rawa. Security sources added that five rest houses of the group were also destroyed. [19]
On September 27, the militants attacked and briefly took over areas near Ramadi according to security sources. The operation was likely meant to create a diversion against Iraq's offensives to dislodge the group from its last strongholds. Provincial police chief Major General Hadi Razij Kassar stated that security forces and tribes retook the Al-Tash, Majr and Kilometre Seven districts and all the militants were killed. A general meanwhile told that 20 militants were killed. A military source in a Ramadi hospital said two security personnel were killed and 18 civilians wounded. [20] Maj. Gen. Hadi Rezeij, chief of Anbar police, stated on October 1 that fifty ISIL fighters were killed while 30 vehicles of the group were destroyed when troops thwarted the attack on Ramadi on September 27. [21]
Iraqi Interior Ministry stated on September 30 that 40 militants were killed while others were wounded in airstrikes. It added that a rest house and a booby-trapping workshop of the group were destroyed in Al-Qaim. A security source meanwhile stated that CJTF-OIR warplanes killed a senior ISIL leader named Marawan Mohamed Ali Ismail. [22] A security source stated on October 9 that ISIL had started sending its fighter and equipment from Al-Qaim to Anbar's desert. [23] Brett McGurk stated on 12 October that Iraqi forces were shifting en masse from Kirkuk to Anbar, and was heading there to drive ISIL out of the border region with Syria. [24] The military announced on 25 October that they were about to launch an offensive to retake last territory under ISIL control, with Iraqi Air Force dropping leaflets in Rawa and Al-Qaim. [25]
On October 26, Prime Minister al-Abadi announced an offensive to recapture the western border region of Al-Qaim and Rawah. [26]
Rawa or Rawah is a city in Iraq situated on the Euphrates river. It lies on the north bank of the river, upstream by approximately 20 kilometers from the much larger town of Anah. People from this town are known by the appellation Rawi or surname al-Rawi, plurally known as Rawiyeen in Arabic. Rawa is populated by Sunni Arabs.
Beginning in December 2012, Sunnis in Iraq protested against the Maliki government. On 28 December 2013, a Sunni MP named Ahmed al-Alwani was arrested in a raid on his home in Ramadi. Alwani was a prominent supporter of the anti-government protests. This incident led to violence in Al Anbar Governorate between the Iraqi Army and a loose alliance of tribal militias and other groups fighting alongside the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).
The war in Iraq was an armed conflict between Iraq and its allies and the Islamic State. Following December 2013, the insurgency escalated into full-scale guerrilla warfare following clashes in the cities of Ramadi and Fallujah in parts of western Iraq, and culminated in the Islamic State offensive into Iraq in June 2014, which lead to the capture of the cities of Mosul, Tikrit and other cities in western and northern Iraq by the Islamic State. Between 4–9 June 2014, the city of Mosul was attacked and later fell; following this, Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki called for a national state of emergency on 10 June. However, despite the security crisis, Iraq's parliament did not allow Maliki to declare a state of emergency; many legislators boycotted the session because they opposed expanding the prime minister's powers. Ali Ghaidan, a former military commander in Mosul, accused al-Maliki of being the one who issued the order to withdraw from the city of Mosul. At its height, ISIL held 56,000 square kilometers of Iraqi territory, containing 4.5 million citizens.
The following lists events that happened during 2014 in Iraq.
On 15 June 2014 U.S. President Barack Obama ordered United States forces to be dispatched in response to the Northern Iraq offensive of the Islamic State (IS), as part of Operation Inherent Resolve. At the invitation of the Iraqi government, American troops went to assess Iraqi forces and the threat posed by ISIL.
The Battle of Ramadi, also called the Fall of Ramadi, was part of an ISIL offensive to capture all of the Anbar Province. Ramadi was one of the Iraqi government's last strongholds in Anbar, after ISIL's success in a previous campaign. The battle began in November 2014, and drew to a close on 14 May 2015, as Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) insurgents seized hold of government buildings. On 17 May, the Iraqi Army and special forces fled the city, with 500 civilians and security personnel dead.
The Al-Karmah offensive, codenamed Fajr al-Karma, was an offensive launched by the Iraqi Army and anti-ISIL Sunni tribal fighters to recapture the Al-Karmah district taken by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant in Iraq. The offensive began on 14 April 2015. During the offensive the anti-ISIL forces captured part of the city of Al-Karmah, and the old road of Al-Karmah.
In early 2014, the jihadist group Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant captured extensive territory in Western Iraq in the Anbar campaign, while counter-offensives against it were mounted in Syria. Raqqa in Syria became its headquarters. The Wall Street Journal estimated that eight million people lived under its control in the two countries.
The Battle of Ramadi was a battle launched by the forces of Iraq to successfully recapture the city of Ramadi from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), which had taken the city earlier in 2015 in a previous battle. Air power was a major component of the battle, with the United States and other nations conducting over 850 airstrikes in the Ramadi area from July 2015 to late February 2016, and the US crediting airstrikes with 80% of the reason why the city was recaptured. By February 2016, Iraqi forces successfully recaptured the city after two and a half months of fighting. It was predicted that it would take several months to clear the city of the bombs ISIL left behind, with at least 9 months needed to clear the city's Tamim District. At the time, Ramadi had suffered more damage than any other city or town in Iraq.
The Shirqat offensive, codenamed Operation Conquest or Operation Fatah, was an offensive against the positions of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in and around the district of Al-Shirqat District to reach the city of Mosul.
The Anbar campaign (2015–2016) was a military campaign launched by the Iraqi Armed Forces and their allies aimed at recapturing areas of the Anbar Governorate held by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), including the city of Ramadi, which ISIL seized earlier in 2015. The United States and other nations aided Iraq with airstrikes.
The siege of Fallujah was an offensive launched in February 2016 by the Iraqi government against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in al-Karmah and in the city of Fallujah, with the aim of enforcing a siege of the latter. During the early stages of the operation, local Sunni residents revolted against ISIL for a period of three days. On 22 May, after completing preparations around the city, the Iraqi Army and supporting Shi'ite militias launched the third Battle of Fallujah.
The Battle of Hit, code named Operation Desert Lynx by Iraqi forces, was an offensive launched by the Iraqi Government during the Anbar offensive, with the goal of recapturing the town of Hīt and the Hīt District from ISIL. After the Iraqi forces recaptured the city of Ramadi, Hīt and Fallujah were the only cities still under the control of ISIL in the Al Anbar Governorate. Iraqi Forces fully recaptured Hīt and the rest of the Hīt District on 14 April 2016.
This is a timeline of events during the War in Iraq in 2016.
This is a timeline of events during the War in Iraq of 2013 to 2017 in its final year.
The 2017 Western Nineveh offensive, code-named Operation Muhammad, Prophet of God, was launched by the Iraqi Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in the western Nineveh province of northern Iraq in late April 2017.
The 2017 Western Iraq campaign was the final major military operation of the 2013–2017 war in Iraq, in the western province of Anbar, and on the border with Syria, with the goal of completely expelling ISIL forces from their last strongholds in Iraq.
The 2017 Mayadin offensive was a military offensive launched by the Syrian Arab Army against members of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in the Deir ez-Zor Governorate, following the breaking of the three-year siege of the city of Deir ez-Zor. The Mayadin offensive, conducted by Syrian Army troops, was conducted with the aim of capturing ISIL's new de facto capital of Mayadin, and securing the villages and towns around it.
The 2017 Abu Kamal offensive, codenamed Operation Fajr-3, was a military offensive launched by the Syrian Arab Army and its allies against members of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in the Deir ez-Zor Governorate. The aim of the offensive was to capture ISIL's last urban stronghold in Syria, the border town of Abu Kamal. This offensive was a part of the larger Eastern Syria campaign.