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Iraq Control of Terrain Map: May 23, 2016
Kurdish Areas Map Legend
KDP Peshmerga Control Zone
Dahuk
Rabia
Populated areas under KDP
Peshmerga control
Mosul Dam
Sinjar
Mosul
Tal Afar
Qayarrah
Sharqat
Arbil
Gwer
Makhmur
Hawija
Camp Speicher
Iraqi Kurdistan regions under
Peshmerga control
Kirkuk As Sulaymaniyah
Ba
sh
ir
Baiji
PUK Peshmerga Control Zone
Populated areas under PUK
Peshmerga control
Qandil
Populated areas under PKK/YPG control
Populated areas under KDP
Peshmerga/PKK/YPG control
Populated areas under ISF control
with KDP Peshmerga and Sunni
tribal fighters
Tuz Khurmato
Tikrit
PUK Peshmerga-held location
Khanaqin
Qaim
Baghdadi
Waleed
Rutba
Trebil
Hit
Joint ISF-KDP Peshmerga-held location
Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK)
Headquarters Site
Mixed PUK Peshmerga-Militia
Controlled Location
Muqdadiyah
Balad Base
Camp Taji
Baqubah
Balad Ruz
Ta
Ra
qa
m
du
ad
m
i
Ba
s
Fa e
llu
ja
h
Asad Base
KDP Peshmerga-held location
Samarra
Haditha
Mixed KDP Peshmerga/
PKK/YPG-held location
Baghdad
Jurf
al-Sakhr
Karbala
Nukhaib
Al Kut
Al Hillah
Ad Diwaniyah
An Najaf
Al Amarah
Samawa
Iraq Map Legend
An Nasriyah
Basra
ISF Control Zone
ISF and heavy presence of Iraqi Shi’a militias
Joint ISF - Sunni Tribal Fighters Control Zone
Populated areas under ISF control
ISIS Control Zone
ISF-held location
ISIS-held location
ISF-held military base
100km
Content: Patrick Martin with Emily Anagnostos and Hannah Werman
Graphics: Patrick Martin
©2016 by the Institute for the Study of War
The ISF has made significant gains in the Euphrates River Valley over the past two months, recapturing almost the entirety of the southern bank.
The ISF, backed by tribal fighters and Coalition airstrikes, recaptured Hit District, west of Ramadi, on April 14 before recapturing nearly the
entirety of the area between Hit and Baghdadi Sub-district over the subsequent weeks. Some villages, particularly on the northern bank of the river,
remain under ISIS control. ISW is changing the status of these areas to Joint ISF-Sunni Tribal Fighter Control Zones.
Joint ISF and Popular Mobilization forces have launched operations to recapture the Fallujah area. Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi announced the
effort to recapture Fallujah on May 23 at a meeting with senior ISF officials and proxy militia leaders, including Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis and Badr
Organization leader Hadi al-Amiri. The ISF, large numbers of Popular Mobilization fighters, and Iranian proxy militiamen engaged in a concerted
push to clear Fallujah's northern environs. The groups cleared Garma Sub-district, a historical safe-haven for Sunni extremist groups and a
longtime base for ISIS attacks into the Baghdad area, on May 23. The ISF, backed by Coalition airstrikes and tribal fighters, also recaptured a
stretch of highway south of Fallujah between the Habaniya base and Amiriyat al-Fallujah, a town that faces constant pressure from ISIS, on May
7. ISW is thus changing the status of this area to ISF Control Zone.
The ISF also recaptured Rutba, a district that sits along the Jordan-Ramadi highway in western Anbar, on May 10. ISW is thus changing the status
of Rutba to ISF-held location. Claims by the Joint Operations Comamnd (JOC) that the ISF fully control the highway between the Trebil border
crossing with Jordan and Ramadi could not be confirmed.
A joint Iraqi Shi'a militia, Turkmen, and Peshmerga force recaptured the Shi'a Turkmen village of Bashir, south of Kirkuk, from ISIS on April 30.
The operation was a symbolic victory for Iraqi Shi'a militias and Turkmen militias, as Bashir was the site of a massacre of Turkmen in late 2014.
However, security arrangements remain tenuous, as the Peshmerga belonging to the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) often have friction and
occasionally clash with Iraqi Shi'a militias and Turkmen militias, particularly in the joint-held town of Tuz Khurmato, south of Bashir. Bashir could
thus be an additional source of friction between Turkmen and Kurds. ISW is changing the status of Bashir to Joint Peshmerga and Iraqi Shi'a militia
Control.