Key Facts
- Key city captured
- Fallujah, January 2014
- ISIL territorial control
- At least 70% of Anbar by 23 June 2014
- Trigger event
- Arrest of Sunni MP Ahmed al-Alwani, 28 Dec 2013
- Duration
- Approx. 1 year (Dec 2013–Jun 2014)
Strategic Narrative Overview
In January 2014, anti-government forces including ISIL seized control of Fallujah while heavy fighting engulfed Ramadi. The Iraqi Army managed to secure Ramadi by March and launched operations to retake Fallujah. These efforts were overtaken in June 2014 when ISIL launched a sweeping offensive across Anbar in conjunction with its broader assault on northern Iraq, rapidly expanding its territorial hold.
01 / The Origins
Sunni discontent with Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's government had been building since December 2012, expressed through widespread protests across Iraq. The arrest of prominent Sunni MP Ahmed al-Alwani during a raid on his Ramadi home on 28 December 2013 proved a flashpoint, triggering armed conflict in Al Anbar Governorate between Iraqi security forces and a coalition of tribal militias aligned with the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.
03 / The Outcome
By 23 June 2014, ISIL controlled at least 70% of Anbar province, including Fallujah, representing a significant collapse of Iraqi state authority in the region. The clashes merged into the larger Iraqi civil war, with the Iraqi government unable to reassert control and the province remaining a major front in the conflict that followed ISIL's declaration of a caliphate in mid-2014.
Belligerents & Mobilization Analysis
Side A
2 belligerents
Ahmed al-Alwani.
Side B
1 belligerent
Kinetic Engagement Axis
Scroll horizontally to view full axis. Events plotted relatively.