Showing posts with label kurdistan. Show all posts
Showing posts with label kurdistan. Show all posts

Wednesday, September 7, 2016

Iraq Control Map & Report: September 2016

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Detailed map of territorial control in Iraq as of September 5, 2016, including territory held by the so-called Islamic State (ISIS, ISIL), the Baghdad government, and the Kurdistan Peshmerga. Includes results of recent fighting around Qaiyarah (Qayyarah) south of Mosul. Color blind accessible.
Basemap by Koen Adams of onestopmap.com, with territorial control by Evan Centanni and Djordje Djukic. All rights reserved.
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Research and timeline by Djordje Djukic

Summary of Recent Events
After recapturing Ramadi from the so-called "Islamic State" (IS; formerly ISIS/ISIL), the Iraqi government and allies have set their sights on Mosul, the largest IS-controlled city, and until a few years ago the second largest city in Iraq (some sources say half or more of its population fled after the IS takeover in 2014). Since our last Iraq control map report at the end of June, the main change to territorial control has been the government capture of Qaiyarah, a town south of Mosul that's still more or less surrounded by IS and Kurdish controlled ground.

Friday, May 22, 2015

War in Iraq: Map of Islamic State Control in May 2015

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Detailed map of territorial control in Iraq as of May 20, 2015, including territory held by the Islamic State (ISIS, ISIL), the Baghdad government, and the Kurdistan Peshmerga. Includes recent flashpoints including Ramadi, Tikrit, Habbaniyah, Khaldiya, Sinjar, and others, as well as the recently created province of Halabja in Iraqi Kurdistan.
Map by Evan Centanni, starting from blank map by NordNordWest. License: CC BY-SA
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Timeline by Djordje Djukic, with additional reporting by Evan Centanni

A City for a City
Since PolGeoNow published our February map of control in Iraq, two major cities have changed hands, in opposite directions. Tikrit, known as the home region of former leader Saddam Hussein, was the Islamic State's farthest-forward prize in its spectacular takeover of northern Iraq last June. A priority for Iraq's struggling Baghdad government, Tikrit was finally taken back this March and April in a major push by Shiite militias, led by Iran and ultimately supported by U.S.-Arab coalition airstrikes.

Sunday, January 12, 2014

Iraq: Map of Al Qaeda Control

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PolGeoNow presents our first map of Iraq, showing control by the government and Al Qaeda rebels in the country's ongoing crisis. Areas of autonomous Kurdish administration in the north are also indicated.

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Map of territorial control in Iraq in January 2014, including cities and countryside held by Al Qaeda (ISIS) as well as areas administered by Kurdistan
Territorial control in Iraq at the beginning of 2014. Map by Evan Centanni, starting from this blank map by German Wikipedia user NordNordWest. License: CC BY-SA
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By Evan Centanni


Al Qaeda in Iraq
Though the reality is of course more complex, power politics in Iraq often revolve around the country's three largest ethnic groups: Shia (Shiite) Arabs, Sunni Arabs, and Kurds (most Kurds are religiously Sunni, but their language and cultural distinguish them from Arabs). Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, a Shia Arab, is often accused of manipulating Iraq's democracy to exclusively serve the country's Shia majority. The Kurds govern a highly autonomous region in the northeast, but the Sunni Arabs who dominate northwestern Iraq have relatively little political power. Into the fray has jumped Al Qaeda in Iraq, now part of the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) organization which also controls parts of Syria (map). Al Qaeda has waged a fierce campaign against the Iraqi government in the name of Sunnis, though the group is still rejected by many of the people it claims to protect.