The Iraq War lasted from 2003 to 2011, but the majority of the fighting and counterinsurgency campaign in Anbar took place between April 2004 and September 2007. Almost 9,000 Iraqis and 1,335 Americans were killed in the campaign, many in the Euphrates River Valley and the Sunni Triangle around the cities of Fallujah and Ramadi. The fighting was mostly over by September 2007, although US forces maintained a stabilizing and advisory role through December 2011.
About Iraq War in Al Anbar Governorate in brief
The Anbar campaign consisted of fighting between the U.S. military, together with Iraqi Government forces, and Sunni insurgents in the western Iraqi governorate of Al Anbar. The Iraq War lasted from 2003 to 2011, but the majority of the fighting and counterinsurgency campaign in Anbar took place between April 2004 and September 2007. Almost 9,000 Iraqis and 1,335 Americans were killed in the campaign, many in the Euphrates River Valley and the Sunni Triangle around the cities of Fallujah and Ramadi. The fighting was mostly over by September 2007, although US forces maintained a stabilizing and advisory role through December 2011. It comprises 32 percent of the country’s total land mass, nearly 53,208 square miles, almost exactly the size of North Carolina in the United States and slightly larger than Greece. With a 95 percent Sunni population, Anbar is Iraq’s only governorate without a significant Shia or Kurdish population. The governorate lacks significant natural resources and many inhabitants benefited from the Baathist government patronage system, funded by oil revenues from elsewhere in the country. The Coalition Provisional Authority estimated that about 2 million Iraqis lived in An bar in 2003, more than two-thirds of them Shia or 95 percent of them from the Dulaimi Tribe. The last American forces left the governorate on 7 December 2011, although the US Army withdrew its combat units by August 2010, leaving only advisory and support units. It is the only Sunni-dominated province in Iraq, and the only one that saw little fighting in the initial invasion.
Outside of the Euphrate River area, the eastern part of the state is overwhelmingly desert terrain, comprising the Syrian Desert range from November to March. The region is isolated from most of Iraq, but is easy to access from Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and Syria. The Euphrates river, Lake Habbaniyah and the artificially created Lake Qadisiyah are its most significant geographical features. In August 2006, several tribes located in Ramadi and led by Sheikh Abdul Sattar Abu Risha began to form what would eventually become the Anbar Awakening, which later led to the tribes revolting against AQI. In September 2008, political control was transferred to Iraq, following the withdrawal of American combat forces from the cities. The Marines were replaced by the US army in January 2010, and military control of Anbar was transferred in June 2009. The U. S. Army withdrew all combat units from Anbar in June 2010, but continued to maintain an advisory role in the state until the end of the war in 2011. In June 2007, the US. Army turned a majority of its attention to eastern Anbar Governorate and secured the cities of Fallujah, Al-Karmah, and Rutbah. The US. and Iraqi tribal forces regained control of Ramadi in early 2007, but more hard fighting still followed throughout the rural western River Valley, due largely to its proximity to the Syrian border and the vast network of natural entry points for foreign fighters to enter Iraq.
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