Anbar campaign (2003–2011)

Overview

The Anbar campaign consisted of fighting between the United States military, together with Iraqi security 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. Although the fighting initially featured heavy urban warfare primarily between insurgents and U.S. Marines, insurgents in later years focused on ambushing the American and Iraqi security forces with improvised explosive devices (IEDs), large scale attacks on combat outposts, and car bombings. 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.

Overview adapted from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Significance

The Anbar campaign was the central counterinsurgency struggle of the Iraq War, absorbing the majority of U.S. combat effort in western Iraq between April 2004 and September 2007. Fighting concentrated in the Euphrates River Valley and the Sunni Triangle, particularly around Fallujah and Ramadi, and produced roughly 9,000 Iraqi and 1,335 American deaths. Al-Qaeda in Iraq established a significant operational presence in the governorate, and the campaign tested the capacity of U.S. forces and Iraqi security forces to contest and hold urban and rural terrain against a determined Sunni insurgency. The eventual shift in the campaign's trajectory was linked to the emergence of local Sunni tribal opposition to AQI, most prominently associated with figures such as Abdul Sattar Abu Risha, which altered the political landscape of the province and contributed to the broader reduction in insurgent activity that marked the post-2007 period.

Tactics

Forces & casualties

Commanders (33)