Al Anbar Governorate in the context of "Governorates of Iraq"

Hit or Heet (Arabic: هيت, Hīt) is a city in Al Anbar Governorate of Iraq. Situated on the banks of the Euphrates River, it lies northwest of Ramadi, the provincial capital. The city is administrative capital for Hit District. A major city in the central region, it has a population over 100,000.

Straddling the Euphrates, the city of Hit was originally a small walled town surrounded by a halt moat and built on two mounds on the site of the ancient city of Is. In ancient times, the town was known for its bitumen wells; bitumen from the wells was used in the construction of Babylon over 3000 years ago, and for tasks such as caulking boats. Hit also became a frontier fortress for Assyria. Now, Hit is a marketplace for agricultural produce. Oil pipelines to the Mediterranean Sea cross the Euphrates there. It was regarded as the head of navigation on the river before the decline in river traffic.

The 2017 Western Iraq campaign was the final major military operation of the 2013–2017 war in Iraq, in the western province of Anbar, and on the border with Syria, with the goal of completely expelling IS forces from their last strongholds in Iraq.

The offensive followed the Hawija offensive by the Iraqi Government, and was also concurrent with several major offensives in Syria: the Syrian Democratic Forces' Deir ez-Zor offensive, and the Syrian Government's Battle of Deir ez-Zor and Eastern Syria campaign on the opposite side of the Al-Qa'im border crossing.

Fallujah (Arabic: ٱلْفَلُّوجَة al-Fallūjah [el.fɐl.ˈluː.dʒɐ]) is a city in Al Anbar Governorate, Iraq. Situated on the Euphrates River, it is located roughly 69 kilometres (43 mi) to the west of the capital city of Baghdad and 50 kilometres (31 mi) from the neighboring city of Ramadi. The city is located in the region defined as Sunni Triangle by the United States, as the majority of its residents are Sunni Arabs. In 1947, Fallujah was a small town with a relatively small population but had grown to a population of about 250,900 people by 2018.

Following the 2003 invasion of Iraq, which triggered the Iraq War, the city became a major centre of resistance during insurgency. The United States, the United Kingdom, and the Iraqi Interim Government twice engaged in fierce urban combat with insurgents throughout the city; the first battle of Fallujah failed to dislodge the insurgents, triggering the second battle, in which the coalition forces successfully took control of the city. However, heavy fighting from these two battles left the city severely damaged, though it remained occupied by the coalition until 2011. In January 2014, three years after the American withdrawal from Iraq, Fallujah was captured by the Islamic State (IS) and suffered a major population decline. On 23 May 2016, the government announced the beginning of a large-scale military offensive against the IS militants occupying the city, resulting in the Third Battle of Fallujah. On 26 June 2016, the Iraqi Armed Forces stated that Fallujah had been fully liberated and was free from militant control.

Al-Asad Airbase (IATA: IQA, ICAO: ORAA) is an Iraqi airbase located in al-Anbar Governorate of western Iraq. It was originally known as Qadisiyah Airbase.

It was the second-largest US military airbase in Iraq during Operation Iraqi Freedom. Until January 2010, it was the home of the II Marine Expeditionary Force/Multi-National Force West. Other major tenants have included the 3rd ID's 4th IBCT, 82nd Airborne Division Advise & Assist Brigade, 332nd Medical Brigade, 321st Sustainment Brigade, Vertical Onboard Delivery Detachment-1 (VOD-1), VAQ-141, Navy Customs Battalion Juliet, elements of the Iraqi Army's 7th Division, and the United States Air Force (USAF).

Sunni Islam in Iraq (Arabic: الإسلام السني في العراق) is the second-largest sect of Islam in Iraq after Shia Islam. The majority of Iraqi Sunni Muslims are Arabs with the second largest being Kurds. Iraqi Sunni Muslims mainly inhabit the western and northern half of Iraq. Sunni Arabs primarily inhabit the Sunni Triangle, Upper Mesopotamia and the desert areas, such as Al-Anbar Governorate in the Arabian Desert and Syrian Desert. The Sunni Kurds inhabit the mountainous Iraqi Kurdistan region.

In 2003, the United States-based Institute of Peace estimated that around 95% of the total population of Iraq were Muslim, of which Sunnis made up around 40%. A CIA World Factbook report from 2015 estimates that 29–34% of the population of Iraq is Sunni Muslim. According to a 2011 survey by Pew Research, 42% of Iraqi Muslims are Sunni. There were about 9 million Sunni Arabs, 4 million Sunni Kurds and approximately 1.5 million Sunni Turkmens in Iraq (approximately 39%), according to a report published in 2015.

Ramadi (Arabic: ٱلرَّمَادِي Ar-Ramādī; IPA: [r.ra.maː.diː]; also formerly rendered as Rumadiyah or Rumadiya) is a city in central Iraq, about 110 kilometers (68 mi) west of Baghdad and 50 kilometers (31 mi) west of Fallujah. It is the capital and largest city of Al Anbar Governorate which shares borders with Syria, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia. The city extends along the Euphrates which bisects Al Anbar. Founded in 1879, it was one of the towns established during the later period of Ottoman Iraq. By 2018 it had about 223,500 residents, near all of whom Sunni Arabs from the Dulaim tribal confederation. It lies in the Sunni Triangle of western Iraq.

Ramadi occupies a highly strategic site on the Euphrates and the road west into Syria and Jordan. This has made it a hub for trade and traffic, from which the city gained significant prosperity. Its position has meant that it has been fought over several times, during the two World Wars and again during the Iraq War and Iraqi insurgency. It was heavily damaged during the Iraq War, when it was a major focus for the insurgency against occupying United States forces. Following the withdrawal of US forces from Iraq in 2011, the city was contested by the Iraqi government and the extremist group Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and fell to ISIL in May 2015. On 28 December 2015, the Iraqi government declared, confirming media testimonies, that it had re-taken Ramadi, that government's first major military victory since its loss.

Hīt (Arabic: قضاء هيت) is a district in Al Anbar Governorate, Iraq. It is centered on the city of Hīt, this district has between 75,000 and 90,000 inhabitants.

Beginning in December 2012, Sunnis in Iraq protested against the Maliki government. On 28 December 2013, a Sunni MP named Ahmed al-Alwani was arrested in a raid on his home in Ramadi. Alwani was a prominent supporter of the anti-government protests. This incident led to violence in Al Anbar Governorate between the Iraqi Army and a loose alliance of tribal militias and other groups fighting alongside the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).

In January 2014, the anti-government forces took control of Fallujah, and there was heavy fighting in Ramadi. In March the Iraqi army secured Ramadi and attempted to regain Fallujah. In June, ISIL launched a major offensive in Anbar in conjunction with their assault on northern Iraq. By 23 June, they controlled at least 70% of Anbar.

Ramadi, the capital of Iraq's Al Anbar Governorate, was under U.S. military occupation during the Iraq War. It was a focal point of Iraqi insurgency, which erupted into open armed conflict in 2004 and in 2006, part of the Iraq War in Anbar Province. Operation Murfreesboro was a U.S. offensive in February 2007 intended to cut off the Ma'Laab district of eastern Ramadi from the rest of the town in order to drive out Zarqawi's Al-Qaeda in Iraq.

To the north and west, Ramadi is bounded by the Euphrates River, while to the east and south it gradually disappears into suburbs. Ramadi is also the location of the Ramadi Barrage, which diverts water from the Euphrates River into Lake Habbaniyah.

Abu Kamal (Arabic: أَبُو كَمَال, romanized: ʾAbū Kamāl), also known as Al-Bukamal (Arabic: ٱلْبُوكَمَال, romanized: al-Būkamāl), is a city in eastern Syria located on the Euphrates river in the Deir ez-Zor Governorate and near the border with Iraq. It is the administrative centre of the Abu Kamal District and the local subdistrict (Abu Kamal Subdistrict). Just to the south-east is the Al-Qa'im border crossing to the town of Husaybah in the Al-Qa'im District of Iraq's Al Anbar Governorate.

Suhum (Sūḫu, or Suhi) was an ancient geographic region around the middle course of the Euphrates River, in modern Al Anbar Governorate, Iraq.