How Syria and Iraq’s Borders Evolved
The Islamic State in Iraq and Syria is trying to establish its own Sunni state across borders that have their origins in the Ottoman Empire and post World War I diplomacy.
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Sources: Rand, McNally & Co. World Atlas (1911 Ottoman Empire map); United Kingdom National Archives (Sykes-Picot); Dr. M. Izady, Columbia University’s
Gulf 2000 project (religious and ethnic map)
- Ottoman Empire
- Sykes-Picot Agreement
- Current Boundaries
Ottoman provincial borders
Current borders
Ada
Sykes-Picot
Current borders
Turkey
French Contr
Shiite
Sunni
Shiite/Sunni mixed
Other religions
Kurdish
Turkey
Aleppo
Nicosia
Iran
Syria
Lebanon
Beirut
Damascus
Iraq
Baghdad
Tel Aviv
Amman
Jerusalem
Israel
Jordan
Saudi Arabia
Kuwait
Kuwait
Ottoman Empire
Before WWI, the Middle East was divided into several administrative provinces under the Ottoman Empire. Modern Iraq is roughly made up of the Ottoman provinces of Mosul, Baghdad, and Basra.
Which Cities Does ISIS Control?
Updated June 26
Having occupied crucial sections of Syria over the past year and more recently seizing vast areas of Iraq, the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria controls territory greater than many countries and now rivals Al Qaeda as the world’s most powerful jihadist group. The group seized Iraq’s second largest city, Mosul, on June 10.
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Deir al-ZourRaqqahQaimWaleedAnaHadithaHitRawaFallujaSaadiyahHawijaMosulRamadiBaijiTikritHasakahSamarraKirkukBaqubaTal AfarAzazJalawlaRutbaTrebilIraqSyriaJordanTurkeyIranKuwaitDamascusBaghdadAleppoHamaHomsErbilBasraKarbalaNajaf
ISIS control of cities
Partial or complete
Contested
Attacks since Mosul
Sources:
Caerus Associates,
Long War Journal,
Institute for the Study of War
Iraqi Government Loses Control of All Western Border Crossings
Updated June 24
Beginning on Friday and in a rapid succession, ISIS fighters captured the western border crossings at Qaim, Waleed and Trebil.
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Key Border crossing Crossing controlled by ISIS
TO DAMASCUS
TO ALEPPO
TURKEY
Tanf
Controlled by
Syrian government
SYRIA
Euphrates
River
JORDAN
Yaroubia
Syrian
Kurdish
forces
Karamah
Jordanian
Army
SYRIAN
DESERT
Waleed
ISIS
Trebil
ISIS
Bukamal
ISIS
WESTERN
BORDER
OF IRAQ
Rabia
Iraqi Kurdish
pesh merga
Area of
detail
Qaim
ISIS
SYRIA
iraq
NORTH
IRAQ
JORDAN
30 MILES
TO BAGHDAD
Syria and
Jordan
Karamah
Control Jordanian Army
The Jordanian army has increased security at the crossing, which remains open, but with little traffic.
Tanf
Control Syrian government
Bukamal
ControlISIS
Seized June 25
A local agreement between ISIS and the Nusra Front on June 25 effectively placed Bukamal under ISIS control, removing any barriers to their movement at this crossing.
Yaroubia
Control Syrian Kurdish forces
Seized October 2013
This side is controlled by Syrian Kurdish forces affiliated with a party that is engaged in a power struggle with Iraqi Kurdish leaders.
Iraq
Trebil
Control ISIS
Seized June 22
ISIS took this crossing after Iraqi forces fled.
Waleed
Control ISIS
Seized June 22
ISIS took this crossing after Iraqi forces fled. Frightened police officers, reached by telephone, said that the army had already left and that the police scattered when militants arrived.
Qaim
Control ISIS
Seized June 20
On Friday, ISIS took control of the municipal council, customs office, border crossing and Iraqi police station, increasing its already significant presence on the main route between Baghdad and Aleppo. The Iraqi government said it abandoned the crossing in a strategic move to concentrate forces in Baghdad.
Rabia
Control Iraqi Kurdish pesh merga
Seized June 10
Kurdish pesh merga forces secured this crossing on June 10 immediately following the fall of Mosul.
Sources:
Caerus Associates,
Long War Journal,
Institute for the Study of War
Consequences of Sectarian Violence on Baghdad’s Neighborhoods
Published June 20
Baghdad became highly segregated in the years after the American-led invasion of Iraq. The city’s many mixed neighborhoods hardened into enclaves along religious and ethnic divisions. These maps, based on the work of Michael Izady for Columbia University’s Gulf 2000 project, show how the city divided from 2003 to 2009.
Key Sunni majority Shiite majority Christian majority Mixed areas
2003
Sadr
City
Kadhimiya
Adhamiya
BAGHDAD
Green Zone
Baghdad
Airport
Tigris River
2 miles
2009
Adhamiya
Huriya
BAGHDAD
Green Zone
Amiriya
Baghdad
Airport
Tigris River
2 miles
2003: Before the Invasion
Before the American invasion, Baghdad’s major sectarian groups lived mostly side by side in mixed neighborhoods. The city’s Shiite and Sunni populations were roughly equal, according to Juan Cole, a University of Michigan professor and Middle East expert.
2009: Violence Fuels Segregation
Sectarian violence exploded in 2006. Families living in areas where another sect was predominant were threatened with violence if they did not move. By 2009 Shiites were a majority, with Sunnis reduced to about 10 percent to 15 percent of the population.
•
Kadhimiya, a historically Shiite neighborhood, is home to a sacred Shiite shrine.
•
Adhamiya, a historically Sunni neighborhood, contains the Abu Hanifa Mosque, a Sunni landmark.
• The
Green Zone became the heavily fortified center of American operations during the occupation.
•
Sadr City was the center of the insurgent Mahdi Army, led by the Shiite cleric Moktada al-Sadr.
•
Huriya was transformed in 2006 when the Mahdi Army pushed out hundreds of families in a brutal spasm of sectarian cleansing.
• More than 8,000 displaced families relocated to
Amiriya, the neighborhood where the Sunni Awakening began in Baghdad.
•
Adhamiya, a Sunni island in Shiite east Baghdad, was walled and restricted along with other neighborhoods in 2007 for security.
• Neighborhoods
east of the Tigris River are generally more densely populated than areas to the west.
Source: Dr. M. Izady, Columbia University’s
Gulf 2000 project
Battle for the Baiji Oil Refinery
Published Jun 19
Witnesses reported that Sunni extremists seized Iraq’s largest oil refinery on June 18 after fighting the Iraqi Army for a week, but officials
disputed the reports and the situation remains unclear. Workers were evacuated, and the facility, which provides oil for domestic consumption to 11 Iraqi provinces, including Baghdad, was shut down.
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Source: Satellite image by NASA
ABOUT 100
MILES TO
MOSUL
ABOUT 50 MILES
TO KIRKUK
Power
plant
1
Tigris
River
Oil refinery
Employee
dormitories
Village
Employee
village
Village
Smoke plume
at 10:30 a.m.
Wednesday.
Baiji
ABOUT 115 MILES
TO BAGHDAD
1 MILE
Encroaching on Baghdad
Published June 18
Since seizing Mosul on June 10, the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria has been attacking towns along the main highway heading south, coming closer and closer to the capital.
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Sources:
Institute for the Study of War,
Long War Journal
Key
Towns attacked
Bomb attacks
ABOUT 140 MILES
TO MOSUL
Miles from
Central Baghdad
ABOUT 80 MILES
TO KIRKUK
70
Adhaim
June 15
Samarra
JUNE 11, 13, 17
60
Al-Mutasim
JUNE 14
Dhuluiya
JUNE 12
50
Ishaqi
Muqdadiya
The Iraqi army retook control of
Ishaqi and
Muqdadiya on June 14. In Muqdadiya, a Shiite militia assisted the government forces.
40
Dujail
JUNE 14
30
Militants took control of several neighborhoods in
Baquba on June 16 but were repulsed by security officers after a three-hour gun battle.
Baquba
June 16, 17
Tarmiyah
JUNE 11
20
Falluja and many towns in the western province of Anbar have been under ISIS control for about six months.
Tigris
River
10
At least five bomb attacks occurred in
Baghdad, mainly in Shiite areas, in the week after the rebel group took Mosul.
Sadr City
Kadhimiya
Falluja
Bab al-Sheikh
Al-Bab Al-Sharqi
Baghdad
Saidiyah
Ten Years of ISIS Attacks in Iraq
Published June 15
The Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, the Sunni militant group that staged a stunning operation to seize Iraq’s second largest city, has been fueling sectarian violence in the region for years.
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100
80
60
Attacks That Could Be Attributed to ISIS
40
20
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
Mosul
Kirkuk
Baghdad
IRAQ
Basra
2004
51 attacks
2005
58 attacks
2006
5 attacks
2007
56 attacks
2008
62 attacks
2009
78 attacks
2010
86 attacks
2011
34 attacks
2012
603 attacks
2013
419 attacks
2004-05 The group emerges as “Al Qaeda in Iraq” following the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. Its goal is to provoke a civil war. 2006-07 The group’s February 2006 bombing of one of Iraq's most revered Shiite shrines
ignites sectarian violence across the country. After merging with several other Sunni insurgent groups, it changes its name to the Islamic State of Iraq. 2008-10 I.S.I. claims responsibility for more than 200 attacks, many in densely-populated areas around Baghdad. 2011-12 The group is relatively quiet for most of 2011, but re-emerges after American troops withdraw from Iraq. 2013 Seeing new opportunities for growth, I.S.I. enters Syria’s civil war and changes its name to reflect a new aim of establishing an Islamic religious state spanning Iraq and Syria. Its success in Syria
bleeds over the border to Iraq.
Note: Before 2011, less information was available on who was responsible for attacks, so the number of ISIS attacks from 2004 to 2010 may be undercounted.
Sources: Global Terrorism Database, National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (attack data); Congressional Research Service; Council on Foreign Relations; Long War Journal; Institute for the Study of War
A Week of Rapid Advances After Taking Mosul
Updated June 14
After sweeping across the porous border from Syria to overrun Mosul, insurgents aligned with the jihadist Islamic State in Iraq and Syria continued to press south down the main north-south highway toward Baghdad.
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Mosul
Area of
detail
Tikrit
June 13
June 10
Mosul captured
Baghdad
Iraq
Jalawla
Kirkuk
Sadiyah
June 11
Tikrit
captured
Basra
June 12
Dhuluiya captured
June 11-12
Samarra
Tigris R.
About 110 miles
Attacks in
the days after
Mosul captured
30
June 11
Parts of Baiji
captured
20
30
Baghdad
Ishaki Dujail
June 14
Taji
Lake Tharthar
Falluja
Ramadi
Euphrates R.
After capturing
Mosul,
Tikrit and parts of a refinery in
Baiji, insurgents attacked
Samarra, where Shiite militias helped pro-government forces. Then, they seized
Jalawla and
Sadiyah but were forced back by government troops backed by Kurdish forces. They continued their moves south by
Ishaki and
Dujail.
What the Militants Want: A Caliphate Across Syria and Iraq
Published June 13
The Islamic State in Iraq and Syria has vowed to establish a caliphate — a unified Islamic government ruled by a caliph, someone considered to be a successor to Muhammad’s political authority — stretching from western Syria across Iraq to the eastern border with Iran. This map shows the boundaries envisioned by ISIS.
Source: “The Islamic State in Iraq Returns to Diyala” by Jessica Lewis, Institute for the Study of War
turkey
Hasakah
Mosul
Erbil
Aleppo
Raqqa
Kirkuk
Deir al-Zour
iran
Baiji
syria
Tikrit
Homs
Jalawla
lebanon
Samarra
Dhuluiya
Damascus
iraq
Baghdad
israel
saudi
arabia
jordan
kuwait
)
