Fallujah

Overview

Fallujah is a city in Iraq’s Anbar Province, roughly 54 kilometers west of Baghdad. Its proximity to the capital made control of the city important during successive phases of the Iraq War and the later campaign against the Islamic State. U.S. Marines retook Fallujah from armed groups in late 2004 after destructive fighting. Three years later, cooperation among Anbar tribes, U.S. forces and Iraqi forces sharply reduced attacks around the city. Islamic State fighters seized Fallujah in early 2014, making it the first major city to fall to the organization. Iraqi security forces liberated it in June 2016 with coalition air support and assistance from local fighters and militias.

Fallujah’s history during these conflicts includes repeated changes in armed control, extensive damage and severe civilian hardship. The city served as a base for Al-Qaeda in Iraq and later for the Islamic State, which used it to mount attacks toward Baghdad. Its recapture in 2016 removed an important Islamic State position near the capital and preceded Iraq’s campaign for Mosul. Liberation required more than taking government buildings: Iraqi forces still faced fighters, improvised explosive devices and booby traps, while displaced residents needed safe conditions in which to return. [1][2][8]

Geography

Fallujah lies in Sunni Anbar Province, west of Baghdad. Sources describing the 2016 campaign place it about 30 to 33 miles, or roughly 54 kilometers, from the capital. That short distance gave armed groups based in the city a means of threatening Baghdad and made Fallujah a priority for Iraqi security planning. Operations around the city involved both its urban districts and surrounding countryside; control of approaches outside Fallujah mattered before Iraqi forces could enter its center. [1][2][5]

The city’s location also connected its battles to the wider struggle for Anbar. When Islamic State fighters took Fallujah in early 2014, Iraqi forces were simultaneously trying to prevent the group from taking nearby Ramadi. In 2016, forces advancing on Fallujah first tightened the siege and secured rural areas around it. The campaign then moved through southern approaches into built-up neighborhoods, where explosives, tunnels and attacks by suicide bombers slowed progress. [2][6][7]

Modern history

U.S. forces entered Fallujah in 2003 during the Iraq War. The city subsequently became a headquarters for armed groups operating west of Baghdad, including Al-Qaeda in Iraq and its leader, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. By late 2004, Fallujah was among the war’s most heavily contested urban centers. Many of its approximately 350,000 residents fled ahead of the U.S. operation that year. U.S. Marines retook the city through destructive block-by-block fighting, after which American forces continued operations against armed groups while preparing for Iraqi government control. [3][9]

The 2004 battle caused extensive damage to Fallujah’s buildings and civic life. One account estimated that about 10,000 of the city’s 50,000 buildings were destroyed. Fallujah had still not been fully rebuilt when another siege damaged it in 2016. Its destruction became a subject of public argument about the Iraq War, including protests against the U.S. offensive. Those arguments did not alter the immediate military result: the Marines retook the city, but holding it and establishing durable Iraqi government authority remained longer tasks. [3][9][10]

Fallujah also affected interpretation of wartime mortality research. A 2004 survey recorded 51 of its 72 reported violent deaths in Fallujah, where the heaviest sustained fighting covered by the study had occurred. The study’s central estimate of about 100,000 post-invasion deaths nationwide excluded Fallujah. With Fallujah excluded, its estimated post-invasion death rate was 1.5 times the pre-invasion level. These figures describe the survey and its treatment of an exceptionally violent location; they are not a count of all deaths in the city. [12]

Violence continued after the 2004 operation. Al-Qaeda in Iraq exploited Sunni Arab grievances over exclusion from Iraqi institutions and attacks by Shiite militias. On March 28, 2007, its fighters attacked Fallujah’s government center with mortar fire and machine guns, followed by truck bombs and men wearing suicide vests. One truck bomb carried chlorine, which burned people’s lungs. Marines and Iraqi police defended the compound. The coordinated attack showed that Al-Qaeda in Iraq could still mount a complex operation even as its local position weakened. [4]

The change in that position formed part of the 2007 Anbar Awakening. U.S. and Iraqi forces worked with Anbar tribes to weaken Al-Qaeda in Iraq around Fallujah. Local cooperation helped turn residents and tribal networks against the organization and strengthened efforts to secure the city. Security incidents in Fallujah and its surrounding countryside fell from roughly 750 in March 2007 to just over 80 in October. By late 2007, Al-Qaeda in Iraq members were fleeing the area or seeking reintegration with the Iraqi government. The decline marked a substantial improvement in security, though it did not end attacks. [3][4]

One such attack took place on August 27, 2007, when a suicide bomber killed an imam who had publicly criticized Al-Qaeda, along with at least eight other people, at a Fallujah mosque. The killing illustrated the danger faced by local figures who opposed the organization. The Awakening’s gains depended on continuing cooperation among tribes, Iraqi institutions and security forces, as well as protection for people willing to challenge armed groups publicly. [3][4]

The Islamic State emerged from the jihadist networks that had fought in Iraq. Its seizure of Fallujah began in late December 2013, and its fighters took the city in January 2014. Fallujah was the first major city to fall to the organization, about six months before it declared a caliphate. Its capture accelerated the deterioration of Iraqi security forces before Mosul fell and gave the group a base for repeated attacks on Baghdad. The loss also reversed a prominent security gain associated with the Anbar Awakening. [2][8][11][15]

Taking Fallujah brought the Islamic State closer to Baghdad and increased the threat to the capital. It did not mean that Baghdad was poised to collapse in the manner Mosul later did. Baghdad was much larger, had a predominantly Shia population and contained a concentration of regular security forces and mobilized militias. Mosul’s local and military conditions differed. Iraqi authorities nevertheless faced an urgent need to contain Islamic State forces near the capital while dealing with the group’s advances elsewhere. [2][15]

Iraqi forces did not immediately retake Fallujah. In early 2014, they focused on preventing an Islamic State takeover of Ramadi, while planners considered an unprepared assault on Fallujah too risky. Iraqi security forces and Shiite elements of the Popular Mobilization Forces later maintained a prolonged, inconclusive siege. When Iraq opened its May 2016 campaign, the Islamic State had controlled Fallujah for 29 months. [2]

Security

Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi announced the offensive to retake Fallujah on May 22, 2016. A report that month put the Iraqi force attacking the city at about 33,000 soldiers, supported by Shiite militias and Sunni tribesmen. Iraqi security forces led the campaign, with counterterrorism units carrying the main urban combat role. Sunni and Shiite fighters supported the effort, while American-led coalition aircraft struck Islamic State targets around Fallujah. Securing the city was important both for Anbar and for reducing attacks launched toward Baghdad. [1][2][5]

The offensive followed months of siege. Roughly 70,000 civilians remained inside Fallujah, whether by choice or because they feared attempting to escape. Food and medicine shortages caused preventable illness and death. Many residents faced danger from both the fighting and the Islamic State’s control of the city. Islamic State forces used trapped civilians as human shields, complicating Iraqi advances and increasing the risks of air and ground operations in populated districts. Fallujah’s incomplete recovery from the 2004 battles compounded the damage inflicted during the new campaign. [1][2][7]

After Iraqi forces secured countryside around Fallujah and tightened the siege, counterterrorism forces entered its southern outskirts on May 30. Their advance met fierce resistance. Islamic State fighters used tunnels, suicide bombers, car bombs and improvised explosive devices; explosives planted throughout the city slowed movement toward the center. The Iraqi Army took a gas plant south of Fallujah in early June, while coalition aircraft continued striking Islamic State positions in support of ground forces. Progress around the city did not immediately translate into control of its streets. [6][7]

Shiite militias supported and directed by the Iranian regime participated in the campaign. Qasem Soleimani, commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ Quds Force, was present in the Fallujah area. Iranian publicity gave Soleimani and Iranian-directed militias greater prominence than their battlefield role warranted. Shiite militia units helped besiege the city, while Iraqi counterterrorism forces led the main assault. Concern about reprisals against Fallujah’s Sunni residents constrained militia entry into the city. [2][5]

Iraqi forces took Fallujah’s center and government buildings on June 17. On June 25, they captured al-Julan, the Islamic State’s last stronghold in the city. Al-Abadi declared Fallujah liberated on June 26. The victory ended the organization’s control of a major city close to Baghdad and allowed Iraqi forces to turn toward its stronghold in Mosul. Outside Fallujah, U.S.-led airstrikes on June 29 killed an estimated 250 Islamic State fighters fleeing the area. [1][8][13]

The liberation declaration did not end security operations. Iraqi forces still had to clear Islamic State operatives, improvised explosive devices and booby traps from Fallujah and its surroundings. Buildings, roads and other spaces used during the battle posed risks to both security personnel and returning civilians. Preventing sectarian reprisals against Sunni residents was also necessary for stable government control. A military victory could open the way for recovery, but safe return depended on continued security and reconstruction. [1][2]

Fallujah’s experience illustrates the limits of treating territorial control as a single event. The Marines’ 2004 victory required years of subsequent fighting and political work; the 2007 reduction in attacks depended on local tribal cooperation; and the 2016 liberation left explosives and damaged infrastructure behind. In each period, the city’s security was tied to the ability of Iraqi institutions and local residents to resist armed groups after major combat ended. [1][3][4]

Present day

The aftermath of the 2016 battle centered on clearing explosives, rebuilding neighborhoods, returning displaced residents and protecting local Sunnis from reprisals. These tasks were essential to making Iraqi government control durable. They followed two major battles that had damaged the same city within little more than a decade, alongside years of insurgent activity and siege. Fallujah’s recovery therefore involved civilian safety and public confidence as well as the removal of Islamic State fighters. [1][2]

The Islamic State’s loss of Fallujah was part of a wider reversal in Iraq. By the end of 2016, it had lost several important Anbar cities, including Ramadi and Fallujah, while Iraqi security forces with coalition air support had begun a broad offensive toward Mosul. The organization’s defeat in Fallujah removed a base from which it had repeatedly threatened Baghdad, but its personnel and networks remained a security concern. In 2021, Ali al-Jamili, its former commander for the Fallujah area, was among those detained in Sulaymaniyah Province. [1][13]