Iraq Control of Terrain Map: April 21, 2016 Iraqi Kurdish Map Legend KDP Peshmerga Control Zone Dahuk Populated areas under KDP Peshmerga control Rabia Mosul Dam PUK Peshmerga Control Zone Sinjar Qandil Populated areas under PUK Mosul Arbil Peshmerga control Tal Afar Gwer Iraqi Kurdistan regions under Makhmur Peshmerga control Qayarrah Populated areas under PKK/YPG control Kirkuk Suleimaniyah Sharqat Hawija Populated areas under KDP Peshmerga/PKK/YPG control Baiji Populated areas under ISF control Tuz Khurmato with KDP Peshmerga and Sunni Camp Speicher Tikrit tribal ghters PUK Peshmerga-held location Khanaqin KDP Peshmerga-held location Samarra Qaim Haditha Joint ISF-KDP Peshmerga-held location Baghdadi Muqdadiyah Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) Balad Base Headquarters Site Asad Base Camp Taji Baqubah Hit Mixed PUK Peshmerga-Militia Waleed Balad Ruz Controlled Location Ramadi Rutba Fallujah Mixed KDP Peshmerga/ PKK/YPG- Taqadum Base Baghdad held location Trebil Jurf al-Sakhr al-Kut Karbala al-Hillah Nukhaib al-Diwaniyah al-Najaf al-Amarah al-Samawah al-Nasriyah Basra Iraq Map Legend ISF Control Zone ISF and heavy presence of Iraqi Shi’a militias Joint ISF - Sunni Tribal Fighters Control Zone Populated areas under ISF control ISIS Control Zone ISF-held location ISIS-held location 100km Content: Emily Anagnostos and ISW Iraq Team ISF-held military base Graphics: Emily Anagnostos ©2016 by the Institute for the Study of War e Iraqi Security Forces (ISF) and tribal ghters with Coalition air support recaptured Hit District on April 14 as part of an ongoing operation to remove ISIS from the Euphrates River Valley. Security forces began operations to connect Ramadi to Hit District on March 12 and quickly recaptured Kubaisah, west of Hit, on March 25. From there, the ISF attacked Hit from the north and west, breaching the center of Hit on April 7 and securing the district on April 14. e ISF will now work to connect Hit with al-Baghdadi Sub-District, north of Hit, along the Euphrates River by securing control over the remainder of the Haditha-Baghdad highway. Doing so will grant the ISF control over the Euphrates River Valley from Haditha to Ramadi. ISW is thus changing the Hit District and the terrain between Hit and Ramadi from ISIS control to ISF control. e Joint Operations Command, largely driven by Iranian proxy militias, launched a three-day oensive on March 1 to clear the Samarra desert from as far south as Lake ar ar and north towards Tikrit. e oensive concluded on March 3. Despite the diculty of controlling desert terrain, the area has not witnessed ISIS attacks since the oensive. As such, ISW is changing key roadways from contested to ISF- and militia-controlled terrain, though ISW cannot assess with condence if villages in the Jazeera Desert west of Samarra are under ISF and militia control. ese areas thus remain contested. Popular Mobilization forces continue to clash with ISIS in the Makhoul Mountains, north of Baiji. Popular Mobilization eorts have eectively cost ISIS its unilateral control in the area, though Iraqi Shi’a militias have not succeeded in securing uncontested control over any territory north of Baiji. erefore, ISW is changing the area from ISIS-held to contested terrain. .