The al-Anbar Campaign was a counterinsurgency campaign waged by the Iraqi government and US and British-led MNF-W Coalition forces in Anbar Governorate from 2003 to 2011 during the Iraq War. The majority of the fighting in Anbar occurred from April 2004 to September 2007 as insurgents from Anbar's Sunni Arab majority intensified their war against the Shia-dominated Iraqi government and its Western allies. The campaign left over 1,300 Coalition troops dead, while, in 2005-2006 alone, over 5,000 insurgents were killed and over 10,000 detained.
History[]
Anbar Governorate was historically Iraq's only Sunni Arab-dominated province, and, while it provided little resistance to the 2003 United States-led Invasion of Iraq, it became a center of the Iraqi insurgency. The US 82nd Airborne Division was deployed to Anbar following the invasion, and, on 28 April 2003, the first outbreak of violence occurred when 18 Iraqis were killed during an anti-American demonstration in Fallujah. In early 2004, the US Army turned over the occupation of Anbar to the US Marine Corps, and, by April 2004, the province was in full-scale revolt against the US-installed Iraqi government and its Coalition allies. By the end of 2004, Fallujah and Ramadi had seen heavy fighting, most notably the bloody Second Battle of Fallujah. Violence escalated throughout 2005 and 2006 as both the security forces and Iraqi insurgents struggled to secure the Western Euphrates River Valley, and al-Qaeda in Iraq emerged as the governorate's main Sunni insurgent group and turned the provincial capital of Ramadi into its stronghold. In late 2006, following the Battle of Ramadi, the USMC issued the "Devlin report", declaring that the governorate would be lost without a significant additional commitment of troops.
Starting in August 2006, the United States began to work with the local Sunni Arab tribal leaders to form "Awakening Councils" to fight back against the insurgency. The tribes revolted against AQI, depriving al-Qaeda of its support base. While the Anbar Awakening movement's successes increased in 2007, President George W. Bush ordered a "troop surge" to Iraq, leading to the recapture of Ramadi in early 2007 and the recapture of other cities such as Hit, Haditha, and ar-Rutbah. However, the summer of 2007 saw heavy fighting in the western river valley, which had been used by al-Qaeda foreign fighters as an infiltration route into Iraq. In June 2007, the Americans secured the cities of Fallujah and al-Karmah, and the fighting was mostly over by September. That same month, President Bush visited Anbar to congratulate the Coalition and Sunni Awakening forces on their victory. A few days later, however, al-Qaeda assassinated the Awakening Council leader Abdul Sattar Abu Risha in a suicide bombing, displaying that they had not yet been defeated. In September 2008, Coalition forces handed over political authority to the Iraqi government, followed by military control in June 2009. In January 2010, the Marines were replaced by the US Army, and the last Army combat units withdrew by August 2010, leaving behind advisory and support units. The last US forces left Anbar Governorate on 7 December 2011.