It played a part in the defeat of Al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) in Al Anbar Governorate in 2007.

In accordance with the standards of training Iraqi forces the division's brigades or battalions will be committed at all times in other units.

[citation needed] This was tested by detaching units of the 7th Division south of Baghdad in early of 2008.

On 21 December 2013, Major General Mohammed al-Karawi, the Commander of the division, was killed during a security operation in Rutbah against al-Qaeda training camps.

[5] Throughout late 2014 and early 2015, some 320 US advisers trained the troops of the 7th Division, which occasionally engaged in skirmishes with militants of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).