Limited ISF gains Military of ISIL Major insurgent attacks Foreign interventions IS genocide of minorities IS war crimes Timeline The Al-Karmah offensive, codenamed Fajr al-Karma,[9] was an offensive launched by the Iraqi Army and anti-ISIL Sunni tribal fighters to recapture the Al-Karmah district taken by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant in Iraq.

Al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) became the province's main Sunni insurgent group, and turned the provincial capital of Ramadi into its stronghold.

[16] Part of its significance came from the fact that the western Euphrates River Valley served as an important infiltration route for foreign fighters headed to Iraq's heartland from Syria.

[17] By late June 2014, at least 70% of the Anbar Province was under ISIS control,[18] including the cities of Fallujah,[19][20] Al-Qa'im,[21] Abu Ghraib,[22] and half of Ramadi.

The Anbar offensive is a broad coalition of different fighting forces officially led by the government's Iraqi Security Forces (ISF)[24] They are assisted by Hashed al-Shaabi (or Popular Mobilisation Brigades), an Iraqi government-controlled umbrella group mainly composed of volunteer Shiite militias, but which also has incorporated hundreds of Sunni fighters.

[7] The offensive itself started on 14 April,[31] after ISIL launched an assault against Ramadi,[30] prompting 114,000 people to flee the region, according to UN officials.

[36] On 15 April, it was reported that ISIL had executed 300 more Sunni tribesmen in Anbar over the past few days,[37] as it captured three villages to the east of Ramadi.

[11] The Iraqi government offensive made little headway the first weeks[12] before they started making gains around the city of Al-Karmah, close to Fallujah, at the end of April.