Following the Iraqi forces' victory in Ramadi, here is a recap of key cities and towns in Iraq and Syria seized by ISIS or recaptured from them. IRAQ RAMADI: This Sunni Arab city 100 kilometers west of Baghdad is the capital of Anbar, the country's largest province, which stretches from the borders with Syria, Jordan and Saudi Arabia to just west of the capital. ISIS seized Ramadi in mid-May in an assault involving dozens of suicide bombers driving explosives-rigged vehicles. Iraqi troops retook Al-Tameem, a large area on the southwestern side of the city on Dec. 8 with support from U.S.-led airstrikes. They reached the city center on Dec. 22, and drove ISIS fighters from their last stronghold in a government complex on Dec. 27, effectively sealing victory. TIKRIT: Hometown of late Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein located 160 kilometers north of Baghdad. It was recaptured in April by Iraqi troops, police and Shiite-dominated paramilitaries. The operation, at that time the largest by Iraqi forces against ISIS, was helped by the fact that much of Tikrit's civilian population had fled the city. SINJAR: Iraqi Kurdish forces backed by coalition strikes recaptured Sinjar, 400 kilometers northwest of Baghdad, from ISIS on Nov. 13. That cut a key supply line to areas held by the militants in Iraq and Syria. Daesh captured Sinjar in August 2014 and carried out a brutal campaign against the Yazidi minority that included massacres, enslavement and rape. BEIJI: This Sunni Arab town around 200 kilometers north of Baghdad and a nearby refinery, Iraq's largest, were recaptured by Iraqi forces in mid-October. Beiji was the scene of some of the longest-running battles with ISIS in Iraq. It lies at a major crossroads and its recapture was seen as key to preparing the ground for offensives in Anbar and later Mosul. MOSUL: Iraq's second-biggest city and capital of Ninevah province, it is 350 kilometers north of Baghdad. ISIS captured it on June 10, 2014 and proclaimed it part of an Islamic "caliphate" that stretches into Syria. Two million people lived there before ISIS arrived, but hundreds of thousands have since left. ISIS still holds the city. SYRIA RAQQA: A northeastern city with 300,000 inhabitants, Raqqa has been ISIS's de facto Syrian capital since January 2014. It is a major target of U.S.-led coalition forces, and to a lesser extent, of strikes by Syrian and Russian forces. PALMYRA: This ancient Syrian city is 205 kilometers east of Damascus, and was taken by Daesh on May 21. The group has destroyed major archeological features there that were on UNESCO's list of World Heritage sites. AIN AL-ARAB: A Kurdish city in northern Syria on the Turkish border. It became a symbol of the fight against ISIS and marked the group's first serious setback since it began to advance in the country in 2013. ISIS fighters were driven out of Ain al-Arab, also known in Kurdish as Kobani, on Jan. 26 after more than four months of fierce fighting with Kurdish forces backed by U.S.-led airstrikes. The city is the capital of one of three semiautonomous "cantons" that were established by Kurds after the Syrian crisis began. TAL ABYAD: Another city on the Turkish border, it was captured by Kurds on June 16, dealing ISIS one of its most serious defeats to date. Tal Abyad had 130,000 inhabitants when the Syrian conflict began in 2011, and controls a key supply route between Turkey and Raqqa. ISIS fighters and arms regularly passed through the city before its recapture.
