Ramadi: Difference between revisions

|leader_name = Ibrahim alAl-AousejAwsaj

'''Ramadi''' ({{lang-langx|ar|ٱلرَّمَادِي}} ''Ar-Ramādī''; also formerly rendered as ''Rumadiyah'' or ''Rumadiya'') is a [[city]] in central [[Iraq]], about {{convert|110|km|mi|sp=us}} west of [[Baghdad]] and {{convert|50|km|mi|sp=us}} west of [[Fallujah]]. It is the capital and largest city of [[Al Anbar Governorate]] which touches on Syria, Jordan and Saudi Arabia. The city extends along the [[Euphrates]] andwhich isbisects theAl largest city in Al-Anbar. Founded by the [[Ottoman Empire]] in 1879, by 2018 it had a population of about 223,500 peopleresidents, near the entiretyall of whom are [[Sunni]] Arabs from the [[Dulaim]] tribal confederation. It lies withinin the [[Sunni Triangle]] of western Iraq.

Ramadi occupies a highly strategic locationsite on the Euphrates and the road west into [[Syria]] and [[Jordan]]. This has made it a hub for trade and traffic, from which the city gained significant prosperity. Its position has meant that it has been fought over several times, during the two World Wars and again during the [[Iraq War]] and [[Iraqi insurgency (2011–present)|Iraqi insurgency]]. It was heavily damaged during the Iraq War, when it was a major focus for the insurgency against occupying United States forces. Following the [[Withdrawal of United States troops from Iraq (2007–2011)|withdrawal of US forces]] from Iraq in 2011, the city was contested by the Iraqi government and the extremist group [[Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant]] (ISIL) and fell to ISIL in May 2015. On 28 December 2015, the Iraqi government declared, confirming media testimonies, that it had re-taken Ramadi from ISIL, that government's first major military victory since theits loss of Ramadi some seven months earlier.<ref>{{cite news|title=Iraqi Army Says It Has Retaken City Of Ramadi From ISIS|url=http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/iraqi-troops-close-in-on-islamic-state-stronghold-in-ramadi_567ebde7e4b0b958f6597daf|access-date=28 December 2015|agency=Reuters|publisher=Huffington Post|date=28 December 2015}}</ref>

Ramadi's population was reported by the [[World Food Programme]] to number 375,000 people in 2011,<ref name="citypopulation.de">{{Cite web|url=http://www.citypopulation.de/Iraq.html#Stadt-alpha|title = Iraq: Governorates, Districts, Cities, Towns - Population Statistics in Maps and Charts}}</ref> though the number is likely to have decreased since then given the impact of the Iraq war and insurgency.<ref name="Fitzsimmons">{{cite book|last=Fitzsimmons|first=Michael|title=Governance, Identity, and Counterinsurgency: Evidence from Ramadi and Tal Afar|url=http://www.strategicstudiesinstitute.army.mil/pubs/display.cfm?pubID=1150|year=2013|publisher=Institute of Strategic Studies|isbn=978-1-304-05185-1|page=21|edition=enlarged|access-date=19 May 2015|archive-date=21 May 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150521151107/http://www.strategicstudiesinstitute.army.mil/pubs/display.cfm?pubID=1150|url-status=dead}}</ref> Its population grew rapidly during the last half of the 20th century, from 12,020 people in 1956<ref>{{cite book|author=Government of Iraq Ministry of Economics Principal Bureau of Statistics|title=Report on the Housing Census of Iraq for 1956|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KRjRAAAAMAAJ|year=1957|publisher=Ar-Ranita Press|page=102}}</ref> to 192,556 in 1987.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.geohive.com/cntry/iraq.aspx|title=Iraq|publisher=Geohive (via Encyclopædia Britannica Book of the Year 1997 and 2004)|access-date=19 May 2015}}</ref> The population is very homogeneous, over 90 per cent [[Sunni]] [[Arab people|Arab]].<ref name="Fitzsimmons" /> The vast majority of its population come from the [[Dulaim]] tribal confederation, which inhabits Syria and Jordan as well as Iraq and has over a thousand individual clans, each headed by a sheik selected by tribal elders.<ref name="DiMarco2012" />

Ramadi is located in a fertile, irrigated, alluvial plain, within Iraq's [[Sunni Triangle]]. A settlement already existed in the area when the British explorer [[Francis Rawdon Chesney]] passed through in 1836 on a steam-powered boat during an expedition to test the navigability of the Euphrates. He described it as a "pretty little town" and noted that the black tents of the Bedouin could be seen along the both banks of the river all the way from Ramadi to FalujahFallujah.<ref name="Chesney1868">{{cite book|last=Chesney|first=Francis Rawdon|title=Narrative of the Euphrates Expedition: Carried on by Order of the British Government During the Years 1835, 1836, and 1837|url=https://archive.org/details/narrativeeuphra01chesgoog|year=1868|publisher=Longmans, Green, and Company|page=[https://archive.org/details/narrativeeuphra01chesgoog/page/n363 281]}}</ref> The modern city was founded in 1869 by [[Midhat Pasha]], the [[Ottoman Iraq|Ottoman]] Wali (Governor) of Baghdad. The Ottomans sought to control the previously nomadic Dulaim tribe in the region as part of a programme of settling the [[Bedouin]] tribes of Iraq through the use of land grants, in the belief that this would bind them more closely to the state and make them easier to control.<ref name="DiMarco2012">{{cite book|last=DiMarco|first=Louis A.|title=Concrete Hell: Urban Warfare From Stalingrad to Iraq|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZXPhzfF9yAgC|date=20 November 2012|publisher=Osprey Publishing|isbn=978-1-78200-313-7|page=190}}</ref><ref name="Abu-Rabia2001">{{cite book|last=Abu-Rabia|first=Aref|title=A Bedouin Century: Education and Development Among the Negev Tribes in the 20th Century|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kEJKW1IaynwC|year=2001|publisher=Berghahn Books|isbn=978-1-57181-832-4|page=148}}</ref>

[[File:PIC in Ramadi.jpg|thumb|[[Iraqi Police|Iraqi police]] review in front of the government headquarters in Ramadi, 2007]]The policy of [[de-Ba'athification]] and the disbandment of the Iraqi Army, implemented by the [[United States]] following the [[2003 invasion of Iraq]], hit Ramadi particularly hard because of its links to the party and the army. Many senior officials and military figures in the city suddenly found themselves excluded from public life. This gave them both the motivation and the means, given their connections and technical expertise, to mount a campaign of violence against coalition forces. As a result, Ramadi became a hotbed of insurgency between 2003 and 2006 and was badly affected by the [[Iraq War]] especially during the [[Battle of Ramadi (2006)|2006 Battle of Ramadi]].<ref name="Fitzsimmons23" />

Following the withdrawal of US and Coalition forces in 2011, Ramadi was contested by Iraq and the [[ISIS|Islamic State in Iraq and al-Sham]] (ISIS) during the ongoing [[Iraqi insurgency (2011–present)|Iraqi insurgency]]. On 15 May 2015 Ramadi was captured by [[ISIS]] after an assault that included suicide car bombs, mortars, and rocket launchers. CNN reported that ISIS took over 50 high-level security personnel prisoners during the assault. The ISIS flag was also raised at the Ramadi government headquarters.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.cnn.com/2015/05/15/middleeast/iraq-isis/index.html |title=ISIS on offensive in Iraq's Ramadi, governor says |authorfirst=Hamdi |last=Alkhshali, |first2=Yousuf |last2=Basil and |first3=Greg |last3=Botelho, CNN |date=15 May 2015 |work=CNN}}</ref> By 17 May 2015 Ramadi had been completely captured by ISIS forces.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://news.yahoo.com/dozens-dead-fighting-ancient-syrian-city-palmyra-082617643.html |title=IS jihadists take Ramadi but pinned back in Palmyra |date=17 May 2015 |work=Yahoo News}}</ref>

On 28 December 2015, Iraq's government claimed that it retook the city from the Islamic insurgency group ISIS. The operation started in early November. The city's recapture is seen as a major reversal for ISIS. ISIS occupied the city beginning in May 2015. The ISIS occupation of the city was a major defeat for the Iraqi government forces. The recapture of Ramadi was backed by [[United States|US]]-led coalition air strikes and an Iraqi advance into the city, but made slow progress, mainly due to stiff resistance from ISIS militants inside the southern half of the city and also because the government chose not to use the powerful Shia-dominated paramilitary force [[Popular Mobilization Forces|PMF]] that had previously helped it regain the mainly Sunni northern city of [[Tikrit]], to avoid increasing sectarian tensions. The military said remaining ISIS militants have headed out to the north-east of Ramadi. The PM of Iraq declared that 30 December as celebrations of the recapture of Ramadi. However, Ramadi was highly damaged afterwards, with some estimates as high as 90%.

|Jan high C = 15.01

|Feb high C = 18.23

|Mar high C = 2224.92

|Apr high C = 2829.89

|May high C = 3536.91

|Jun high C = 40.79

|Jul high C = 43.35

|Aug high C = 4243.16

|Sep high C = 39.42

|Nov high C = 2322.84

|Dec high C = 1716.04

|Jan low C = 35.72

|Feb low C = 57.31

|Mar low C = 911.16

|Apr low C = 1416.49

|May low C = 1922.78

|Jun low C = 2327.25

|Jul low C = 2530.70

|Aug low C = 2529.08

|Sep low C = 2125.16

|Oct low C = 1520.61

|Nov low C = 911.96

|Dec low C = 56.19

|Jan precipitation mm = 1821

|Feb precipitation mm = 2320

|Mar precipitation mm = 1518

|Apr precipitation mm = 1211

|May precipitation mm = 53

|Oct precipitation mm = 27

|Nov precipitation mm = 2018

|Dec precipitation mm = 2021

|year precipitation mm= 115

* [http://www.iraqimage.com/pages/browse/Ar_Ramadi.html Iraq Image – Ramadi Satellite Observation] {{Webarchive|url=https://archive.today/20130103162657/http://www.iraqimage.com/pages/browse/Ar_Ramadi.html |date=3 January 2013 }}