Fallujah ( ar, ٱلْفَلُّوجَة, al-Fallūjah,
Iraqi pronunciation: ) is a city in the
Iraq
Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq ...
i
province
A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or state. The term derives from the ancient Roman ''provincia'', which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire's territorial possessions outsi ...
of
Al Anbar, located roughly west of
Baghdad
Baghdad (; ar, بَغْدَاد , ) is the capital of Iraq and the second-largest city in the Arab world after Cairo. It is located on the Tigris near the ruins of the ancient city of Babylon and the Sassanid Persian capital of Ctesipho ...
on the
Euphrates. Fallujah dates from Babylonian times and was host to important Jewish academies for many centuries.
The city grew from a small town in 1947 to having a population of 275,128
inhabitants in 2011. Within Iraq, it is known as the "city of mosques" for the more than 200 mosques found in the city and the surrounding villages.
The city became a major center of resistance against the Iraqi government during the
Iraqi insurgency and the city was the scene of fierce fighting during the
First and
Second Battles of Fallujah. These battles left much of the city heavily damaged. In January 2014, the city was captured by the
Islamic State
An Islamic state is a state that has a form of government based on Islamic law (sharia). As a term, it has been used to describe various historical polities and theories of governance in the Islamic world. As a translation of the Arabic term ...
and suffered major population loss. On 23 May 2016, Iraqi forces announced the beginning of
their attempt to retake Fallujah from IS.
On 26 June 2016 the city was declared fully liberated by the Iraqi army.
History
The region has been inhabited for many millennia. There is evidence that the area surrounding Fallujah was inhabited in
Babylonia
Babylonia (; Akkadian: , ''māt Akkadī'') was an ancient Akkadian-speaking state and cultural area based in the city of Babylon in central-southern Mesopotamia (present-day Iraq and parts