Mapping the Radical Islamists' Bloody Campaign Through Iraq

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Radical Islamist militants have ripped through northern and western Iraq in recent weeks, slaughtering civilians and soldiers, and swiftly taking strategic areas and infrastructure to wrest control of the country from the Shiite government in Baghdad.

The Sunni radicals, known as the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant, took the towns of Fallujah and Ramadi in the western province of Anbar in January. After months of relative quiet, the Islamists unleashed a string of assaults in June that caused Iraqi security forces to retreat without much of a fight

By now, ISIL's 15,000 fighters have gained control of Iraq's second-largest city, the nation's largest oil refinery and parts of the Syrian border. Read more...

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