Sunni Triangle

The Sunni Triangle is a densely populated region of Iraq to the northwest of Baghdad that is inhabited mostly by Sunni Muslim Arabs.

The roughly triangular area's corners are usually said to lie near Baqubah (on the east side of the triangle), Baghdad (on the South side), Ramadi (on the west side) and Tikrit (on the north side). Each side is approximately 125 kilometers (80 miles) long. The area also contains the cities of Samarra and Fallujah.

The area was a center of strong support for former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein's government; starting in the 1970s many government workers, politicians, and military leaders came from the area. Saddam himself was born just outside Tikrit.

After the 2003 invasion of Iraq, the area became a focus of armed Sunni opposition to Coalition rule. It was widely predicted in the Western press that Saddam would seek shelter from Sunni supporters and on December 13, 2003, he was captured in a raid on the village of ad-Dawr about 15 km south of Tikrit.