| Hence, the area has remained a hotbed of Sunni insurgent activity | The city of Samarra, which lies south of Tikrit along the Tigris, is also strategically and symbolically important to the Sunni insurgency, evidenced by the February 2006 and June 2007 attacks on the Golden Mosque, a highly revered Shiite shrine in Samarra |
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| The cities in Salah ad-Din, a predominantly Sunni province, have also formed important nodes on the AQI communication lines |
Coalition and Iraqi forces have conducted frequent intelligence-driven raids, seeking to deny sanctuary to AQI insurgents and to further disrupt lines of communication, supply, and foreign terrorist movement in these areas.
3| During , which began June 15, 2007, U | A major highway, Main Supply Route Tampa, also runs from the Syrian border, through , and down along the Tigris River and aforementioned cities into Baghdad |
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| The upper Tigris River Valley runs from the northern border of Iraq down directly into the center of | Bayji is home to the largest oil refinery in Iraq and it has functioned as an important base for the insurgency |
and Iraqi Forces conducted a number of operations in the cities along the upper Tigris River Valley targeting AQI leaders, facilitators, and financiers.
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