Located in the Nineveh planes about 40 miles west of Mosul, Tel Afar is inhabited by majority Turkmen peoples who are both Sunni and Shia.

On the bank of the Tigris River and home to a large Christian monastery, the city of Tikrit fell to Islam in the 10th century.

Hama is a city on the banks of the Orontes River in west-central Syria and is known for its use of water wheels to water the garden of Hama.