What is Intel Mapper
Intel Mapper is a live open-source-intelligence (OSINT) war map. It follows two theatres around the clock: the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and the wider Middle East, from the Israel–Lebanon front and Syria to Yemen, the Red Sea and the Gulf. Every marker on the map is a single, dated event: a strike, a shoot-down, a ground assault, a naval incident, a capture, or a significant political statement, placed at the most precise location the sources support.
Events are gathered from monitored Telegram channels, X accounts, official military statements (for example the Ukrainian General Staff) and mapping projects such as DeepState and the Wikipedia conflict maps. Each report is read by a language model that extracts what happened, who did it, where and when, and then passed through a chain of deterministic checks: duplicate detection across channels, geocoding against our own settlement gazetteer and OpenStreetMap, country and region consistency guards, and frontline snapping for close-combat reports.
Every event carries a confidence score and a source count. One channel claiming a strike is not the same as three independent channels plus satellite-derived thermal detections, and the map shows that difference. Uncertain locations are drawn with an orange ring instead of a hard pin. Our methodology page explains the scoring in detail.
How to use the map
Switch theatres with the buttons at the top. The layer panel lets you toggle borders and control zones, event markers, the heat-map of activity, live military flights and US bases, and the Recent changes layers that hatch every area which changed hands in the last seven days (DeepState for Ukraine, Wikipedia-derived control maps for the Middle East). Click any marker for the full report, media and sources; click a control zone for its statistics. The time slider at the bottom replays borders and the previous 24 hours of events for any day since February 2026. A daily brief for each theatre is published every evening.
Coverage areas
Ukraine. The full contact line from Kharkiv to Kherson, deep-strike campaigns on Russian refineries, air bases and logistics, and Russian drone and missile waves against Ukrainian cities, with control changes taken from DeepState.
Middle East. The Israel–Lebanon front, Syria after Assad, the West Bank and Gaza, Iraq, and Iranian activity, including strikes on shipping and Gulf infrastructure.
Yemen and the Red Sea. The Houthi–Government war, Houthi attacks on shipping, coalition strikes, and control of the Bab al-Mandab approaches, using the Wikipedia control map and verified capture reports.
Today's brief — 2026-09-17
Russia launches 157-drone assault on Ukraine; Trump signals Iran policy shift ahead of Gulf summit
Russia executed a coordinated massive strike on Ukraine overnight September 16–17, deploying 157 Shahed drones (124 reactive), four Kalibr cruise missiles, and ballistic systems including Iskander and KN-23 variants. Ukrainian air defenses engaged the assault across multiple regions. Concurrently, Ukrainian forces conducted strikes on Russian infrastructure: Rostov-on-Don Central Airfield saw destruction of two Antonov An-26 and one An-12 transport aircraft plus three helicopters; Slavneft-YANOS oil refinery in Yaroslavl Oblast sustained damage to its crude distillation unit with reported fire. These reciprocal strikes underline sustained offensive capability by both sides despite attrition.
The Trump administration signaled major pending policy decisions on Iran, with plans for a UN General Assembly meeting involving six Gulf state leaders to discuss either military action or alternative approaches. Simultaneously, Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps claimed destruction of a U.S. MQ-9 Reaper drone over Qeshm Island in the Persian Gulf, reportedly the 53rd such shootdown. Iran's Mahan Air suspended flights to Turkey and Oman through September 21 citing U.S. sanctions enforcement by those countries. These developments reflect elevated U.S.-Iran tensions alongside Iran's continued air defense posture in the Gulf region.
Read the full Ukraine brief · Middle East brief · Archive
Latest reports
- One Explosion, Five Channels: How Conflict Mappers Handle Duplicate Reports
- How Russian Overnight Strikes Work: The Drone-Then-Missile Sequence
- Tracking Houthi Strikes in the Red Sea: How Analysts Monitor Maritime Attacks
- The Israel–Lebanon Front: Geography, Actors and Understanding Strike Reports
- How Modern Air Defence Systems Work: Patriot, IRIS-T and NASAMS Explained
- Reading Confidence Scores: Making Sense of Intel Mapper's Reliability Ratings
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