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 war map. 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 conflict map. 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 Red Sea shipping attacks map. 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 — 2026-10-05

Syria: HTS expands territorial control; Ukraine: Russia sustains 1,685-day assault with 9,574 drones

Russia's combined arms campaign against Ukraine sustained intensive pressure on 5 October, the 1,685th day of conflict. Ukrainian forces reported 177 combat clashes across the front, with Russian forces conducting 1 ballistic missile strike, 85 airstrikes delivering 245 guided bombs, 9,574 kamikaze drone operations, and 2,335 artillery barrages. These figures represent Russia's consistent operational tempo despite accumulated attrition. Ukrainian air defense systems intercepted or suppressed 172 Russian attack drones comprising Shahed variants, Gerbera drones, Banderol mini cruise missiles, and decoy systems launched from staging areas in Oryol, Kursk, Donetsk, and Crimea overnight on 4-5 October. A Russian ballistic missile struck Kharkiv's Industrialnyy District, killing one civilian and injuring six, with impacts on administrative and residential buildings.

Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) forces continued significant territorial expansion across northern Syria on 5 October, adding approximately 1,582 km² in the Aleppo area and 9,853 km² in Al-Hasakeh according to updated conflict mapping. These gains represent sustained HTS advancement in consolidating control over formerly contested regions, building on previous territorial seizures. The scale of expansion in Al-Hasakeh is particularly notable given the historically contested nature of that governorate. Syrian Internal Security Forces are investigating a shooting incident in Tartous Governorate that killed two individuals, though circumstances remain under investigation. These developments underscore ongoing flux in Syrian territorial control.

Read the full Ukraine brief · Middle East brief · Archive

Latest reports

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• The Israel–Lebanon Front: Geography, Actors and Understanding Strike Reports
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• Reading Confidence Scores: Making Sense of Intel Mapper's Reliability Ratings

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