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 — 2026-09-21

Iran escalates Strait pressure; Ukraine repels 147 drones; Syria ammunition depot explosions ongoing

Ukraine's air defense systems intercepted 147 of 172 Russian attack drones launched overnight September 20–21, representing an 85% intercept rate across multiple drone types (Shahed, Geran, Parody, Banderoль) dispatched from Russian territory and occupied areas. Fourteen impact events were recorded despite the high interception rate, with strikes reported on civilian infrastructure including food storage facilities in Odesa and educational infrastructure at Zaporizhzhia National University. A rogue drone landed in Kyiv's river near kayaking civilians with no reported casualties. These sustained overnight strikes form part of Russia's continuing attrition campaign targeting rear-area infrastructure and civilian morale, with Ukraine's defensive capabilities demonstrating consistent operational effectiveness despite volume of incoming weapons.

Iran conducted multiple pressure operations in the Strait of Hormuz on September 21, striking an oil tanker with confirmed damage while a crew sustained minor or no injuries, according to UK Maritime Trade Operations. Separately, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps claimed it shot down a U.S. MQ-1 Predator drone over Hormozgan Province, though Western sources have not confirmed U.S. operational involvement or drone loss. These incidents reflect Tehran's continued assertion of maritime control in a chokepoint through which roughly 20% of global petroleum transits. Iran's strategic messaging accompanying these operations—including IRGC warnings of expanded military responses with new weapons systems targeting U.S. and allied assets—suggests deliberate calibration of pressure short of direct armed confrontation with the United States, even as inflammatory rhetoric persists.

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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