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 — 2026-10-04

Yemen offensive launched amid U.S. de-escalation; Ukraine faces sustained drone campaign

Russia sustained intensive air and drone operations against Ukraine on October 4, with 163 reported combat clashes across all fronts. Russian forces conducted one ballistic missile strike, 54 airstrikes with 158 guided munitions, and deployed 5,226 kamikaze drones. Shahed-136 reactive drones struck Kyiv's Northern Bridge on consecutive mornings during civilian traffic hours, with video footage showing direct hits near vehicles and buses. Russian air raids continued despite German Chancellor Olaf Merz's high-profile diplomatic visit to Kyiv, a calculated show of pressure during international negotiations. Russian air monitoring tracked multiple Banderol mini-cruise missiles and Geran-3 jet-powered drones transiting toward Kyiv and surrounding regions, indicating a sustained bombardment campaign targeting both military and civilian infrastructure.

Yemen's Saudi-backed government, led by President Rashad al-Alimi, announced a full-scale military offensive to retake Houthi-controlled territory and restore nationwide government authority. The operation explicitly prohibits tribalism and sectarian violence. Concurrent with this announcement, Houthi forces expanded territorial control in Ta'izz Governorate by approximately 161 square kilometers and seized the residence of Yemen's Parliament Speaker in Al-Hawban following armed clashes. A tanker reported multiple explosions approximately 60 nautical miles south of Al Mukha in the Red Sea with crew safely evacuated. These developments underscore the Yemen conflict's persistence despite years of Saudi-led intervention, with control of key infrastructure and maritime routes remaining contested.

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
• 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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