Al Zab was occupied by the Islamic State during their Northern Iraq Offensive on 10 June 2014, the same day as the fall of Mosul. It thereafter became a center for their incursions into the Salah al-Din Governorate's Al-Shirqat District. In July 2016, they forcibly and hurriedly evacuated the town's civilian population, leaving them to shift in the desert while IS fighters constructed tunnels which they filled with oil. For its part, the Islamic State periodically publicizes its charitable works in the town.