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 1. 
 2. / World & News
 3. / Countries of the World
 4. / Iraq

Cite


IRAQ


FACTS & FIGURES


Map of Iraq

 * President: Fouad Massoum (2014)
   
   Prime Minister: Haider al-Abadi (2014)
   
   Land area: 167,556 sq mi (433,970 sq km)
   
   Population (2014 est.): 32,585,692 (growth rate: 2.23%); birth rate:
   26.85/1000; infant mortality rate: 37.53/1000; life expectancy: 71.42
   
   Capital and largest city (2011 est.): Baghdad, 6.036 million
   
   Largest cities: Mosul 1.494 million; Erbil 1.039 million; Basra 942,000; As
   Sulaymaniyah 867,000; Najaf 779,000
   
   Monetary unit: U.S. dollar
   
   National name: Al Jumhuriyah al Iraqiyah
   
   Current government officials
   
   Languages: Arabic (official), Kurdish (official), Turkmen (a Turkish dialect)
   and Assyrian (Neo-Aramaic) are official in areas where they constitute a
   majority of the population), Armenian
   
   Ethnicity/race: Arab 75%–80%, Kurdish 15%–20%, Turkoman, Assyrian, or other
   5%
   
   Religions: Muslim (official) 99% (Shia 60%-65%, Sunni 32%-37%), Christian
   0.8%, Hindu <.1, Buddhist <.1, Jewish <.1, folk religion <.1, unafilliated
   .1, other <.1
   note: while there has been voluntary relocation of many Christian families to
   northern Iraq, recent reporting indicates that the overall Christian
   population may have dropped by as much as 50% since the fall of the Saddam
   HUSSEIN regime in 2003, with many fleeing to Syria, Jordan, and Lebanon (2010
   est.)
   
   National Holiday: Revolution Day, July 17
   
   Literacy rate: 78.5% (2010 est.)
   
   Economic summary: GDP/PPP (2013 est.): $249.4 billion; per capita $7,100.
   Real growth rate: 4.2%. Inflation: 2%. Unemployment: 16%. Arable land: 9.19%.
   Agriculture: wheat, barley, rice, vegetables, dates, cotton; cattle, sheep,
   poultry. Labor force: 8.9 million; agriculture 21.6%., industry 18.7%,
   services 59.8%. Industries: petroleum, chemicals, textiles, leather,
   construction materials, food processing, fertilizer, metal
   fabrication/processing. Natural resources: petroleum, natural gas,
   phosphates, sulfur. Exports: $91.99 billion (2013): crude oil (84%), crude
   materials excluding fuels, food and live animals. Imports: $66.61 billion
   (2013): food, medicine, manufactures. Major trading partners: U.S., Syria,
   Turkey, India, China, South Korea, Canada, Spain, Italy (2012).
   
   Communications: Telephones: main lines in use: 1.87 million (2009); mobile
   cellular: 26.76 million (2009). Broadcast media: the number of private radio
   and TV stations has increased rapidly since 2003; government-owned TV and
   radio stations are operated by the publicly-funded Iraqi Public Broadcasting
   Service; private broadcast media are mostly linked to political, ethnic, or
   religious groups; satellite TV is available to an estimated 70% of viewers
   and many of the broadcasters are based abroad; transmissions of multiple
   international radio broadcasters are accessible (2007). Internet hosts: 26
   (2012). Internet users: 325,900 (2009).
   
   Transportation: Railways: total: 2,370 km (2006). Highways: total: 59,623 km;
   paved: 59,623 km (2012). Waterways: 5,279 km (not all navigable); note:
   Euphrates River (2,815 km), Tigris River (1,895 km), and Third River (565 km)
   are principal waterways (2006). Ports and harbors: Al Basrah, Khawr az
   Zubayr, Umm Qasr. Airports: 102 (2013).
   
   International disputes: Iraq's lack of a maritime boundary with Iran prompts
   jurisdiction disputes beyond the mouth of the Shatt al Arab in the Persian
   Gulf; Turkey has expressed concern over the autonomous status of Kurds in
   Iraq.
   
   Major sources and definitions



Next



INDEX

 1. Iraq Profile
 2. History
 3. News and Current Events

GEOGRAPHY

 

Iraq, a triangle of mountains, desert, and fertile river valley, is bounded on
the east by Iran, on the north by Turkey, on the west by Syria and Jordan, and
on the south by Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. It is twice the size of Idaho. The
country has arid desert land west of the Euphrates, a broad central valley
between the Euphrates and the Tigris, and mountains in the northeast.

 

GOVERNMENT

 

The dictatorship of Saddam Hussein collapsed on April 9, 2003, after U.S. and
British forces invaded the country. Sovereignty was returned to Iraq on June 28,
2004.

HISTORY

 

From earliest times Iraq was known as Mesopotamia—the land between the
rivers—for it embraces a large part of the alluvial plains of the Tigris and
Euphrates rivers.

An advanced civilization existed in this area by 4000 B.C. Sometime after 2000
B.C., the land became the center of the ancient Babylonian and Assyrian empires.
Mesopotamia was conquered by Cyrus the Great of Persia in 538 B.C. and by
Alexander in 331 B.C. After an Arab conquest in 637–640, Baghdad became the
capital of the ruling caliphate. The country was pillaged by the Mongols in
1258, and during the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries was the object of Turkish
and Persian competition.

 

IRAQ GAINS INDEPENDENCE

 

Nominal Turkish suzerainty imposed in 1638 was replaced by direct Turkish rule
in 1831. In World War I, Britain occupied most of Mesopotamia and was given a
mandate over the area in 1920. The British renamed the area Iraq and recognized
it as a kingdom in 1922. In 1932, the monarchy achieved full independence.
Britain again occupied Iraq during World War II because of its pro-Axis stance
in the initial years of the war.

Iraq became a charter member of the Arab League in 1945, and Iraqi troops took
part in the Arab invasion of Palestine in 1948.

At age 3, King Faisal II succeeded his father, Ghazi I, who was killed in an
automobile accident in 1939. Faisal and his uncle, Crown Prince Abdul-Illah,
were assassinated in July 1958 in a coup that ended the monarchy and brought to
power a military junta headed by Abdul Karem Kassim. Kassim reversed the
monarchy's pro-Western policies, attempted to rectify the economic disparities
between rich and poor, and began to form alliances with Communist countries.

 

RISE OF THE BAATH PARTY

 

Kassim was overthrown and killed in a coup staged on March 8, 1963, by the
military and the Baath Socialist Party. The Baath Party advocated secularism,
pan-Arabism, and socialism. The following year, the new leader, Abdel Salam
Arif, consolidated his power by driving out the Baath Party. He adopted a new
constitution in 1964. In 1966, he died in a helicopter crash. His brother, Gen.
Abdel Rahman Arif, assumed the presidency, crushed the opposition, and won an
indefinite extension of his term in 1967.

Arif's regime was ousted in July 1968 by a junta led by Maj. Gen. Ahmed Hassan
al-Bakr of the Baath Party. Bakr and his second in command, Saddam Hussein,
imposed authoritarian rule in an effort to end the decades of political
instability that followed World War II. A leading producer of oil in the world,
Iraq used its oil revenues to develop one of the strongest military forces in
the region.

 

SADDAM HUSSEIN'S ASCENDANCY BRINGS SERIES OF WARS

 

On July 16, 1979, President Bakr was succeeded by Saddam Hussein, whose regime
steadily developed an international reputation for repression, human rights
abuses, and terrorism.

A long-standing territorial dispute over control of the Shatt-al-Arab waterway
between Iraq and Iran broke into full-scale war on Sept. 20, 1980, when Iraq
invaded western Iran. The eight-year war cost the lives of an estimated 1.5
million people and finally ended in a UN-brokered cease-fire in 1988. Poison gas
was used by both Iran and Iraq.

In July 1990, President Hussein asserted spurious territorial claims on Kuwaiti
land. A mediation attempt by Arab leaders failed, and on Aug. 2, 1990, Iraqi
troops invaded Kuwait and set up a puppet government. The UN unsuccessfully
imposed trade sanctions against Iraq to compel withdrawl. On Jan. 18, 1991, UN
forces, under the leadership of U.S. general Norman Schwarzkopf, launched the
Gulf War (Operation Desert Storm), liberating Kuwait in less than a week.

The war did little to thwart Iraq's resilient dictator. Rebellions by both
Shiites and Kurds, encouraged by the U.S., were brutally crushed. In 1991, the
UN set up a northern no-fly zone to protect Iraq's Kurdish population; in 1992 a
southern no-fly zone was established as a buffer between Iraq and Kuwait and to
protect Shiites.

Beginning in 1990, the UN Security Council imposed sanctions that barred Iraq
from selling oil except in exchange for food and medicine. The sanctions against
Iraq failed to subdue its leader, instead causing catastrophic suffering among
its people—the country's infrastructure was in ruins, and disease, malnutrition,
and the infant mortality rate skyrocketed.

The UN weapons inspections team mandated to ascertain that Iraq had destroyed
all its nuclear, chemical, biological, and ballistic arms after the war was
continually thwarted by Saddam Hussein. In Nov. 1997, he expelled the American
members of the UN inspections team, a standoff that stretched on until Feb.
1998. In Aug. 1998, Hussein again put a halt to the inspections. On Dec. 16, the
U.S. and Britain began Operation Desert Fox, four days of intensive air strikes.
From then on, the U.S. and Britain conducted hundreds of air strikes on Iraqi
targets within the no-fly zones. The sustained low-level warfare continued
unabated into 2003.

 

AFTER 9/11, THE U.S. LAUNCHES WAR IN IRAQ

 

After the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, President Bush began calling for a
“regime change” in Iraq, describing the nation as part of an “axis of evil.” The
alleged existence of weapons of mass destruction, the thwarting of UN weapons
inspectors, Iraq's alleged links to terrorism, and Saddam Hussein's despotism
and human rights abuses were the major reasons cited for necessitating a
preemptive strike against the country. The Arab world and much of Europe
condemned the hawkish and unilateral U.S. stance. The UK, however, declared its
intention to support the U.S. in military action. On Sept. 12, 2002, Bush
addressed the UN, challenging the organization to swiftly enforce its own
resolutions against Iraq, or else the U.S. would act on its own. On Nov. 8, the
UN Security Council unanimously approved a resolution imposing tough new arms
inspections on Iraq. On Nov. 26, new inspections of Iraq's military holdings
began.

The UN's formal report at the end of Jan. 2003 was not promising, with chief
weapons inspector Hans Blix lamenting that “Iraq appears not to have come to a
genuine acceptance, not even today, of the disarmament that was demanded of it.”
While the Bush administration felt the report cemented its claim that a military
solution was imperative, several permanent members of the UN Security
Council—France, Russia, and China—urged that the UN inspectors be given more
time to complete their task. Bush and Blair continued to call for war, insisting
that they would go ahead with a “coalition of the willing,” if not with UN
support. All diplomatic efforts ceased by March 17, when President Bush
delivered an ultimatum to Saddam Hussein to leave the country within 48 hours or
face war.

On March 20, the war against Iraq began at 5:30 A.M. Baghdad time (9:30 P.M.
EST, March 19) with the launch of Operation Iraqi Freedom. By April 9, U.S.
forces had taken control of the capital, signaling the collapse of Saddam
Hussein's regime. Although the war had been officially declared over on May 1,
2003, Iraq remained enveloped in violence and chaos. Iraqis began protesting
almost immediately against the delay in self-rule and the absence of a timetable
to end the U.S. occupation. In July, the U.S. administrator for Iraq, Paul
Bremer, appointed an Iraqi governing council.

 

NO EVIDENCE OF WEAPONS IN IRAQ

 

Months of searching for Iraq's weapons of mass destruction yielded no hard
evidence, and both administrations and their intelligence agencies came under
fire. There were also mounting allegations that the existence of these weapons
was exaggerated or distorted as a pretext to justify the war. In fall 2003,
President Bush recast the rationale for war, no longer citing the danger of
weapons of mass destruction, but instead describing Iraq as “the central front”
in the war against terrorism. A free and democratic Iraq, he contended, would
serve as a model for the rest of the Middle East.

Continued instability in 2003 kept 140,000 American troops (at a cost of $4
billion a month), as well as 11,000 British and 10,000 coalition troops in Iraq.
The U.S. launched several tough military campaigns to subdue Iraqi resistance,
which also had the effect of further alienating the populace. The rising
violence prompted the Bush administration to reverse its Iraq policy in Nov.
2003; the transfer of power to an interim government would take place in July
2004, much earlier than originally planned.

After eight months of searching, the U.S. military captured Saddam Hussein on
Dec. 13. The deposed leader was found hiding in a hole near his hometown of
Tikrit and surrendered without a fight. Found guilty of crimes against humanity
for the execution of 148 Shiite men and boys from the town of Dujai, Saddam
Hussein was hung in Dc. 2006. He was executed before being tried for innumerable
other crimes associated with his rule.

In Jan. 2004, the CIA's chief weapons inspector, David Kay, stated that U.S.
intelligence about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction “was almost all wrong.”
When the final report on the existence of these weapons in Iraq was issued in
Oct. 2004, Kay's successor, Charles Duelfer, confirmed that there was no
evidence of an Iraqi weapons production program.

The turmoil and violence in Iraq increased throughout 2004. Civilians, Iraqi
security forces, foreign workers, and coalition soldiers were subject to suicide
bombings, kidnappings, and beheadings. By April, a number of separate uprisings
had spread throughout the Sunni triangle and in the Shiite-dominated south. In
September alone there were 2,300 attacks by insurgents. In October, U.S.
officials estimated there were between 8,000 and 12,000 hard-core insurgents and
more than 20,000 “active sympathizers.” Loosely divided into Baathists,
nationalists, and Islamists, all but about 1,000 were thought to be indigenous
fighters.

Reconstruction efforts, hampered by bureaucracy and security concerns, had also
fallen far short of U.S. expectations: by September, just 6% ($1 billion) of the
reconstruction money approved by the U.S. Congress in 2003 had in fact been
used. Electricity and clean water were below prewar levels, and half of Iraq's
employable population was still without work. In April, the U.S. reversed its
policy of banning Baath Party officials from positions of responsibility—the
U.S. had previously fired all high-ranking members and disbanded the Iraqi army,
affecting about 400,000 positions, depleting Iraq of its skilled workforce, and
further embittering the Sunni population.

In late April, the physical and sexual abuse and humiliation of Iraqi prisoners
at Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad came to light when photographs were released
by the U.S. media. The images sparked outrage around the world. In August, the
Schlesinger report's investigation into Abu Ghraib (the furthest reaching of
many Pentagon-sponsored reports on the subject) called the prisoner abuse acts
of “brutality and purposeless sadism,” rejected the idea that the abuse was
simply the work of a few aberrant soldiers, and asserted that there were
“fundamental failures throughout all levels of command, from the soldiers on the
ground to Central Command and to the Pentagon.”

 

INSURGENCY GATHERS STEAM

 

On June 28, 2004, sovereignty was officially returned to Iraq. Former exile and
Iraqi Government Council member Iyad Allawi became prime minister of the Iraqi
interim government, and Ghazi al-Yawar, a Sunni Muslim, was chosen president.

On July 9, the Senate Intelligence Committee released a unanimous bipartisan
report, concluding that “most of the major key judgments” on Iraq's weapons of
mass destruction were “either overstated, or were not supported by, the
underlying intelligence report.” The report also stated that there was no
“established formal relationship” between al-Qaeda and Saddam Hussein. The
following week, Britain's Butler report on prewar intelligence echoed the
American findings.

Iraq's Jan. 30, 2005, elections to select a 275-seat national assembly went
ahead as scheduled, and a total of 8.5 million people voted, representing about
58% of eligible Iraqis. A coalition of Shiites, the United Iraq Alliance,
received 48% of the vote, the Kurdish parties received 26% of the vote, and the
Sunnis just 2%—most Sunni leaders had called for a boycott. In April, Jalal
Talabani, a Kurd, became president, and Ibrahim al-Jaafari, a religious Shiite,
became prime minister. The elections, however, did not stem the insurgency,
which grew increasingly sectarian during 2005 and predominantly involved Sunni
insurgents targeting Shiite and Kurdish civilians in suicide bombings. The death
toll for Iraqi civilians is estimated to have reached 30,000 since the start of
the war.

By December 2005, more than 2,100 U.S. soldiers had died in Iraq and more than
15,000 had been wounded. The absence of a clear strategy for winning the war
beyond “staying the course” caused Americans' support for Bush's handling of the
war to wane. The U.S. and Iraqi governments agreed that no firm timetable for
the withdrawal of U.S. troops should be set, maintaining that this would simply
encourage the insurgency. Withdrawal would take place as Iraqi security forces
grew strong enough to assume responsibility for the country's stability. “As
Iraqis stand up, Americans will stand down,” Bush stated. But the training of
Iraqi security forces went far more slowly than anticipated. A July 2005
Pentagon report acknowledged that only “a small number” of Iraqi security forces
were capable of fighting the insurgency without American help.

 

IRAQI LEADERSHIP STRUGGLES IN EFFORT TO FORM A GOVERNMENT

 

In Aug. 2005, after three months of fractious negotiations, Iraqi lawmakers
completed a draft constitution that supported the aims of Shiites and Kurds but
was deeply unsatisfactory to the Sunnis. In October, the constitutional
referendum narrowly passed, making way for parliamentary elections on Dec. 15 to
select the first full-term, four-year parliament since Saddam Hussein was
overthrown. In Jan. 2006, election results were announced: the United Iraqi
Alliance—a coalition of Shiite Muslim religious parties that had dominated the
existing government—made a strong showing, but not strong enough to rule without
forming a coalition. It took another four months of bitter wrangling before a
coalition government was finally formed. Sunni Arab, Kurdish, and secular
officials continued to reject the Shiite coalition's nomination for head of
state—interim prime minister al-Jaafari, a religious Shiite considered a
divisive figure incapable of forming a government of national unity. The
deadlock was finally broken in late April when Nuri al-Maliki, who, like
Jaafari, belonged to the Shiite Dawa Party, was approved as prime minister.

On Feb. 23, Sunni insurgents bombed and seriously damaged the Shiites' most
revered shrine in Iraq, the Askariya Shrine in Samarra. The bombings ignited
ferocious sectarian attacks between Shiites and Sunnis. More than a thousand
people were killed over several days, and Iraq seemed poised for civil war. Hope
in Prime Minister Maliki's ability to unify the country quickly faded when it
became clear that he would not abandon his political ties with Moktada al-Sadr,
the radical Shiite cleric who led the powerful Madhi militia. Maliki seemed
unwilling or incapable of reining in the rapidly proliferating Shiite death
squads, which have kidnapped, tortured, and murdered thousands of civilians.

 

U.S. STRATEGY UNDER FIRE

 

In February, a U.S. Senate report on progress in Iraq indicated that, despite
the U.S. spending $16 billion on reconstruction, every major area of Iraq's
infrastructure was below prewar levels. Incompetence and fraud characterized
numerous projects, and by April, the U.S. special inspector general was pursuing
72 investigations into corruption by firms involved in reconstruction.

In May, a number of news stories broke about a not-yet-released official
military report that U.S. Marines had killed 24 innocent Iraqis “in cold blood”
in the city of Haditha the previous Nov. 19. The alleged massacre, which
included women and children, was said to have been revenge for a bombing that
killed a marine. The marines are also alleged to have covered up the killings.
The military did not launch a criminal investigation until mid-March, four
months after the incident, and two months after TIME magazine had reported the
allegations to the military. Several additional sets of separate allegations of
civilian murders by U.S. troops have also surfaced.

Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq and the most-wanted
terrorist in the country, was killed by a U.S. bomb. Zarqawi was responsible for
many of the most brutal and horrific attacks in Iraq. But his death seemed to
have no stabilizing effect on the country. The UN announced that an average of
more than 100 civilians were killed in Iraq each day. During the first six
months of the year, civilian deaths increased by 77%, reflecting the serious
spike in sectarian violence in the country. The UN also reported that about 1.6
million Iraqis were internally displaced, and up to 1.8 million refugees have
fled the country.

At the end of July, the U.S. announced it would move more U.S. troops into
Baghdad from other regions of Iraq, in an attempt to bring security to the
country's capital, which had increasingly been subject to lawlessness, violence,
and sectarian strife. But by October, the military acknowledged that its
12-week-old campaign to establish security in Baghdad had been unsuccessful.

In September, a classified National Intelligence Estimate—a consensus view of
all 16 U.S. intelligence agencies, signed off by director of national
intelligence John D. Negroponte—concluded that the “Iraq war has made the
overall terrorism problem worse.” By this time, many authorities characterized
the conflict as a civil war—as one political scientist put it, the level of
sectarian violence is “so extreme that it far surpasses most civil wars since
1945.” The White House, however, continued to reject the term: it would be
difficult to justify the role of American troops in an Iraqi civil war, which
would require the U.S. to take sides.

The increasingly unpopular war and President Bush's strategy of “staying the
course” were believed responsible for the Republican loss of both Houses of
Congress in November midterm elections, and for the resignation of Defense
Secretary Donald Rumsfeld immediately thereafter. In December, the bipartisan
report by the Iraq Study Group, led by former secretary of state James Baker and
former Democratic congressman Lee Hamilton, concluded that “the situation in
Iraq is grave and deteriorating” and “U.S. forces seem to be caught in a mission
that has no foreseeable end.” The report's 79 recommendations included reaching
out diplomatically to Iran and Syria and having the U.S. military intensify its
efforts to train Iraqi troops. The report heightened the debate over the U.S.
role in Iraq, but President Bush kept his distance from it, indicating that he
would wait until Jan. 2007 before announcing a new Iraq strategy. On Dec. 31,
2006, the U.S. death toll in Iraq reached 3,000, and at least 50,000 Iraqi
civilians had died in the conflict—the UN reported that more than 34,000 Iraqis
were killed from the violence in 2006.

 

BUSH ORDERS A SURGE OF U.S. TROOPS TO IRAQ

 

In a Jan. 2007 televised address, President Bush announced that a "surge" of
20,000 additional troops would be deployed to Baghdad to try to stem the
sectarian fighting. He also said Iraq had committed to a number of "benchmarks,"
including increasing troop presence in Baghdad and passing oil-revenue-sharing
and jobs-creation plans.

The stability of the Iraqi government further deteriorated in August, when the
Iraqi Consensus Front, the largest Sunni faction in Prime Minister Nuri
al-Maliki's cabinet, resigned, citing the Shiite-led government's failure to
stem violence by militias, follow through with reforms, and involve Sunnis in
decisions on security. August also saw the deadliest attack of the war. Two
pairs of truck bombs exploded about five miles apart in the remote, northwestern
Iraqi towns of Qahtaniya and Jazeera. At least 500 members of the minority
Yazidi community were killed and hundreds more were wounded.

A National Intelligence Estimate released in September said the Iraqi government
had failed to end sectarian violence even with the surge of American troops. The
report also said, however, that a withdrawal of troops would "erode security
gains achieved thus far." By September, the level of fatalities in Iraq had
decreased, and President Bush said progress was indeed being made in Iraq,
citing the fact that relative peace and stability had come to the once restless
Anbar Province in large part because several Sunni tribes had allied themselves
with the U.S. in its fight against radical Sunni militants.

In highly anticipated testimony, Gen. David Petraeus told members of Senate and
House committees in September that the U.S. military needs more time to meet its
goals in Iraq. He said the number of troops in Iraq may be reduced from 20
brigades to 15, or from 160,000 troops to 130,000, beginning in July 2008.

On Sept. 16, 17 Iraqi civilians, including a couple and their infant, were
killed when employees of private security company Blackwater USA, which was
escorting a diplomatic convoy, fired on a car that failed to stop at the request
of a police officer. The killings sparked furious protests in Iraq, and Prime
Minister Maliki threatened to evict Blackwater employees from Iraq. In November,
FBI investigators reported that 14 of the 17 shootings were unjustified and the
guards were reckless in their use of deadly force.

Although 2007 culminated as the deadliest year in Iraq for U.S. soldiers, the
U.S. military reported in November that for several consecutive weeks, the
number of car bombs, roadside bombs, mines, rocket attacks, and other violence
had fallen to the lowest level in nearly two years. In addition, the Iraqi Red
Crescent reported that some 25,000 refugees (out of about 1.5 million) who had
fled to Syria had returned to Iraq between September and the beginning of
December. However, many of these returning refugees found their homes occupied
by squatters. In addition, previously diverse neighborhoods had become
segregated as a result of the sectarian violence.

 

IRAQI PARLIAMENT GETS DOWN TO BUSINESS

 

On Jan. 8, 2008, Parliament passed the Justice and Accountability Law, which
allows many Baathists, former members of Saddam Hussein's party, to resume the
government jobs they lost after the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003. In
addition, many former Baathists who will not be permitted to return to their
positions are entitled to pensions. The law is the first major benchmark of
political progress reached by the Iraqi government. It was criticized, however,
for being quite vague and confusing, and because of its many loopholes, more
Baathists may be excluded from government posts than will be granted employment.

Parliament passed another round of legislation in February, which included a law
that outlines provincial powers, an election timetable, a 2008 budget, and an
amnesty law that will affect thousands of mostly Sunni Arab prisoners. A divided
Iraqi Presidency Council vetoed the package, however.

In March, about 30,000 Iraqi troops and police, with air support from the U.S.
and British military, attempted to oust Shiite militias, primarily the Mahdi
Army led by radical cleric Moktada al-Sadr, that control Basra and its lucrative
ports in southern Iraq. The operation failed, and the Mahdi Army maintained
control over much of Basra. Prime Minister Maliki was criticized for poorly
planning the assault. After negotiations with Iraqi officials, al-Sadr ordered
his militia to end military action in exchange for amnesty for his supporters,
the release from prison of his followers who have not been convicted of crimes,
and the government's help in returning to their homes Sadrists who fled
fighting. The compromise was seen as a blow to Maliki. In addition, more than
1,000 Iraqi soldiers and police officers either refused to participate in the
operation or deserted their posts.

After a boycott of almost a year, the largest Sunni block in Iraq's government,
Tawafiq, announced in April that it would return to the cabinet of Prime
Minister Maliki. Tawafiq's leader, Adnan al-Dulaimi, said that by passing an
amnesty law and launching an assault on Shiite militias, the government had met
enough of its demands to end the boycott. In July, Parliament approved the
nomination of six Sunni members of Tawafiq to the cabinet.

On Sept. 1, the U.S. transferred to the Iraqi military and police responsibility
for maintaining security in Anbar Province, which was, until recently, the
cradle of the Sunni insurgency.

For much of 2008, Iraqi lawmakers struggled to pass two pieces of critical
legislation: an election law and a status of forces agreement. They managed to
approve a scaled-down election law in September that calls for provincial
elections to be held in early 2009. Elections, which are seen as vital to moving
Iraqi's rival ethnic groups toward reconciliation, had originally been scheduled
for Oct. 2008. Elections in the disputed city of Kirkuk, however, are postponed
until a separate agreement is reached by a committee of Kurds, Turkmens, and
Arabs. Kurds dominate the city, but the Turkmens and Arabs have resisted any
attempts to dilute their control through a power-sharing plan.

After nearly a year of negotiations with the U.S., the Iraqi cabinet in November
passed the status of forces agreement, which will govern the U.S. presence in
Iraq through 2011. The terms of the pact include the withdrawal of all U.S.
combat troops by Dec. 31, 2011, and the removal of U.S. troops from Iraqi cities
by the summer of 2009. In addition, the agreement gives Iraqi officials
jurisdiction over serious crimes committed by off-duty Americans who are off
base when the crimes occur. Iraqii Parliament must also approve the agreement.

Iraq achieved several milestones in Jan. 2009. On New Year's Day, the government
took control of the Green Zone, the heavily fortified area that houses the
offices and homes of most American and Iraqi government officials. On January
31, Iraq held local elections to create provincial councils. The elections were
notable for their lack of violence and the markedly diminished role the U.S.
played in their implementation. Voter turnout varied widely by area, with some
regions reporting less than 50% participation and others more than 75%.

In February, President Obama announced his intention to withdraw most American
troops from Iraq by August 31, 2010. As many as 50,000 troops, however, will
remain there for smaller missions and to train Iraqi soldiers. On June 30, in
compliance with the status of forces agreement between the U.S. and Iraq, U.S.
troops completed their withdrawal from Iraqi cities and transferred the
responsibility of securing the cities to Iraqi troops. Prime Minister Maliki
declared June 30 a public holiday called "National Sovereignty Day." The number
of suicide bombings had increased in the weeks leading up to the U.S. withdrawal
of troops, which raised doubts about the timing of the move.

Two car bombs exploded near the Green Zone in Baghdad on October 25, killing at
least 155 people and wounding 700. It was the deadliest attack in Iraq since
April 2007. The Islamic State in Iraq, a group linked to al-Qaeda, claimed
responsibility. The group has vowed to destabilize the government and disrupt
parliamentary elections scheduled for January 2010. Further withdrawal of U.S.
combat troops is contingent upon a smooth election process.

Parliament's continued failure to pass an election law also threatened to derail
the vote. After missing several deadlines, Parliament approved compromise
legislation in November. The main points of contention were whether to have
candidates listed by name or political party, and which voter registration list
to use in Kirkuk: one from 2005 that included more Arabs and Turkmens, or
2009's, which represented a higher number of Kurds. (Saddam Hussein had expelled
tens of thousands of Kurds from Kirkuk and relocated Arabs and Turkmens into the
region. After his fall, Kurds returned, and the demographic of the region
shifted once again.) Parliament agreed to use the 2009 roll, with oversight by
the UN, and Arabs and Turkmens will each be granted an additional seat in
Parliament. In addition, legislators also agreed to allow candidates' names to
appear on ballots.

Five bombs killed at least 120 people and wounded some 400 at or near government
buildings in Baghdad in December 2009. The Islamic State of Iraq al-Qaeda said
it carried out the attacks. Authorities suspect that the Sunni insurgents were
attempting to discourage cooperation between Shia and Sunnis and destablize the
country in the weeks leading up to March's parliamentary elections.

 

POLITICAL VETERANS FARE WELL IN 2010 PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS

 

Ali Hassan al-Majid, who was known as "Chemical Ali" and was a cousin and close
associate of Hussein, was executed in January 2010 for his role in the 1988
poison-gas attack on the village of Halabja, where 5,000 Kurds were killed. He
was also a member of the group of leaders responsible for the deaths of
approximately 180,000 Kurds in the Iraq-Iran War.

The electoral process was dealt another blow in January 2010 when a
parliamentary panel recommended that 500 candidates (out of a total of 6,500) be
banned from participating in the election because of their alleged former
association with Saddam Hussein's Baath party. The move outraged many Iraqi
Sunnis, who threatened to boycott the elections, and intensified sectarian
tension. A panel of seven judges, however, overturned the ban in February but
said the candidates who run in the elections may still be investigated later for
their ties to the Baath party. The de-Baathification movement was effectively
ended in May, when a group of politicians quietly agreed they would not
disqualify nine winning candidates with Baathist ties.

Sectarian violence increased in the days leading up to the March 7 election, but
the tension was less deadly than widely feared. On election day itself, dozens
of bombs exploded in Baghdad. Most were non-lethal, but two killed at least 38
people. Iraq's election commission reported that 62% of Iraqis voted in the
election, a lower turnout than in the last parliamentary election, held in 2005.
Turnout was around 50% in Baghdad, where the violence was most prominent.

Final results, released in late March, gave the Iraqi National Movement, led by
former prime minister Ayad Allawi, 91 seats in Parliament out of 325. Allawi
gained traction in the weeks leading up to the election. A secular, nationalist
Shiite, Allawi received support from Sunni Muslims, and he fared particularly
well in Sunni-dominated central and western Iraq. The State of Law alliance,
headed by Prime Minister Maliki came in a close second with 89 seats. Both fell
far short of the 163 seats needed to form a majority in Parliament. A Shia
religious movement, including followers of radical cleric Moktada al-Sadr, won
70. The two main Kurdish parties together received 43 seats.

Maliki challenged the results, and a recount of votes in the Baghdad region
confirmed Allawi's slim lead. In October 2010, Maliki formed an alliance with
the Shiite bloc led by al-Sadr, his former rival, which put him close to a
majority of seats. Negotiations continued, and American officials strongly urged
the Sunnis, many of whom backed Allawi, to remain in the negotiations to be
assured a role in the government. An agreement to form a unity government was
finally reached in November that allowed Maliki to retain his position as prime
minister and the Kurds held on to the presidency. Allawi's coalition, Iraqiya,
was promised the role of speaker of the Parliament and leadership of a new
committee charged with overseeing security. Parliament approved the government
in late December.

 

WAR IN IRAQ IS OFFICIALLY OVER BUT POLITICAL UNREST AND VIOLENCE CONTINUE AS
ISIS EMERGES

 

On August 31, 2010, more than seven years after the war in Iraq began, U.S.
president Barack Obama announced the end of U.S. combat operations in Iraq.
Obama emphasized that U.S. domestic problems, mainly the flailing economy and
widespread unemployment, are more pressing matters to his country.

As the U.S. was making plans to withdraw troops from Iraq in late summer and
fall of 2011, the ongoing insurgent activity in the country cast doubt on the
long-term security of the region. This uncertainty was highlighted on Aug. 15,
2011, when insurgents launched more than 40 coordinated attacks throughout the
country, mostly on civilians. A total of 89 people died and more than 300 were
wounded in the violence, which came in the form of suicide attacks, car bombs,
and gunfire. Al-Qaeda in Mesopotamia took credit for the attacks, saying they
were retribution for the killing of Osama bin Laden. The lethality of the
incursions made it clear that Iraq is far from secure and remains a hotbed of
terrorist activity.

In outlining his plan to withdraw troops from Iraq, President Obama had planned
to keep about 5,000 troops in the country as advisers and trainers, but he
reversed the decision in late October when Iraq said the remaining troops would
not be given immunity from Iraqi law. About 150 members of the Defense
Department staff will remain in Iraq to maintain the security of the U.S.
Embassy and the oversee the sale of military equipment to Iraq. In addition, the
CIA will maintain a presence in the country.

On December 15, 2011, the U.S.-led war in Iraq officially ended. The war,
launched in March 2003 based on faulty evidence of weapons of mass destruction
and a dubious connection to the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, lasted
nearly nine years, killed more than 4,440 U.S. troops, and cost about $1
trillion.

On Dec. 19, 2011, the Iraqi government issued a warrant for the arrest of Tareq
al-Hashemi, Iraq's vice president since 2006. Charged with operating death
squads responsible for 150 assorted bombings, killings, and assassinations,
al-Hashemi denied the accusations—claiming they were politically motivated—and
fled to Turkey. On Sept. 9, 2012, al-Hashemi was sentenced to death by hanging
in absentia. The trial stirred up political unrest and ethnic violence. Maliki,
who had been seeking to expand control of security in the Kurdish north, sent
government troops to the region. The Iraqi and Kurdish troops engaged in a
potentially volatile standoff.

In March 2013, ten years after the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, the country
remained politically unstable and vulnerable to another civil war, with mounting
tensions between Sunnis and Shiites, Arabs and Kurds.

May 2013 witnessed a surge in violent attacks between Sunnis and Shiites when
bomb blasts in Sunni areas on the 17th left more than 66 dead. A deadly echo
occurred three days later in Shia sections of Baghdad when car bombs killed 76
civilians. On the same day in Shia-predominant Basra, at least 15 were victims
in more bomb attacks; and in an area north of Baghdad, 12 Iranian pilgrims were
killed.

In July 2013, Al Qaeda in Iraq orchestrated two bold, well-planned prison
escapes using both mortar and suicide attacks that resulted in some 800
dangerous militants going free from facilities at Taji and Abu Ghraib. The
sophistication of the operation signaled the growing threat from the militant
group as well as the weaknesses in Iraq's security forces. The prison breaks
coincided with increased car bombings and sectarian violence throughout the
country.

In Aug. 2013, during the Eid al-Fitr festivities marking the end of Ramadan,
more than 100 Iraqis—mostly civilians—were killed in sectarian gun and bomb
attacks in Baghdad and beyond. Similar violence continued through the end of the
year, with the death toll for 2013 reaching close to 9,000, making it the
deadliest year since 2008.

The Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), an affiliate of al Qaeda made up of
Sunni militants—several of whom broke out of prison in 2013, threatened the
stability of the country and tested the strength of the Iraqi armed forces at
the end of 2013 and into January 2014. Many Sunnis are disappointed with the
Shiite-led government of Prime Minister Maliki, claiming it has shut out Sunni
leaders and targeted Sunni citizens. Such policies have fueled the insurgency.
Forty Sunni members of parliament resigned in December. In early January 2014,
ISIS took control of Falluja and most of Ramadi, both cities in Anbar Province
that are Sunni strongholds and were major battlegrounds during the U.S.-led war
in Iraq. Government troops resumed control of Ramadi, but the militants held on
to Falluja.

Al Qaeda severed ties with ISIS in early February 2014, citing the group's
refusal to comply with directives from Al Qaeda leadership and its insistence on
acting independently of other rebel groups. The rift had been simmering for
months, but the final straw seemed to be ISIS's defiance of an order to leave
Syria from Al Qaeda leader Ayman Zawahiri.

Moktada al-Sadr, the radical—and influential—Shiite cleric who led the powerful
Madhi militia that fueled sectarian violence during the war in Iraq by fighting
both Iraqi Sunnis and American troops, announced his departure from politics in
February 2014. He had allied himself with Prime Minister Maliki but said the
government is "a group of wolves hungry for power and money, backed by the West
and the East." He encouraged his allies in Parliament to stay on and continue
their work.

In April 2014, Iraq announced the "complete closure" of Abu Ghraib, the infamous
prison in which members of the U.S. military physically and sexually abused
Iraqi prisoners. Images of the abuse were publicized in April 2004. Saddam
Hussein also used the prison to torture and execute inmates.

 

2014 PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS UNEXPECTEDLY PEACEFUL DESPITE RISE OF ISIS

 

In May 2014, Iraq held parliamentary elections amid the insurgency in Anbar
Province led by Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), an extremist Sunni
affiliate of al Qaeda. Suicide bombings and attacks on polling stations around
Baghdad spiked in the weeks leading up to the vote, and ISIS threatened to
disrupt the election and warned Iraqis not to vote. With voter turnout at around
60%, citizens seemed to have ignored the threats. The country took extraordinary
precautions and implemented unprecedented security measures to prevent violence,
and the efforts seemed largely successful, with only a few incidents of violence
being reported. Prime Minister Maliki's State of Law coalition prevailed, taking
92 seats out of 328 seats in Parliament. More than 9,000 candidates competed for
the 328 seats.

ISIS was formed in April 2013 and is active in both Iraq and Syria. Foreign
jihadists compose the bulk of the organization, which believes that an Islamic
state should be created in what is now Syria and Iraq and ruled by strict
shariah law. Al Qaeda recently distanced itself from ISIS because of the group's
brutal tactics, including attacks on Muslims.

Members of ISIS took control of Mosul in northern Iraq in early June 2014,
dealing the government an enormous—and unexpected—blow. The militants released
Sunni insurgents from prison, looted banks of about $425 million, and occupied
an airport, several government and military buildings, and a police station.
Government troops abandoned the fight in droves and joined civilians fleeing the
city. As many as 500,000 people fled Mosul. Defection has increased in recent
months as the Sunni insurgency has intensified. Prime Minister Maliki was widely
blamed for fueling the sectarian crisis by alienating Sunnis from the Shiite-led
government and ordering the military to target Sunnis. He declared a state of
emergency and appealed for help from international allies. Mosul is the
second-largest city in Iraq and an important hub in the country's oil industry.

The militants, who were joined by other Sunni groups, pressed on after occupying
Mosul, taking Tikrit. Iraqi air force officials told about 1,700 cadets to
return home after the militants won control of Tikrit. The cadets never made it
home and were all killed by ISIS militants. Their bodies were found in mass
graves in April 2015.

ISIS militants then seized control of the country's largest oil facility,
located in Baiji, as they headed south toward Baghdad. As the militants expanded
their areas of control and the stability and future of Iraq grew even more dire,
Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, the country's senior Shiite religious leader,
called on all Iraqis to fight the militants, saying it is "the legal and
national responsibility of whoever can hold a weapon to hold it to defend the
country, the citizens and the holy sites."

Thousands of Shiites heeded Sistani's call and joined the fight. The untrained
fighters were met with brutal attacks from ISIS, and hundreds of Shiites were
reportedly massacred after taking up arms. ISIS continued to seize more
territory in the north and west, putting pressure on the U.S. and other nations
to consider a military response. On June 21, President Obama said 300 military
advisers would be sent to Iraq but said combat troops would not be deployed.

There were calls from both inside Iraq and by foreign leaders for Maliki to step
down to make way for the formation of a unity government. He refused, and headed
a caretaker government while Parliament struggled to elect a speaker, a
necessary first step to form a government. Parliament failed on two occasions to
elect a speaker. On its third attempt, in July, Parliament elected Salim
al-Jubouri, a moderate Sunni Islamist, as speaker. Under the Constitution,
Parliament has 30 days to elect a president, and two weeks after that it must
name a prime minister. As part of a power-sharing agreement, the speaker is a
Sunni, the president a Kurd, and the prime minister a Shiite. Parliament elected
Fouad Massoum, Kurdish politician, as president on July 24. He was sworn in
after the vote.

With the Iraqi army in retreat, Kurds took over the northern, oil-rich city of
Kirkuk, which they long dominated but have not fully controlled. The Kurdish
security force, the pesh merga, fought back ISIS militants. The Kurds, largely
autonomous in northern Iraq, aspire to have an independent state made up of
Kurds from Syria, Iraq, Turkey, and Iran. Their initial success in taking
control of the city and beating back the advance of ISIS gave Kurds hope that
their dream may become a reality. However, in early August, ISIS fighters
proceeded north and took over three towns, Sinjar, Zumar, and Wana, after
defeating the pesh merga, which proved unfit for such a fight. ISIS threatened
to exterminate members of the Yazidi minority who live in Sinjar, and 40,000
members of the group fled to Mount Sinjar with just the clothes on their backs.
They were stranded in the heat without food, water, medicine, or other supplies.
Yazidis practice a religion based on Zoroastrianism, and ISIS considers them
heretics. ISIS, which changed its name to the Islamic State and declared the
territory under its control—Anbar province (west of Baghdad) and most of Nineveh
(north of Baghdad)—a caliphate, also threatened to kill all Christians in Mosul
who didn't convert to Islam. Nearly all of the city's Christians, who numbered
about 60,000 ten years ago, fled.

Maliki dispatched Iraq's air force to assist the pesh merga in their fight
against the militants. The move seemed tactical only and did not signal an
easing of tension between the government and Kurds. The U.S. again became
militarily involved in Iraq, with President Barack Obama authorizing airstrikes
in August to protect Americans and American facilities in Iraq, particularly in
Erbil. The U.S. military also dropped food and medicine to the thousands of
Yazidis stranded on Mount Sinjar. Obama said the authorization is narrow and he
will not allow the U.S. to become mired in a war in another war in Iraq. "I know
that many of you are rightly concerned about any American military action in
Iraq, even limited strikes like these," he said. "I understand that. . . As
commander in chief, I will not allow the United States to be dragged into
fighting another war in Iraq." The first airstrike was launched on Aug. 8 and
targeted militants near Erbil. Obama is the fourth consecutive president to bomb
Iraq.

Iran, which holds tremendous influence over the Shiite-led government of Iraq,
has advised Iraq during the crisis. Qassim Suleimani, head of the Quds Force of
the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, traveled to Baghdad to help Maliki and
military leaders plan a response to the ISIS advance, and Iran has regularly
sent military supplies to Iraq. Syria has also contributed, launching airstrikes
targeted at ISIS militants in western Iraq.

In August, ISIS militants took control of the largest dam in Iraq, which is
located in Mosul. The dam provides electricity for all of Mosul and is the water
supply for the city and much of the surrounding area. The UN has declared the
dam is unstable and is vulnerable to collapse. If the dam is compromised, a
65-foot-high wave of water could deluge the city. After about a week of
fighting, the pesh merga recaptured the dam.

Members of ISIS beheaded American journalist James Foley, 40, in apparent
retaliation for U.S. airstrikes against the group. Foley, who worked for
GlobalPost, went missing in Syria in November 2012. ISIS released a graphic
video of his killing. After his death, the U.S. announced that troops had
attempted to rescue him and other U.S. hostages in July, but they were unable to
locate him. ISIS said Steven Sotloff, another kidnapped American journalist,
would be killed if the airstrikes continued. President Obama referred to ISIS as
a "cancer." "The United States of America will continue to do what we must do to
protect our people," he said. "We will be vigilant, and we will be relentless."
The U.S. stepped up its airstrikes against the militants following Foley's
murder. Two weeks later, ISIS released a video showing the beheading of Sotloff,
31, who worked for Time and other news outlets. He was abducted in 2013 in
Syria.

In early September, a coalition of Shiite militias delivered ISIS its first
major setback in Iraq. ISIS had been surrounding and attacking Amerli, a town
between Erbil and Baghdad that is home to Shiite Turkmens, for about three
months before the militias, aided by U.S. airstrikes, beat back ISIS, ending the
siege.

President Obama said in September 2014 that he had authorized airstrikes against
ISIS and would work with allies in the region to retake areas under ISIS control
and decimate the terrorist group, which he has referred to as a "cancer." He was
clear that he does not plan to deploy ground troops in the fight against ISIS.
He also asked Congress to authorize money to fund and train moderate rebel
groups in Syria to aid in the fight. Obama authorized the airstrikes under the
2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force law, which allowed President George
W. Bush to use "necessary and appropriate force" against those involved in the
Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

"ISIL poses a threat to the people of Iraq and Syria, and the broader Middle
East—including American citizens, personnel and facilities," Obama said. "If
left unchecked, these terrorists could pose a growing threat beyond that region,
including to the United States. While we have not yet detected specific plotting
against our homeland, ISIL leaders have threatened America and our allies." The
White House uses the name Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).

In the days following the speech, the U.S. intensified its attacks on areas
taken over by ISIS in Iraq. The strikes targeted areas near Baghdad and regions
in the north. While the U.S.-led attacks stopped ISIS from taking over Baghdad,
they did little to thwart the advance of ISIS in the north. Indeed, the group
continued to expand the area under its control, running schools using strict
Islamic curriculum and operating a police force under the name "the Islamic
Police of the Islamic State of Iraq."

 

NEW PRIME MINISTER FORMS A POWER-SHARING GOVERNMENT

 

In August President Fouad Massoum nominated Haider al-Abadi, the first deputy
speaker of Parliament, as prime minister. Abadi, a Shiite, is a member of the
Dawa Party, which is headed by Prime Minister Maliki. Maliki refused to cede
power, saying he will challenge the nomination in court and threatening to use
force if necessary. Indeed, officials in Iraq and the U.S. feared a military
coup. The U.S. has been pushing for Maliki to step down. Maliki's defiance
further destabilized a country already fighting stubborn militants intent on
creating an Islamic state and facing a humanitarian crisis brought on by ISIS's
brutality against religious minorities. On Aug. 14, Maliki agreed to step aside,
paving the way for Abadi to become prime minister in a peaceful transition.

Parliament approved a power-sharing government headed by Abadi in September
2014. Kurds and Sunnis were given posts in the new government. However, the
defense and interior ministries, among the most powerful and important
positions, were left vacant. Parliament, including some fellow Shiites, rejected
several of his nominees, signalling that Abadi has a tough rode ahead of him
politically. Maliki, former prime minister Ayad Allawi, and Osama al-Nujaifi,
the former speaker of Parliament were named vice presidents. Abadi faces the
task of earning the trust of Sunnis and Kurds, who felt under attack and
disenfranchised during Maliki's rule.

Abadi won praise in his first weeks as prime minister for reaching out to Sunnis
and Kurds. In early December 2014, he reached a deal with the Kurds to share oil
revenue, fund the pesh merga troops, and send arms to the Kurds. The deal will
likely discourage the Kurds from seeking independence and unify the country as
it battles the Islamic State.

 

MIXED BAG IN THE FIGHT AGAINST ISIS

 

France and the UK approved airstrikes in late September 2014 and immediately
began attacking ISIS strongholds in the north. About 60 countries in total
joined the fight against ISIS. Pesh merga troops, backed up by U.S. and British
airstrikes, took control of a northern Syrian border crossing in the Rabia
district from ISIS fighters in September. The pesh merga forces made gains in
other areas, including Daquq, south of Kirkuk, and several other towns. However,
by the end of October, ISIS maintained its hold on many cities in the largely
Sunni Anbar Province, as U.S.-led airstrikes proved largely ineffectual without
the support of Iraqi troops on the ground. Many civilians fled, desperate to
escape the horrific executions committed by the militants. ISIS began to spread
out across the country, making it more difficult for the government to organize
an offensive.

Despite making conciliatory gestures toward Sunnis, Prime Minister Abadi failed
to encourage them to join the fight against ISIS, and the military remained
weakened by desertions, diminished morale, and mistrust of the new government.
The U.S. and its allies led the fight against ISIS, launching some 900
airstrikes on ISIS targets by January 2015.

The Iraqi military, aided by Iranian-backed Shiite militias and Iranian troops
and advisers, began a major campaign in March 2015 against ISIS in Tikrit,
Saddam Hussein's hometown, which ISIS captured in June 2014. Fighters from
Shiite militias comprised the bulk of the force, some 20,000 men, while Iraqi
troops numbered only about 3,000. A small number of Sunni fighters joined the
battle. Despite having only about 3,000 fighters in Tikrit, ISIS put up a
stubborn fight, and the offensive stalled. Prime Minister Abadi asked the U.S.
for help at the end of March. The Obama administration approved airstrikes after
Iran agreed to step aside. A week later, Iraqi forces resumed control of the
city.

ISIS fighters launched a lightning-fast advance on Ramadi, the capital of Anbar
Province, in mid-May 2015. Overnight, the militants took control of the
government compound and then set it on fire. Iraqi troops fled the city, a major
setback for the government. Following the loss of Anbar, the U.S. government
announced in June that an additional 450 troops would be sent to Anbar Province
to establish a new base to train Iraqi troops and then retake Ramadi.

 

BLACKWATER GUARDS CONVICTED

 

On Oct. 22, 2014, four security guards for the private security company
Blackwater Worldwide were convicted by a jury in a Washington Federal District
Court of manslaughter, murder, and weapons charges for their involvement in the
September 2007 shooting deaths of 17 unarmed Iraqi civilians. Nicholas Slatten
was convicted of murder, and Dustin Heard, Evan Liberty, and Paul Slough were
convicted of voluntary manslaughter and weapons violations. The killings sparked
furious protests in Iraq.

 

PRIME MINISTER CALLS FOR OVERHAUL OF GOVERNMENT

 

Iraq experienced a blistering heatwave during the summer of 2015, with daytime
temperatures above 120 degrees. Despite the oppressive heat, government
electrical grids could only provide a few hours of air conditioning per day.
Angry—and likely irritable—citizens blamed government corruption on the lack of
relief and took to the streets in protest. After several weeks, Prime Minister
Haider al-Abadi announced an anti-corruption drive and an overhaul of the
government, which included abolishing the posts of three vice presidents and
three deputy prime ministers and eliminating cabinet positions for Shiites,
Sunnis, and Kurds that are based on quotas. Parliament approved the sweeping
plan and it won the support of revered Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali
al-Sistani. The move, though necessary, comes with the risk of further
alienating minority Sunnis, who have complained of being disenfranchised.

See also Encyclopedia: Iraq.
U.S. State Dept. Country Notes: Iraq

See also Iraq Timeline.

 

Next: History
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