Iraq
Iraq is bordered by Kuwait, Iran, Turkey, Syria, Jordan, and Saudi
Arabia. The country slopes from mountains over 3,000 meters (10,000
ft.) above sea level along the border with Iran and Turkey to the
remnants of sea-level marshes in the southeast. Much of the land is
desert or wasteland. The mountains in the northeast are an extension
of the alpine system that runs eastward from the Balkans into
southern Turkey, northern Iraq, Iran, and Afghanistan, terminating
in the Himalayas.
Average temperatures range from higher than 48°C (120°F) in July and
August to below freezing in January. Most of the rainfall occurs
from December through April and averages between 10 and 18
centimeters (4-7 in.) annually. The mountainous region of northern
Iraq receives appreciably more precipitation than the central or
southern desert region.
Almost 75% of Iraq's population live in the flat, alluvial plain
stretching southeast from Baghdad and Basrah to the Persian Gulf.
The Tigris and Euphrates Rivers carry about 70 million cubic meters
of silt annually to the delta. Known in ancient times as
Mesopotamia, the region is the legendary locale of the Garden of
Eden. The ruins of Ur, Babylon, and other ancient cities are in
Iraq.
Iraq's two largest ethnic groups are Arabs and Kurds. Other distinct
groups include Turcoman, Chaldeans, Assyrians, and Armenians. Arabic
is the most commonly spoken language. Kurdish is spoken in the
north, and English is the most commonly spoken Western language.
The majority (60-65%) of Iraqi Muslims are members of the Shi'a
sect, but there is a large (32-37%) Sunni population as well, made
up of both Arabs and Kurds. Small communities of Christians, Jews,
Bahais, Mandaeans, and Yezidis also exist. Most Kurds are Sunni
Muslim but differ from their Arab neighbors in language, dress, and
customs. |
|
Once known as Mesopotamia, Iraq was the site of flourishing ancient
civilizations, including the Sumerian, Babylonian, and Parthian
cultures. Muslims conquered Iraq in the seventh century A.D. In the
eighth century, the Abassid caliphate established its capital at
Baghdad.
At the end of World War I, Iraq became a British-mandated territory.
When it was declared independent in 1932, the Hashemite family, a
branch of which also ruled Jordan, ruled as a constitutional
monarchy. In 1945, Iraq joined the United Nations and became a
founding member of the Arab League. In 1956, the Baghdad Pact allied
Iraq, Turkey, Iran, Pakistan, and the United Kingdom, and
established its headquarters in Baghdad.
Gen. Abdul Karim Qasim took power in a July 1958 coup, during which
King Faysal II and Prime Minister Nuri as-Said were killed. Qasim
ended Iraq's membership in the Baghdad Pact in 1959. Qasim was
assassinated in February 1963, when the Arab Socialist Renaissance
Party (Ba'ath Party) took power under the leadership of Gen. Ahmad
Hasan al-Bakr as prime minister and Col. Abdul Salam Arif as
president.
Nine months later, Arif led a coup ousting the Ba'ath government. In
April 1966, Arif was killed in a plane crash and was succeeded by
his brother, Gen. Abdul Rahman Mohammad Arif. On July 17, 1968, a
group of Ba'athists and military elements overthrew the Arif regime.
Ahmad Hasan al-Bakr reemerged as the President of Iraq and Chairman
of the Revolutionary Command Council (RCC).
In July 1979, Bakr resigned, and Saddam Hussein assumed both
offices. The Iran-Iraq war (1980-88) devastated the economy of Iraq.
Iraq declared victory in 1988 but actually achieved a weary return
to the status quo antebellum. The war left Iraq with the largest
military establishment in the Gulf region but with huge debts and an
ongoing rebellion by Kurdish elements in the northern mountains. The
government suppressed the rebellion by using weapons of mass
destruction on civilian targets, including a mass chemical weapons
attack on the city of Halabja that killed several thousand
civilians.
Iraq invaded Kuwait in August 1990, but a U.S.-led coalition acting
under United Nations (UN) resolutions expelled Iraq in February
1991. After the war, Kurds in the north and Shi'a Muslims in the
south rebelled against the government of Saddam Hussein. The
government responded quickly and with crushing force, killing
thousands. It also pursued damaging environmental and agricultural
policy meant to drain the marshes of the south. As a result, the
United States, United Kingdom, and France established protective
no-fly zones in northern and southern Iraq. In addition, the UN
Security Council required the regime to surrender its weapons of
mass destruction (WMD) and submit to UN inspections. When the Ba'ath
regime refused to fully cooperate with the UN inspections, the
Security Council employed sanctions to prevent further WMD
development and compel Iraqi adherence to international obligations.
Coalition forces enforced no-fly zones in southern and northern Iraq
to protect Iraqi citizens from attack by the regime and a no-drive
zone in southern Iraq to prevent the regime from massing forces to
threaten or again invade Kuwait.
A U.S.-led coalition removed the Ba'ath regime in March-April 2003,
bringing an end to more than 12 years of Iraqi defiance of UN
Security Council resolutions. The coalition formed the Coalition
Provisional Authority (CPA) to provide for the administration of
Iraq during the period of transitional administration, to restore
conditions of security and stability, and to create conditions in
which the Iraqi people could freely determine their own political
future. The UN Security Council acknowledged the authorities of the
coalition and provided for a role for the UN and other parties to
assist in fulfilling these objectives.
The CPA disbanded on June 28, 2004, transferring sovereign authority
for governing Iraq to the Iraqi Interim Government (IIG). Based on
the timetable laid out in the Transitional Administrative Law (TAL),
the IIG governed Iraq until elections were held on January 30, 2005;
thereafter the Iraqi Transitional Government assumed authority.
In May 2005, the Iraqi Transitional Government appointed a
multi-ethnic committee to draft a new Iraqi Constitution. The new
constitution was finalized in September 2005, and was ratified in a
nationwide referendum on October 15, 2005. On December 15, 2005,
Iraqis again went to the polls to participate in the first
legislative elections as laid out by the new constitution. The new
four-year, constitutionally based government took office in March
2006, and the new cabinet was approved and installed in May 2006. |
|
