June 30, 2014

The Sunni jihadist militant group Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) declared yesterday that it was establishing a caliphate on the territories it controls in Iraq and Syria. It is to be known simply as “the Islamic State” and will extend from Aleppo in northern Syria to Diyala province in eastern Iraq. ISIS also proclaimed the group’s leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, as caliph and “leader for Muslims everywhere.” He will be known as “Caliph Ibrahim.” The caliphate is to be governed under strict Shari`ah law. The rebels demand that all Muslims “pledge allegiance” to the new ruler and “reject democracy and other garbage from the West.”

Experts on Islamic history note that the erasing of old colonial-era boundaries between Syria and Iraq is a powerful statement to Muslims–one that is rich in cultural and historic significance. In the words of ISIS spokesman Abu Muhammad al-Adnani, Muslims have long dreamed of a time when they would “shake off the dust of humiliation and disgrace” and forge a new caliphate out of the chaos and despair of the modern Middle East.

The new caliphate proclaimed by the militant group ISIS includes large sections of northeastern Syria and northern Iraq. (World Book map)

In northern Iraq, the Iraqi military continued yesterday to engage ISIS forces in an offensive to retake the city of Tikrit from the rebels. ISIS seized Tikrit on June 11 as the jihadist army swept across large parts of northwestern Iraq. The heavy fighting has resulted in many casualties on both sides, a BBC correspondent on the ground has reported. According to Human Rights Watch, ISIS destroyed seven Shi`ite places of worship in the predominantly Shi`ite Turkmen city of Tal Afar last week. Tal Afar is about 30 miles (50 kilometers) west of Mosul.

Additional World Book articles:

• Umayyad caliphate
• Iraq War
• Iraq 2012 (a Back in Time article)
• Iraq 2013 (a Back in Time article)
• Syria 2013 (a Back in Time article)
• Syria: The Roots of a Rebellion (a special report)

June 26, 2014

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki confirmed today that Syrian jets carried out air strikes on Islamist militants inside Iraq’s border with Syria. Speaking to a BBC correspondent, Prime Minister Maliki also declared that he welcomed the air strikes as it left both countries “winners.” Sources in western Iraq have reported that on June 24, Syrian jets attacked positions held by the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) and that at least 30 people were killed. ISIS militants seek to establish a Sunni caliphate straddling the Syrian-Iraqi border to be ruled under strict Shari`ah law.

Nouri Kamel al-Maliki became prime minister of Iraq in 2006. (AP/Wide World)

International affairs experts note that the attacks align Maliki and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad against a common enemy. The alliance comes as Iran and the United States are enlarging their presence in Iraq. (Iran, like Iraq, is largely Shi`ite.) Some 300 U.S. military advisers arrived in Baghdad this week, and American surveillance drones are flying over northern Iraq. Iranian General Qassem Soleimani, commander of the Revolutionary Guard’s Quds Force, also arrived in Baghdad this week to survey Iraqi military defenses and the Shi`ite militias that he has armed and trained. A senior Iraqi intelligence official told a BBC correspondent that Iran is supplying Iraqi forces with weapons–including heavy machine guns, rockets, and multiple rocket launchers.

Additional World Book articles:

• Umayyad caliphate
• Sadr, Muqtada al-
• Iraq War
• Kurdistan
• Iraq 2012 (a Back in Time article)
• Iraq 2013 (a Back in Time article)
• Syria 2013 (a Back in Time article)
• Syria: The Roots of a Rebellion (a special report)

June 23, 2014

United States Secretary of State John Kerry met with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki in Baghdad today to discuss the military crisis in Iraq. Sunni militants, including jihadist forces known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), have gained control of large areas of northern and western Iraq. In the past two days, militants captured four towns in the predominantly Sunni Anbar province—Anah, Qaim, Rawa, and Rutba. They also captured the airport in Tal Afar—situated between the town of Mosul (which was captured by militants two weeks ago) and the Syrian border. Other territory gained includes: a dam near Haditha that is important to Iraq’s electrical grid; Iraq’s enormous Baiji oil refinery, 130 miles (210 kilometers) north of Baghdad; and border crossings between Iraq and both Syria and Jordan.

Experts report that approximately 70 percent of Iraq's Anbar province, bordering both Syria and Jordan, has been captured by Sunni militants in 2014 (World Book map).

Iraq is in grave danger of breaking apart. Sectarian tensions in Iraq between Sunni and Shi`ite Muslims have greatly escalated over the past months. During the dictatorship of Saddam Hussein, who ruled from 1979 to 2003, Iraq’s Shi`ia majority was politically powerless. When a government was formed in 2006 with Nouri Maliki, a Shi’ite, as prime minister, experts on the Middle East strongly encouraged the new prime minister to make his government inclusive of both Sunnis and Shi’ites. Most experts agree that Maliki did not reach out to include Sunnis in the decision-making process in Iraq. The uprising of Sunnis in Anbar province began at the end of 2013. In January 2014, Sunni militants gained control of both Ramadi and Fallujah.

The disintegration of Iraq has repercussions far past the nation’s own borders. With Sunni militants now in control of border crossings into Syria, military experts fear that supply lines can easily be created between Syria and Iraq. In the civil war in Syria, ISIS has seized territory in Syria and fights against the rule of President Bashar al-Assad.  Supply lines between Iraq and Syria would increase the ability of Sunni militants to aid anti-government forces in Syria. ISIS hopes to create a new nation in Sunni-dominated areas of Iraq and Syria.

After meeting with Prime Minister Maliki for some 90 minutes, Secretary of State Kerry assured the government of Iraq of continued U.S. support, providing the Iraqis agreed to form a new and more inclusive government by July 1. Kerry stated,  “The future of Iraq depends on decisions made in the next few days and weeks.” About 300 U.S. military advisers are being sent to Iraq later this week.

Additional World Book articles:

• Iraq War
• Kurdistan
• Iraq 2012 (a Back in Time article)
• Iraq 2013 (a Back in Time article)
• Syria 2013 (a Back in Time article)

June 18, 2014

As much as 75 percent of Iraq’s enormous Baiji oil refinery, 130 miles (210 kilometers) north of Baghdad, reportedly fell to Sunni militants this morning. Forces of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) had surrounded the refinery for the past week, battling with a battalion of the Iraqi army that that was backed by helicopter gunships. The Baiji refinery is the largest in Iraq. Its capture deprives the Iraq government of an important source of fuel and provides the insurgents with a potentially lucrative source of income. Besides the refinery, the Baiji complex includes a 600-megawatt power plant, which supplies electric power to much of northern Iraq.

On June 16, ISIS militants seized the small city of Tal Afar in northwestern Iraq. Responding to the situation, the United States Department of Defense ordered the U.S.S. George H.W. Bush aircraft carrier, accompanied by two warships, to the Persian Gulf.

U.S. Secretary of State John F. Kerry (U.S. Senate)

President Hassan Rouhani of Iran. (The Office of Hassan Rouhani)

In Washington, D.C., on Monday, Secretary of State John F. Kerry stated that the United States was open to working with Iran to help stop the insurgents’ advances in Iraq. In Tehran, the Iranian capital, President Hassan Rouhani declared that his government would not rule out working with the United States to try to stabilize Iraq: “We have said that all countries must unite in combating terrorism.” Iran, a close ally of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s Shi`ite-led government, has reportedly sent members of the Revolutionary Guards, an elite military force, into Iraq to help al-Maliki fight the Sunni militants.

Additional World Book articles:

• Iraq War
• Kurdistan
• Iraq 2012 (a Back in Time article)
• Iraq 2013 (a Back in Time article)
• Syria 2013 (a Back in Time article)

June 10, 2014

Hundreds of armed men attacked Mosul, one of Iraq’s largest cities, this morning and seized control of the airport and army headquarters as well as local government offices and police stations. Hundreds of detainees are reported to have been set free, and many police stations torched. In Baghdad, the capital, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki acknowledged that “vital areas” of the city are effectively under the control of Islamist militants and asked parliament to declare a state of emergency. “What happened [in Mosul] is a disaster by any standard,” declared Osama al-Nujaifi, speaker of the Iraqi parliament. “The presence of these terrorist groups in this vast province . . . threatens not just the security and the unity of Iraq, but the whole Middle East.”

According to the BBC correspondent in Beirut, militants with the Sunni jihadist organization Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) have been informally controlling much of Ninawa province, of which Mosul is the capital, for months and are actively fighting across the border in the Syrian civil war. Experts on the scene believe ISIS is attempting to grab control of eastern Syria and western Iraq, apparently aiming to establish an Islamic state straddling the border.

Islamic militants are now in control of Mosul and Ninawa province in northern Iraq as well as parts of Al Anbar province in western Iraq. (World Book map)

In the past week, ISIS militants have killed scores of people in a series of major attacks on cities and towns in central, western, and northern Iraq. On June 7, more than 50 people died in a series of bombings in Shi`ite neighborhoods in Baghdad. That same day, militants stormed a university in Al Anbar province and took dozens of students hostage. ISIS has controlled parts of Ramadi, capital of Anbar province, and much of the nearby city of Fallujah since late December.

Additional World Book articles:

• Iraq War
• Iraq 2012 (a Back in Time article)
• Iraq 2013 (a Back in Time article)
• Syria 2013 (a Back in Time article)

January 14, 2014

The security situation in Iraq continues to rapidly break down. Yesterday, multiple car bombs exploded in several of Baghdad’s Shi’ite neighborhoods, killing at least 29 people. The attacks appeared to be coordinated with the arrival of United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, who was in Baghdad to confer with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Kamal al-Maliki. The secretary general reportedly scolded Iraq’s political leaders for not working together to “stop the senseless deaths of Iraqi women, children, and men.” More than 8,000 Iraqis were killed in 2013 as security deteriorated in and around Baghdad, the capital; hundreds more have died so far this month.

In restive Anbar province, a Sunni stronghold west of Baghdad, the city of Fallujah is currently under the control of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, a militant group with connections to the al-Qa’ida terrorist network. On January 12, fighting between the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, commonly known as ISIS, and Iraqi government forces spread out of Anbar province to the very outskirts of Baghdad. Clashes between ISIS forces and the Iraqi army left at least 14 people dead near the notorious Abu Ghraib prison. In Ramadi, the other major city in Anbar province, militants captured and executed four members of an elite unit of the Iraqi military in an effort to retake control of the area.

Iraqi militants celebrate an attack on U.S. trucks in 2004 in Fallujah, the site of renewed fighting between Iraqi forces and Sunni rebels. The militants are again in control of the city. (© Karim Sahib, AFP/Getty Images)

ISIS is also actively involved in the civil war in Syria. Experts on the situation in Syria note that infighting between ISIS and the secular Free Syrian Army rebel group threatens to tip the balance among rebel forces. ISIS forces have increasingly come into conflict with the Free Syrian Army and other factions as Islamist militants attempt to enforce their strict form of Islamic Shari’ah law on areas under rebel control. The Free Syrian Army and the other factions have been fighting to bring down the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad since 2011.

Additional World Book articles:

• Iraq War
• Iraq 2011 (a Back in Time article)
• Iraq 2012 (a Back in Time article)
• Iraq: a Quest for Political Identity in a Second Year of War (a special report)
• Syria: The Roots of a Rebellion (a special report)

July 22, 2013

Attacks on two large prisons outside Baghdad resulted in the deaths of at least 25 Iraqi security guards this morning. At the infamous Abu Ghraib prison, hundreds of convicts, including senior members of al-Qa’ida in Mesopotamia, broke out as the militants carried out their military-style assault. (Al-Qa’ida in Mesopotamia is an Iraqi offshoot of Osama bin Laden’s terrorist organization. In Iraq, the organization is made up of Sunni insurgents.)

Sectarian violence is once again on the rise in Iraq, especially in and around Baghdad and in the northern city of Mosul. (World Book map).

In the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, a suicide car-bomber targeting Iraqi security forces left another 22 soldiers and 3 passers-by dead today. A separate attack in western Mosul killed 4 policemen.

Experts on the situation in Iraq note that the prison attacks on Taji and Abu Ghraib, which began late on July 21, are the latest indication of the deteriorating state of security in the country. They also suggest that Sunni militants are re-gaining momentum in their insurgency against Nouri al-Maliki’s Shi’ite-dominated government. The latest surge of attacks in Iraq has resulted in the deaths of more than 450 Iraqis since the start of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan on July 10. Sectarian violence in Iraq has not been this bad since 2007 and 2008.

Additional World Book articles:

• Iraq War
• Iraq: a Quest for Political Identity in a Second Year of War (a special report)
• Iraq 2007 (a Back in Time article)
• Iraq 2008 (a Back in Time article)

May 20, 2013

A series of explosions rocked central and southern Iraq today, killing at least 100 people. Multiple bombings at bus stations and markets in primarily Shi’ite neighborhoods in Baghdad left dozens of people dead and many others injured. Bombing attacks were also made in Basra, Iraq’s second largest city, and in Samarra, north of Baghdad. In a separate incident in western Anbar province, 10 policemen kidnapped on May 18 were found dead today.

The bombing of the al-Askari shrine in Samarra in 2006 triggered massive violence between Sunni and Shi`ite Muslims in Iraq. The same pattern is emerging in 2013, with Sunni and Shi'ite militants bombing each other's mosques. (© Dia Hamid, AFP/Getty Images)

The surge of sectarian tensions over the last 30 days is the worst violence seen in Iraq in five years. Two bombings apparently targeting Sunnis in Iraqi towns near Baghdad left 37 people dead and dozens of others injured on May 17. That same day, some 30 people were killed when two bombs were detonated outside a Sunni mosque in the city of Baqubah, 30 miles (50 kilometers) north of Baghdad. On May 16, a suicide bomber blew himself up at a Shi’ite mosque in the northern city of Kirkuk, killing 8 people.

Security experts suggest that the latest surge in sectarian violence is being carried out be Sunni Islamist insurgents determined to bring down the Shi’ite-led government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. The experts have voiced fears that the country could revert back to the levels of sectarian violence last seen in 2005 through 2007.

Additional World Book articles

• Iraq war
• Islam (divisions of)
• Iraq 2005 (a Back in Time article)
• Iraq 2006 (a Back in Time article)
• Iraq 2007 (a Back in Time article)

March 19, 2013

A wave of deadly bombings in and around Baghdad, primarily in Shi’ite Muslim neighborhoods, left at least 48 people dead and hundreds injured on the 10th anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq. The coordinated attacks included at least 15 car bombings, multiple roadside bombings, and shootings by snipers, all during the morning rush hour in the Iraqi capital. The deadliest of the attacks, which took place outside the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs, killed 7 people and injured at least 20 others. Another 6 people were killed and 15 others wounded when a bomb exploded outside a restaurant near the main entrance to the heavily fortified Green Zone, where the U.S. embassy is located.

Baghdad (AP/Wide World)

A militant group known as the Islamic State of Iraq, which includes al-Qa’ida in Iraq, is known to have accelerated its attacks on Shi’ite targets in an attempt to revive the secular insurgency that left tens of thousands of people dead between 2005 and 2008. Their aim is to bring down the Shi’ite-dominated government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. The Iraqi government is largely deadlocked, with Maliki at odds with Kurds in the north, most Sunni groups, and even factions within his own Shi’ite community. Iraq was controlled for years by that country’s Sunni minority, under the Baath government of dictator Saddam Hussein, who was overthrown in 2003.

Additional World Book articles:

• Iraq history
• Iraq 2005 (a Back in Time article)
• Iraq 2006 (a Back in Time article)
• Iraq 2007 (a Back in Time article)
• Iraq 2008 (a Back in Time article)
• The War in Iraq: the Military Campaign and Aftermath (a special report)
• The War in Iraq: Shifting Alliances on the World Stage (a special report)
• Iraq: a Quest for Political Identity in a Second Year of War (a special report)
• The Middle East: From Fall to Spring (a special report)

February 18, 2013

A wave of car bombings in Shi’ite neighborhoods in and around Baghdad yesterday left 37 people dead and some 125 others wounded. Al-Qa’ida in Iraq has claimed responsibility for the attacks, and al-Qa’ida and other Sunni extremist groups have ramped up attacks on Shi’ite Muslims as a way of bringing down the Shi’ite-led government. At least 200 Iraqis have been killed in attacks targeting Shi’ites since January.

Iraq’s Sunni minority claims that Prime Minister Nouri Kamel al-Maliki and his political allies have undermined Sunni politicians to monopolize power. In November, an Iraqi court sentenced Iraqi Vice President Tariq al-Hashemi to death for the third time on charges that he instigated terrorist attacks on Shi’ite pilgrims. All verdicts were delivered in absentia because Hashemi fled Iraq in 2011 and is living in exile in Turkey. Al-Hashemi claims that his long-time rival Prime Minister Maliki is behind the charges, which he alleges are politically motivated.

On February 15, tens of thousands of Sunni Muslims rallied in several Iraqi cities to protest what they describe as unfair treatment by the Shi’ite-led government. In a Sunni neighborhood in Baghdad, some 3,000 lawyers recently took to the streets, demanding an end to judicial corruption and prisoner abuse in Iraq’s prisons.

Iraqis pull down a statue of Saddam Hussein after U.S. forces entered Baghdad in 2003. Iraqis had high hopes after the U.S. military deposed Hussein in 2003, but 10 years later, many Iraqis are living in deplorable conditions. (AP/Wide World)

In recent weeks, both Sunni and Shit’te Iraqis alike have begun to openly protest the wretched conditions and bitter sectarian conflict they have endured since the United States invaded Iraq in 2003 and overthrew the Saddam Hussein government. Demonstrators have stormed government buildings in several cities to protest political corruption and shortages of food, electric power, and jobs. The Reuters news agency reported: “. . .  years after the U.S.-led invasion, Iraq’s infrastructure remains severely damaged. The country suffers a chronic water shortage, electricity supply is intermittent and sewage collects in the streets.”

Additional World Book articles:

• Iraq 2006 (a Back in Time article)
• Iraq 2007 (a Back in Time article)
• Iraq 2010 (a Back in Time article)
• Iraq 2011 (a Back in Time article)
• Iraq: a Quest for Political Identity in a Second Year of War (a special report)
• The War in Iraq: the Military Campaign and Aftermath (a special report)
• The war in Iraq: Shifting Alliances on the World Stage (a special report)