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)

October 16, 2013

Some half a million people died in Iraq as a result of war-related causes between the U.S.-led invasion in 2003 and July 2011, announced researchers from Simon Fraser University in Canada, Mustansiriya University in Iraq, and Johns Hopkins University and the University of Washington in the United States. The researchers based their estimate on randomized sampling. Interviewers surveyed 2,000 households in 100 geographical clusters across Iraq’s 18 provinces in mid-2011. The half-million figure they reached included deaths from the invasion, the subsequent insurgency, and the horrific wave of sectarian violence unleashed by the war. The researchers noted that their estimates are associated with such “substantial uncertainties” as respondents being asked to recall events that occurred up to 10 years earlier.

The administration of U.S. President George W. Bush launched the invasion of Iraq in March 2003 based on claims that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and his government were a threat to the security of the United States and other countries. President Bush and Vice President Richard Cheney accused Hussein of illegally developing and possessing weapons of mass destruction. They also argued that links existed between Hussein’s government and terrorist organizations, including al-Qa’ida, the group responsible for the terrorist attacks in the United States on Sept. 11, 2001. Most experts now doubt that there was any working relationship between Iraq and al-Qa’ida. The claims that Hussein had weapons of mass destruction also turned out not to be true.

The bombing of the al-Askari shrine on Feb. 22, 2006, led to massive violence between Sunni and Shī`ite Muslims and made it more difficult for U.S.-led forces to provide security for Iraqis. The shrine, in Samarra, is one of the holiest sites to Shī`ite Muslims. (© Dia Hamid, AFP/Getty Images)

Sectarian violence is again on the rise in Iraq. According to United Nations statistics, nearly 5,000 civilians have died in sectarian attacks–primarily Sunni militants on Shi’ite civilians–between January and September of this year. More than 3,000 people died in 2012. Iraqi government officials blame the attacks on al-Qa’ida-linked militants, whom officials suggest are attempting to build on the Sunni minority’s discontent toward what they consider to be second-class treatment by Iraq’s Shi’ite-led government.

Additional World Book articles:

• 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)
• Iraq 2005 (a Back in Time article)
• Iraq 2006 (a Back in Time article)
• Iraq 2009 (a Back in Time article)
• Iraq 2010 (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)