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| Republic of Iraq جمهورية العراق کۆماری عێراق | |
|---|---|
 Flag
 Coat of arms
| |
 | |
| Capital and largest city | Baghdad |
| Official languages | Arabic Kurdish |
| Recognized regional languages | Aramaic Armenian Turkish |
| Demonym(s) | Iraqi |
| Government | Federal parliamentary republic |
• President | Abdul Latif Rashid |
• Prime Minister | Mohammed Shia' Al Sudani |
| Area | |
• Total | 438,317 km² |
| Population | |
• 2024 census | 45,407,895 |
| Currency | Iraqi dinar (IQD) |
| Driving side | right |
| Calling code | +964 |
| ISO 3166 code | IQ |
| Internet TLD | .iq .العراق |
Iraq, officially the Republic of Iraq, is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered to the north by Turkey, to the east by Iran, to the southeast by Kuwait and the Persian Gulf, to the south by Saudi Arabia and to the west by Jordan and Syria. Since 1991, it has suffered two invasions from the United States.
History[edit | edit source]
Ottoman Empire[edit | edit source]
In 1514, Iraq was conquered by the Ottoman Empire. After the First World War, the Ottoman Empire was split up and Iraq was administered by the British Empire.[1]
British mandate[edit | edit source]
It took four years for the British to colonize Iraq. After a nationalist revolt in 1920, the British installed Faisal as King of Iraq instead of directly ruling from London.[1] In 1925, the British dropped poison gas from planes to combat a revolt in the northern Kurdish region of Iraq.[2] In 1932, Britain under a Labour government gave independence to Iraq and Nuri al-Sa'id became prime minister.[1] After independence, Iraq continued to be occupied by British military bases. Between 1935 and 1954, Iraq was put under martial law 11 times.[2]
Monarchy[edit | edit source]
Faisal died of a heart attack in 1933 and his son, Ghazi, took the throne. A military coup occurred in Iraq in 1936. In 1941, after pro-British politicians were removed from power, the UK invaded and occupied Iraq. Five political parties were founded in 1945, including the pan-Arab Istiqlal (Independence) Party. Iraq supported Palestine in the First Arab–Israeli War in 1948.[1]
Republic[edit | edit source]
In 1953, the United States took control of Iraq and established the Baghdad Pact with Pakistan, Iran, Turkey, Iraq, and the UK. On 14 July 1958, Brigadier Abd al-Karim Qasim led a military rebellion that overthrew the last king of Iraq.[2] Qasim then became the first president of Iraq and tried to stay neutral in the Cold War.[3] After the revolution, the Iraqi Communist Party formed an alliance with the national bourgeoisie.[2]
Soon after the revolution, the U.S. and Turkey planned an invasion of Iraq.[3] U.S. President Eisenhower cancelled the invasion because of the presence of the United Arab Republic and the movement of Soviet troops into southern republics near Iraq.[2] In 1960, the USA began funding Kurdish guerrillas and the CIA tried to kill Qasim. In 1962, Qasim helped create OPEC and nationalized the oil industry.[3]
In 1963, a US and UK-backed military group overthrew and murdered Qasim. Even though Qasim had not supported the Communist Party, the coup also killed thousands of communists.[3] In 1972, Iraq signed a defense treaty with the Soviet Union.[2] Saddam Hussein arrested the leadership of the pro-Ba'ath faction of the ICP in 1978.[4] After Saddam became president in 1979, the United States armed Iraq for its war against Iran.[2]
First US invasion[edit | edit source]
The United States encouraged Iraq to invade Kuwait in 1990. In 1991, Statesian ruler George Bush invaded Iraq and bombed it for 40 days without stopping and then sanctioned it.[5] The invasion killed 200,000 people.[6] The USA and UK continued to bomb Iraq for several years, including more than 1,000 times in 1999.[5] Western sanctions killed 500,000 children within four years.[7]
Second US invasion[edit | edit source]
See main article: Iraq War
War crimes[edit | edit source]
In 2007, US mercenaries working for Blackwater killed 17 civilians in the Nisour Square massacre.[8]
In 2010, documents leaked by Chelsea Manning showed that the majority of Iraqis killed by US forces were civilians.[9]
In 2016, Barack Obama dropped a total of 12,095 bombs on Iraq.[10]
In March 2017, a US air strike killed 112 civilians in Mosul.[11]
References[edit | edit source]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Phebe Marr (2012). The Modern History of Iraq (pp. 6–72). Westview Press. ISBN 9780813345215
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 Richard Becker (2011-07-14). "Our view on modern Iraq" Liberation School. Archived from the original on 2020-09-22. Retrieved 2022-06-24.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 William Blum (2002). Rogue State: A Guide to the World's Only Superpower: 'A Concise History of United States Global Interventions, 1945 to the Present' (pp. 114–115). [PDF] Zed Books Ltd. ISBN 9781842772201 [LG]
- ↑ Vijay Prashad (2008). The Darker Nations: A People's History of the Third World: 'Bali' (pp. 158–160). [PDF] The New Press. ISBN 9781595583420 [LG]
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 William Blum (2002). Rogue State: A Guide to the World's Only Superpower: 'A Concise History of United States Global Interventions, 1945 to the Present' (pp. 134–135). [PDF] Zed Books Ltd. ISBN 9781842772201 [LG]
- ↑ Sameena Rahman (2021-10-19). "Colin Powell (1937-2021): U.S. imperialism’s top salesman for slaughter" Liberation News. Archived from the original on 2022-12-06.
- ↑ Sara Flounders (2023-04-12). "Ramsey Clark, human rights fighter – 1927-2021" Workers World. Archived from the original on 2023-01-31. Retrieved 2023-04-23.
- ↑ Sabrina Tavernise (2007-09-18). "U.S. Contractor Banned by Iraq Over Shootings" The New York Times. Archived from the original on 2020-10-18. Retrieved 2022-02-02.
- ↑ "Baghdad War Diary" (2010-10-22). Wikileaks. Archived from the original on 2022-01-27. Retrieved 2022-02-02.
- ↑ Ghast Lee (2017-01-23). "Shocking Map Shows Where Barack Obama Dropped His 26,000 Bombs" Sick Chirpse. Archived from the original on 2017-07-15.
- ↑ Ghazi Balkiz, et al. (2017-03-28). "Mosul: 112 civilian bodies pulled from site of coalition airstrike" CNN. Archived from the original on 2021-10-13. Retrieved 2022-02-02.