History of Iraq

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The history of Iraq encompasses developments in the territory of the Republic of Iraq from prehistory to the present. Iraq emerged from the three Ottoman provinces of Baghdad , Mosul and Basra in 1920/21 . Iraq's roots go back to the early advanced civilizations that began in the 4th millennium BC. Originated back.

Since the 2003 Iraq War , which ended Saddam Hussein's era , Iraq has been under military occupation by troops from a United States- led international coalition. In 2009 the occupation forces left the cities, in 2011 they withdrew completely.

Ancient oriental empires

Iraq lies on the territory of ancient Mesopotamia (Ben al Naharain or Aram-Naharaim ). There emerged from the 4th millennium BC Some of the earliest advanced civilizations of mankind ( Sumer , Akkad , Babylonia , Mittani , Assyria , Media ; see also: Ancient Orient ), which is why the region is now seen by many as the cradle of civilization .

Ancient Mesopotamia fell in 539 BC. At the submission of Babylonia to the rising Persian empire under Cyrus . Under the Achaemenids , Mesopotamia was temporarily divided into the two satrapies Syria and Assyria; after the conquest by Alexander the Great after the battle of Gaugamela in 331 BC Both satrapies were merged into a new satrapy Mesopotamia. After the Battle of Gaza in 312 BC. Mesopotamia came under the control of the Seleucid Empire and was spared from further fighting for almost two centuries. During this time, the Hellenistic city foundations flourished (for example Apamea , Dura Europos , Edessa , Seleukia ).

After the death of the Seleucid king Antiochus Sidetes in 129 BC. Mesopotamia finally fell to the Parthians , who had previously conquered Iran. Ctesiphon became the Parthian capital, and Hatra also gained special importance. Parts of Mesopotamia arrived between 83 and 69 BC. BC to Armenia , but were returned to the Parthians in the course of the Roman-Parthian unification after the battle of Carrhae . In the period that followed, the Euphrates stabilized as the border between the Roman and Parthian spheres of influence. Attempts by the Roman emperor Trajan to annex Mesopotamia between 114 and 117 AD failed, but after the Parthian War of Lucius Verus from 162 to 165 large parts of Mesopotamia remained under Roman influence. In 195 Mesopotamia fell back to the Parthians, except for the strategically important city of Nisibis , but was recaptured and fortified by Emperor Septimius Severus in 197.

The change from the decentralized feudal Parthian rule to the more centralized Sassanid Empire did not initially bring about any fundamental changes. In the second half of the 3rd century, Mesopotamia got caught up in the vortex of the imperial crisis of the 3rd century and alternately under Roman and Sassanid control. During the entire late antiquity , Mesopotamia was the deployment and battle area of ​​these two ancient great powers (see also Roman-Persian Wars ), with the Arab tribe of the Lachmids taking over an important part of the border security for Persia. The Roman Emperor Diocletian managed to restore the old ownership in 297/298. From 337 the Sassanid great king Shapur II began to recapture large parts of Mesopotamia. The failed Persian campaign of Emperor Julian finally led in 363 to the loss of almost all of Mesopotamia, and in particular of Nisibis, to Persia. Despite various attempts on both sides to move the border, it remained essentially unchanged until Mesopotamia and Syria were conquered by the Arabs between 633 and 640 as part of the Islamic expansion .

Arab-Islamic rule

Umayyads

After the Battle of Kadesia in 636, the Arab Muslims seized the area. In 636 Basra was founded by the caliph Umar as an army camp , in 637/638 Kufa . Iraq became an important cultural center of the spreading Islam . He first received the role of a political center for the Muslims when ʿAlī ibn Abī Tālib moved his capital to Kufa after his elevation to the fourth caliph. After ʿAlī's assassination in 661 by a Kharijite , the Umayyad Muawiya I annexed Iraq. From 665 the area was ruled by the governors Ziyād ibn Abī Sufyān and his son ʿUbaidallāh ibn Ziyād, who took a hard hand against the Kharijites and the followers of ʿAlīs. ʿAlī's son Hussein , who rebelled against the Umayyad caliphs Yazid I in 680 , fell in battle near Karbala . From 694 to 714, the governor al-Hajjaj ibn Yusuf, known for his cruelty, ruled Iraq. In 702 he decided to replace Persian as the language of the office with Arabic.

Abbasids

In 762, Baghdad was founded by Al-Mansur as the capital of the Abbasid caliphate and soon developed into the most important city in the Islamic world. The following period is also known as the heyday of Islam , in which science and arts in particular developed a significantly higher level than in Europe, for example.

From 1055 the Seljuq leader Tughrul Beg conquered the country, 1258 the Mongolian king Hülegü , founder of the dynasty of the Ilkhan . Aside from the massive devastation in the cities, agriculture, the backbone of the economy, was also destroyed. The heavy fighting between the Mongols and the Mamelukes advancing to defend them led to extensive property damage to the complex irrigation system of the Mesopotamian region. The human losses had an equally strong impact here: oral knowledge of the use and maintenance of irrigation systems was lost. As a result, the province fell into disrepair, because without an irrigation system, Mesopotamian agriculture could no longer develop its full potential. In 1401 Baghdad was devastated by Timur , and in 1534 the country fell to the Ottoman Empire .

Iraq as part of the Ottoman Empire

For the Ottoman Empire , Iraq was particularly important as a connection to the Persian Gulf and as a defense barrier against Iran (Persia); the Ottomans, however, were hardly interested in economic development. In the first few centuries in particular, their administration was largely limited to collecting taxes and (compulsory) recruiting of soldiers. Iraq was a comparatively insignificant province of the Ottoman Empire, ruled by officials (in some cases Baghdad, Mosul and Basra actually ruled themselves).

The Georgian Mamluk dynasty of Hasan Pasha ruled from 1704 to 1831.

The Shiite population was excluded from administrative and military posts under the Sunni Ottomans. However, the Shiite clergy ran their own religious schools and collected taxes from their followers.

Administrative reforms took place at the beginning of the 19th century, but the first important changes came with Midhat Pasha (governor of Baghdad between 1869 and 1872). The first hospitals were built, the first newspapers appeared, and factories began operations. But he reigned too briefly to give Iraq a longer-term upturn. It was during this time that the first evidence of the British interest in Iraq also came. In 1860 the British Lynch Company acquired the monopoly for shipping on the Tigris. Iraq remained an insignificant sideline until the First World War , but its geostrategic position on the intersection of Europe, British India, Central Asia , the Caucasus and South Arabia was to make it an object of world political interests from the First World War.

British rule and kingdom

→ Main article: Kingdom of Iraq

During the First World War (on November 6, 1914, one day after the declaration of war on the Ottoman Empire), British troops and Arab insurgents marched together and occupied Baghdad in 1917. Actually, the immediate target was only the region around Basra, because the Royal Navy was dependent on oil supplies from neighboring Iran. In 1920 Great Britain detached the provinces of Vilâyet Baghdad , Vilâyet Mossul and Vilâyet Basra from the former Ottoman Empire and merged them into today's Iraq. The province of Mosul was initially not included in the planning, as it was under French influence; after the failure of Russia with regard to the Sykes-Picot agreement and because of strategic considerations, it was also incorporated, with Turkey and France each being promised 20% of the expected profits from oil production in this region.

The three former Ottoman vilayets

Gertrude Bell, as adviser to Colonial Minister Winston Churchill, played a key role in determining today's boundaries . The League of Nations sanctioned this measure and gave Great Britain the mandate over Iraq. This is how the British Mandate of Mesopotamia was established. Since Great Britain had promised the Arabs a sovereign Greater Arabia, should they rise up against the Ottoman Empire, they did not accept the status of a British mandate and began an uprising against the British crown in 1920 . But the uprising also had a social background. In order to get the country under their control, the British proceeded as they did on their Indian north-western border: They identified local authorities to whom they gave a number of privileges (e.g. tax exemption) and to which the formerly communal land was also transferred, so that many farmers became impoverished. According to British estimates, 8,450 Iraqis and 1,654 British soldiers died in the three-month revolt. The British government was terrified by the high toll in blood and the cost of putting down the insurrection (a total of six times the total cost of the British military campaign in the Middle East). In order to reduce the cost of the British presence and at the same time deter the Arabs from revolting again, the British government installed an Arab king.

On August 23, 1921, Faisal , son of Sherif Hussein of Mecca , was proclaimed king. The Kingdom of Iraq was admitted to the League of Nations on October 3, 1932. Even after the establishment of the state, there was no uniform mass or weight and no uniform currency; Indian, Iranian and Turkish money were used in parallel according to the different orientations of the provinces. The main oil activities in the country were brought together in the Iraq Petroleum Company , which emerged from the Turkish Petroleum Company in 1929 , paid only low concession fees and was entirely owned by foreign companies.

The Anglo-Iraqi Treaty of June 1930 guaranteed the British numerous rights and granted them military bases. At the outbreak of the Second World War , the Iraqi government under Nuri as-Said broke off diplomatic relations with Germany and adopted a pro-British stance in foreign policy that had no support from army circles and broad sections of the population. On April 1, 1941, anti- British politicians and officers struck a coup d'état to end the government's pro-British policies. The army brought Rashid Ali al-Gailani to the head of government, who proclaimed Iraq's neutrality and called for the withdrawal of all British soldiers. On May 2, 1941, military clashes between British and Iraqi troops began, which lasted a month and ended with the Iraqi defeat. During these fighting, the Iraqi government sent a request for help to Germany, but it brought only minor military support ( Special Staff F ). In October 1941 Nuri as-Said took over the government again. The contractually secured political, economic and military influence of Great Britain as a former mandate power in Iraq was permanently restored until the Baghdad Pact in the mid-1950s. On January 16, 1943, Iraq declared war on the fascist Axis powers .

The attempt by Prime Minister Salih Jabr to renew the Anglo-Iraqi Treaty of 1930 led to serious anti-British unrest in January 1948, which was bloodily suppressed by the impoverished population of the suburbs of Baghdad, by students and the Communist Party. Salih Jabr had to revoke his signature on the contract and go into exile in England.

In response to the establishment of the United Arab Republic , on February 14, 1958, the two Hashemite kingdoms of Iraq and Jordan declared their unification to form a British-backed Arab Federation . Under General Abdel Karim Qasim , the so-called "Free Officers" joined forces to shake off British control. On July 14, 1958, with the help of the people, they overthrew the pro-British monarchy ( Faisal II 1935–1958). The king was murdered and his body dragged through the streets of Baghdad.

The republic until the fall of Saddam Hussein

The beginning of the republic

On July 15, the federation with Jordan was dissolved and the Republic of Iraq was proclaimed. Hundreds of thousands of Iraqis flocked to the streets to celebrate ath-thawra (the revolution ). With the proclamation of the republic, new political conditions were created. The monarchy was abolished and Iraq withdrew from the CENTO (Baghdad) Pact concluded with Turkey, Pakistan and Iran . The last British soldiers left the country on March 24, 1959.

Domestically, land reform was carried out and Iraq withdrew from the British sterling currency system. The foreign oil companies were nationalized and economic and political relations with the socialist countries were initiated. A decree made it possible for political parties and professional organizations to be formed. Freedom of the press was introduced. A historic step, however, was Article 3 of the Provisional Constitution : “Arabs and Kurds are partners in Iraq”. The Kurds were expressly recognized for the first time. However, the democratic processes lasted only a short time. Soon newspapers were banned. The development of the new Republic of Iraq counteracted the fundamental interests of the West. The British and the US exerted outside pressure. Qasim's plan to annex Kuwait was prevented in 1961 by British troops and then by an inter-Arab security force .

Domestically, pressure was exerted by right-wing, pan-Arab parties and nationalists. This included the Ba'ath Party . The then small Iraqi Ba'ath Party, with the help of conspirators in the Iraqi army, launched a coup against Qasim on February 8, 1963. Qasim was shot. Weakened by internal wing fighting, the Ba'ath Party was overthrown in the military coup of November 18, 1963 by President Abd al-Sallam Arif . Under his brother Abd ar-Rahman , Iraq broke off diplomatic relations with the United States in 1967. After a second coup on July 17, 1968, the Ba'ath Party regained power; Ahmad Hasan al-Bakr became president and chairman of the Revolutionary Command Council (RKR) (and remained so until his resignation on July 16, 1979), Saddam Hussein became vice-president and deputy chairman of the RKR.

Najaf and Karbala , the two holy cities of Iraq, developed into centers of Shiite revolutionary movements in the 1960s, which later spread to Lebanon and Iran. Shiite scholars who developed political-activist theories in Najaf during this period included Ruhollah Khomeini , Muhammad Baqir as-Sadr , Muhammad Hussein Fadlallah , Mahmud Hashemi Schahrudi and Muhammad Baqir al-Hakim .

In the spring of 1969 fighting broke out again between the government troops and the Kurds who had been fighting against the central government since 1961. Saddam Hussein and the Kurdish leader Molla Mustafa Barzani signed a peace treaty in March 1970 that guaranteed the Kurds political autonomy. The fighting lasted until April 1975, when Iraq signed the Algiers Agreement with neighboring Iran to reorganize the border on the Shatt al-Arab and Iran then ended its aid to the Kurds, which led to the Kurds surrendering.

On June 1, 1972, the foreign oil companies were nationalized.

The Saddam Hussein era

When the Ba'ath Party was in power, mass executions and arbitrary arrests followed, mostly of communist and other left-wing intellectuals. Especially after Saddam Hussein came to power after al-Bakr's resignation on July 16, 1979, there were massive human rights violations, to which many Baathists also fell victim. The union project with Syria , which was only agreed in January 1979, was immediately put on hold.

After months of conflict with Iran, Hussein ordered the Iraqi army on September 22, 1980 to attack the neighboring country with a total of nine out of twelve divisions. The front extended over a length of 600 km. After initial successes, the Iraqi army had to withdraw further and further from 1982 and finally wage war in its own country from 1984. This First Gulf War lasted until 1988 and killed an estimated 250,000 Iraqis. During this war, the state also used chemical warfare agents several times against both the Iranians and its own people. The economic damage was also considerable: in 1979 Iraq still had cash reserves worth 35 billion US dollars ; after the end of the war the country was heavily indebted with over 80 billion US dollars in foreign debts. Iraq was supported by the US and other western states in this war.

After a failed assassination attempt on Saddam Hussein, 600 residents of the small town of Dujail were arrested on July 17, 1982 and 148 of them were executed. In 1988 the regime started the so-called Anfal operation , in which it is estimated that up to 180,000 Iraqi Kurds were murdered. The most popular case of this campaign was the poison gas attack on Helepçe on March 18, 1988. With this event, relations between Iraq and the United Nations began to deteriorate, fueled by further Iraqi politics.

On August 2, 1990, the Iraqi army marched into Kuwait and occupied the country. It was only through the intervention of international troops under the leadership of the United States that the country was liberated in February 1991 in the Second Gulf War . US President George Bush called on the Iraqi people to revolt against Saddam Hussein. When the Kurds and Shiites did indeed start a rebellion against the government, the Americans did not intervene in the fighting, so Saddam could put down the uprising. An estimated 100,000 Iraqis were killed and the marshes in southern Iraq were almost completely destroyed . As a result of the occupation of Kuwait, the United Nations imposed sanctions on the country , which led to international isolation and the impoverishment of large sections of the population due to the mismanagement of the permitted trade goods. This embargo was in place until 2003. The consequences of the embargo were dramatic: 500,000 to 1,500,000 children under the age of 14 died by 2005, some of them from diseases that were almost unknown in Iraq before 1990: leukemia (probably from contaminated sand and tiny particles of DU ammunition or destroyed military equipment) , Malnutrition, vitamin deficiency, typhoid, cholera and local diseases.

The high mortality results from the ongoing embargo and the almost complete destruction of drinking and sewage supply / disposal in the Gulf Wars in 1990 and 2003, destruction of hospitals, the pharmaceutical industry, etc. The UN diplomats and humanitarian coordinators in Iraq, Denis Halliday and Hans-Christof von Sponeck resigned in protest against the embargo. Halliday called the embargo genocide . To mitigate the consequences of the embargo, the UN introduced an oil for food program in 1995 (Res. 986) , which ended in January 2003.

On November 8th, 2002 the UN Security Council passed the 19th Iraq resolution 1441 with unspecified "serious consequences" after prolonged pressure from the USA . The resolution was accepted by Iraq and weapons inspector Blix was allowed into the country. In 2002, the Blix-led commission began looking for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq but found none.

US invasion and ally

Peshmerga soldiers of the Joint Iraqi Security Company, June 2003
States with troop contingents in Iraq and formerly participating states (purple) since summer 2003

On March 20, 2003, the Iraq war began with air strikes on the capital Baghdad. The aim of the coalition of the willing, led by the United States and Great Britain, supported by small associations from Australia, Italy, Spain, Poland and militarily insignificant allies (Denmark, Ukraine, Bulgaria, Honduras, El Salvador, South Korea, Japan, Hungary) was To overthrow Saddam Hussein and to withdraw alleged weapons of mass destruction. On April 9, 2003, the capital Baghdad was taken, symbolizing the demolition of a statue of the dictator. In May 2003, US President Bush declared the major hostilities over and Iraq was divided into zones of occupation. Weapons of mass destruction were not found. On March 5, 2004, Hans Blix accused the USA and Great Britain of having no legal basis for their military action against Iraq.

The number of victims of the invasion is highly controversial in terms of counting, responsibility and involvement of crime victims. According to the private initiative iraqbodycount, at least 62,000 civilian victims of the military intervention can be verified. A study by the science magazine The Lancet even assumes up to 100,000 civilian victims. According to the US, around 1,000 civilians were killed by Allied fire and around 7,000 resistance fighters and terrorists. Other observers estimate that up to 10,000 Iraqis were killed in the US attack. In addition to the regular resistance, a further 20,000 deaths are mostly attributed to terrorist attacks by various groups. According to a study published in October 2006, over 650,000 people have been killed since the invasion of foreign forces in March 2003, which is 2.5% of the total Iraqi population.

As a result of war junk, the number of cancer cases is increasing, especially in the southern provinces. According to the Basra Medical School, at least 45 percent of all deaths in the southern provinces are from cancer. In the provinces of Basra and Missan, the leukemia rate among children has increased by 22 percent compared to 2005, and some babies developed the disease as early as four weeks after birth. At least three crippled children with missing organs or limbs are born in the southern provinces every day.

The time after the second Iraq war

Zones of occupation of Iraq by the USA (turquoise and blue), Great Britain (green) and Poland (pink) in September 2003

Since the official end of the Iraq war, considerably more US soldiers - 2900 so far - have been killed in attacks by both resistance groups and Islamist terrorists than in the previous war; An average of two US soldiers per day die in ambush attacks, and the number of wounded is considerably higher. The attacks also claimed numerous victims among the civilian population. Representatives of the Iraqi government, which is largely supported by Shiites and Kurds , have also repeatedly been targeted. It is estimated that between 25,000 and 30,000 Iraqis have died since May 2003 - the "end of the major fighting". Some Iraqi sources even put up to 60,000 victims. About 3,500 Iraqi security forces have been killed since 2003.

Al-Qaeda is apparently pursuing the strategy of provoking a civil war between Shiites and Sunnis in order to prevent Iraq from finding a state. Death squads target supporters of the opposing religious group. The most important head of the Iraqi Ansar al-Islam organization since 2003 has been the Jordanian Abu Musab az-Zarqawi (killed by US units on June 7, 2006). The US accuses Iran and Syria of not doing anything against the penetration of foreign fighters. The situation is increasingly viewed as on the verge of civil war. Terrorist attacks and counter-attacks by Sunnis and Shiites against each other claim dozens of lives almost every day. There are around 75–85 attacks per day in Iraq, at times the number of daily attacks was even more than 120, but on other days it was “only” 50–60. However, some of the attacks are also carried out by non-Iraqi (Sunni) Islamists and some by some Shiite extremists.

On June 30, 2009, American combat troops left the cities and handed over bases and other facilities to the Iraqi army. The troops relocated to their bases left the country in August 2010, the remaining soldiers followed in 2011.

After the formation of a transitional council at the end of 2003, the administrative mandate previously exercised by the coalition transitional administration was transferred to a representative Iraqi transitional government on June 28, 2004. According to the agreement, the troops and logistics of the occupying powers with a strength of around 150,000 soldiers are to remain stationed in Iraq for another one to two years. Politically, Iraq has been in a transitional state since then: After the Third Gulf War , the previous power structures, in particular the Revolutionary Command Council , no longer exist, but the new relationships, at that time between the Western occupation, the civil administration and the Iraqi Government Council , were not final established.

According to initial plans, the former US General Jay Garner , who established the Kurdish protection zone in 1991, should take over the chairmanship of a provisional government in Iraq. A few weeks after its establishment, however, the strategy was changed: on May 6, 2003, US President George W. Bush named L. Paul Bremer III. to the civil administrator. In September 2003 Iraq was divided into four zones of occupation: two American zones in the north, one Polish in the central south and one British in the outer south of the country. The Algerian UNO special envoy Lakhdar Brahimi mediated between various parties for an Iraqi interim government that was formed on June 1, 2004, to take power on June 30th. On January 30, 2005, Iraq held the first free elections in over 40 years.

On October 11, 2006, the Iraqi Parliament passed a new federalism law , which provides for the creation of so-called largely autonomous "super-provinces". Critics of this law, especially the Sunni minority, see it as a threat to Iraqi unity.

Iyad Allawi called Iraq a failed state . The country is heavily influenced by Iran and has a stagnant economy, high unemployment, high inflation, no functioning public sector and a still poor security situation.

Insurgent groups and attacks

United Nations Headquarters building in Baghdad destroyed by a car bomb on August 21, 2003

The terrorists around the former leader Abu Musab al -Zarqawi , as an al-Qaida branch in Iraq dominated by foreign Islamists ( Qaidat al-Jihad fi Bilad ar-Rafidain ) and the Ansar al-Sunna under the leadership of Abu Abdallah al-Hasan bin Mahmud, viewed or consider Iraq as a battlefield in the global war against the West. They are just two of many different groups.

Among the local militias, the Iraqi-Sunni insurgents have so far made up the faction with the largest number of members. These include the "Army of Muhammad", the "El Haq Army" and the "Islamic Army of Iraq", together around 20,000 fighters. Above all, they oppose the US-led occupation forces and the political marginalization of the Sunnis. The Iraqi-Sunni resistance is said to have recently sought to distance themselves from the warriors of God who had traveled to the country - around 1,000 to 2,000 men. The reasons for this are the bloodbaths wrought by the Zarqawi terrorists among Iraqi civilians, as well as the self-portrayal of the al-Qaida offshoot as the alleged political and ideological leader of the resistance.

The Shiite militias compete in part with the Sunni resistance. The "Badr Brigades" have about 10,000 armed men, the "Mahdi Army" is estimated to be several thousand men. The Badr Brigades are members of the ruling Revolutionary Council Sciri . The Mahdi army is subordinate to the radical Shiite preacher Muktada al-Sadr . Open violence occurred repeatedly between the two groups. The Revolutionary Council is striving for extensive Shiite autonomy in the south, where the “Badr Brigades” are already the dominant military power in many regions. Sadr, on the other hand, wants a unitary Iraqi state; his “Mahdi Army” cooperates with the Sunni resistance against the US-led occupation forces.

At the Ashura festival on March 2, 2004 there was a devastating series of attacks , 271 dead and 393 injured, most of them Shiite believers, for whom Karbala is a place of pilgrimage. A three-day state mourning was ordered. On March 4, 2004, the United States charged that the terrorist Abu Musab al -Zarqawi or the terrorist organization Ansar al Islam , which is closely related to al-Qaida , were the masterminds behind the attacks.

Car bomb attack in Baghdad in August 2006

On October 15, 2006, Al-Qaeda proclaimed an Islamic state in Iraq that would encompass a total of six provinces. To help build the state, Muslims around the world have been called upon to send "men and money" to Iraq. Al-Qaeda announced that only God's law would apply in this state.

In 2006 attacks in Iraq killed more than 34,000 civilians. Another 36,000 people were injured, according to the United Nations. The violence peaked in November and December, with 6,367 dead and 6,875 injured. The capital Baghdad in particular is affected by the clashes. Most of the dead there also showed signs of torture.

On April 12, 2007, an explosion struck the parliament building in the heavily secured Green Zone in Baghdad. According to the first press reports, at least two MPs were killed. A few hours earlier, an important bridge over the Tigris in Baghdad was destroyed in a suicide attack that also killed several people. A few days later, on April 18, 2007, five more attacks hit the Iraqi capital. The detonation of a car bomb near the market square in the Sadrija district alone killed 127 people. In total, the attacks claimed more than 230 lives.

On July 7, 2007, a suicide bomber set off a car bomb explosion in the market in the small town of Amirli in Salah ad-Din province . The center was completely destroyed, at least 150 people were killed and over 200 people injured. Armili is predominantly inhabited by Shiite Turkmens . Iraqi Prime Minister Jawad al-Maliki made Sunni responsible extremists for the devastating attack.

On August 14, 2007, an estimated 500 people were killed in the Sinjar attack near Mosul. The attacks were directed against Yazidis , a religious minority of Kurds who mainly live in northern Iraq. Further explosions north of Baghdad also claimed human lives, making the attacks among the most momentous since the Allied forces entered the country.

In January 2014, the terrorist organization Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant brought the city of Fallujah under their control. In the following months, the organization was able to gain further territory. It took control of Mosul in June . After almost three years, Fallujah was liberated by the Iraqi government forces. The battle for Mosul began in October 2016 .

In view of the proverbial state collapse, the media coined the political catchphrase of Iraqization .

See also

literature

  • Matthew Bogdanos with William Patrick: The Thieves of Baghdad. Robbery and rescue of the world's oldest cultural treasures . From the American by Helmut Dierlamm (original edition: Thieves of Baghdad, Bloomsbury Publishing, New York 2005), Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, Munich 2006, ISBN 3-421-04201-2 , ISBN 978-3-421-04201-9 .
  • Henner Fürtig : A short history of Iraq. From the foundation in 1921 to the present. Beck, Munich 2003, ISBN 3-406-49464-1 .
  • Barthel Hrouda , Rene Pfeilschifter : Mesopotamia. The ancient cultures between the Tigris and Euphrates. Munich 2005 (4th edition), ISBN 3-406-46530-7 (Very brief overview of Mesopotamia in antiquity with further references.)
  • Jobst Knigge: German war target Iraq. The German grip on the Middle East in World War II. Via the Caucasus and Cairo to the oil of the Orient. Plans and reality. Publishing house Dr. Kovac Hamburg 2007, ISBN 978-3-8300-3030-0 .
  • Hans Krech : The Civil War in Iraq (1991-2003). A manual. With a concept for a golf peace conference in Halle / S. and in Hamburg, Verlag Dr. Köster, Berlin 2003, (Armed Conflicts after the End of the East-West Conflict, Vol. 13), ISBN 3-89574-500-6 .
  • Kanan Makiya Cruelty and Silence. War, Tyranny, uprising and the arab world (1991), ISBN 0-224-03733-1 .
  • M. and P. Sluglett: Iraq since 1958 - from revolution to dictatorship. Frankfurt / Main 1991, ISBN 3-518-11661-4 .

Web links

Commons : History of Iraq  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ See W. Montgomery Watt : Islam and the Integration of Society. Routledge & Kegan Paul, London, 1961. p. 119.
  2. ^ Phebe Marr: The History of Modern Iraq , Boulder, 2012, p. 15.
  3. ↑ Fürtig, Henner: Brief history of Iraq: from the foundation in 1921 to the present, p. 58 online
  4. ↑ See Pierre-Jean Luizard: Histoire politique du clergé chiite, xviii e -xxi e siècle . Fayard, Paris, 2014. p. 192.
  5. ^ Uncovering Iraq's Horrors in Desert Graves - New York Times. Retrieved November 5, 2013 .
  6. ↑ iraqbodycount.org: The victims in the Iraq war
  7. ↑ freace.de: 654,965 fatalities - consequences of the US war against Iraq , October 11, 2006
  8. ^ Irradiated Iraq , Junge Welt , June 6, 2007
  9. ^ Spiegel: Withdrawal of Americans: Last US troops leave Iraq , December 18, 2011
  10. ↑ Die Zeit : Iraq: Parliament passes Federalism Act ( Memento of October 14, 2007 in the Internet Archive ), October 11, 2006
  11. ↑ "Iraq is on the way to a new dictatorship". Retrieved November 5, 2013 .
  12. ↑ Roland Heine: Brigades and Militias: In Iraq we can see how a state falls apart. Al Qaeda hardly plays a role anymore. In: Berliner Zeitung . June 9, 2006, accessed June 11, 2015 .
  13. ↑ Der Spiegel: Al-Qaeda calls Islamic State out October 15, 2006.
  14. ↑ Tagesschau.de: "34,000 civilians killed in one year" (tagesschau.de archive), January 16, 2007
  15. ↑ Der Spiegel : Bomb attack in the Iraqi parliament , April 12, 2007
  16. ↑ Die Welt : More than 230 dead in a series of attacks in Iraq , April 18, 2007
  17. ↑ www.tagesschau.de - The center of the village has been completely destroyed (tagesschau.de archive) from July 7, 2007
  18. ^ Deutsche Welle : Serious series of attacks in Iraq , August 15, 2007
  19. ↑ Possibly 500 deaths from attacks in Northern Iraq
  20. ↑ http://www.n-tv.de/politik/USA-besracht-ueber-Erstieg-der-Islamisten-article12017491.html
  21. ↑ Christoph Sydow: New Terror Regime in Iraq: Who Can Flee. In: Spiegel Online . June 11, 2014, accessed June 9, 2018 .
  22. ↑ Faz.net: Fallujah, Liberated - and now?