Iraq

The Republic of Iraq is a Middle Eastern country in southwestern Asia. It shares borders with Saudi Arabia and Kuwait to the south, Turkey to the north, Syria to the north-west, Jordan to the west, and Iran to the east. The capital of Iraq is Baghdad.

[change] Politics

From 1968 to 2003, Iraq was run by the Ba'ath Party. Saddam Hussein was the President from 1979 until the disbandment of the Ba'ath Party. During this time, he murdered many innocent people that he did not like. He also invaded Iran but later withdrew.

In 1990, Iraq invaded Kuwait and took over the entire country. Many countries, including the United States, United Kingdom, Saudi Arabia, France, Italy, Pakistan, and others fought to free Kuwait. Later, some agents believed to be sent by Saddam Hussein tried to kill former President George H. W. Bush with a truck bomb in Kuwait.

In March 2003, an invasion led by American, British, Australian, Danish and Polish forces forced the Ba'ath Party to surrender. The publically stated reason for the invasion was that Saddam Hussein refused to let United Nations inspectors look for suspected nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons. In the past, Iraq used chemical weapons to kill people. Iraq used chemical gas on some Kurdish villages such as "Halabja" and killed five thousand Kurds in the north of Iraq. Iraq had done research in making biological and nuclear weapons.

The country was initially split into 3 zones, the American zone, the British zone, and the Polish zone similar to the way Germany was divided in 1945. Forces from Denmark controlled areas in the British zone. A new temporary government was formed on June 28, 2004, however the coalition forces are still currently in the country. Ghazi A. El-Yawer is the President of the new temporary government.

At the moment, there are many U.S., British and multi-national troops in the country. Also, tensions between religious groups (Shia and Sunni Muslims, as well as Christians) lead to a great deal of instability in the country. Because of these tensions, some people say there is a civil war in Iraq.

[change] Geography

The provinces of Iraq

The country area lies between two rivers; for this reason the area was called Mesopotamia in ancient ages. The rivers Euphrates and Tigris bound what is called the Fertile Crescent. Iraq also has a small coastline along the Persian Gulf, and this coastline was considered the heart of the petroleum trade in Iraq before the First Gulf War. The weather is extremely hot and dry because Iraq is far from seas and oceans and even the close ones are blocked by mountains so that the rainy wind can't reach the inlands. This region has fertile land because of the two famous rivers.

Iraq is divided into 18 provinces (muhafazah).

Baghdād (بغداد)
Salāh ad-Dīn (صلاح الدين)
Diyālā (ديالى)
Wāsit (واسط)
Maysān (ميسان)
Al-Basrah (البصرة)
Dhī Qār (ذي قار)
Al-Muthannā (المثنى)
Al-Qādisiyyah (القادسية)

Bābil (بابل)
Al-Karbalā' (كربلاء)
An-Najaf (النجف)
Al-Anbar (الأنبار)
Nīnawā (نينوى)
Dahūk (دهوك)
Arbīl (أربيل)
Kirkuk (كركوك)
As-Sulaymāniyyah (السليمانية)

[change] Economy

Iraq has a large amount of oil. Iraq is the world's number four in petroleum production and the world's number two in petroleum reserves. In the past, Iraq sold much of this oil to other countries. After Iraq invaded Kuwait in August 1990, the United Nations stopped Iraq from selling the oil. The United Nations later allowed Iraq to sell some oil to buy food, clothes, and medicine so the people would not suffer as much. This was called the "Oil-for-Food" program.