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This Summary has been compiled from the following sources:
BBC News.com, "Special Report: Iraq — a history of conflict." (1997), http://news6.thdo.bbc.uk/hi/English/special_report/iraq/newsid_29000/29099.stm:
CNN.com, "The Unfinished War: A Decade Since Desert Storm" (2001) http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2001/gulf.war/unfinished/war: and,
Lee, R. "The History Guy: Iraq-U.S./UK War (1991-Present)" (1998) http://www.historyguy.com/Iraq-U.S._Conflict.html

Population: 17.9 million (1991 estimate)

Capital: Baghdad

Language: The official language is Arabic, which is spoken by about 80% of the population. Around 15% speak Kurdish. Turcoman, Armenian, Armenian and Persian are also spoken.

Religion: Sunni and Twelver Shia Islam (95%), other religious groups are Christian (3.5%) and Yazidi (1.4%). About a quarter of the Muslims are Kurds, who are mostly Sunni Muslims. Three quarters of the Muslims are Arabs. Shia Muslims form 52% of the total Muslim population, and 70% of the Arab Muslim population. The south of Iraq is populated mainly by Shia Muslims, and the center, west and north of Iraq are mainly Sunni. The regime that came to power in 1968 was dominated by members of the Sunni sect. Twelver Shia Islam is the state religion of Iran.

Ethnic groups: Arab (72%), Kurds (23%), and the remaining 5% consist of Turcomans, Assyrians, Armenians, and other smaller ethnic groups. The Kurds are mainly based on the north and the north-west of the country.

Until 1920, Iraq was part of the Ottoman Empire. In 1920, the territory of Iraq was placed under a League of Nations' mandate, administrated by the UK. Britain provided the country with a constitution and a bicameral legislature, and put in place King Faisal, the son of Sharif Husain of Mecca. A 25 year Treaty of Alliance was signed between Britain and Iraq. On 3 October 1932 the British mandate ended and Iraq was established as an independent state. Britain retained military bases there and continued to exercise strong political and military influence in the country. Britain also ensured that a concession for oil exploration and exploitation was given to the Iraq Petroleum Company, a conglomerate of British, French and US interests.

King Faisal I died in 1933 but the regime under King Faisal II continued to be pro-British. The Baghdad Pact was signed in 1955, which was an agreement on collective regional security, urged upon Iraq by the British.

A military revolution overthrew King Faisal II on 14 July 1958, and a left-wing nationalist regime under the leadership of Brigadier Abd al-Karim Kassem came to power. Iraq withdrew from the Baghdad Pact in 1959. Kassem was assassinated in 1963. A bloody and violent Ba'thist Arab nationalist regime under Colonel Abd as-Salem Muhammed Aref resulted. He was succeeded by his brother, Abd ar-Rahman Muhammed Aref in 1966.

The foundations of the current regime in Iraq were laid with the seizure of power by the Arab Renaissance (Ba'ath) Socialist Party on July 17 1968. Major General Ahmad Hassan al-Bakr became President and Prime Minister of Iraq. His deputy was Saddam Hussein.

The regime undertook wide-ranging social and economic reforms to try and increase its popularity. It nationalized the Iraqi Petroleum Company and was bolstered by rises in oil prices in 1972 and 1974, following the Arab-Israeli war.

In March 1970 an agreement was reached between the government and the Kurdish Democratic Party (KDP), over the establishment of an autonomous Kurdish area. However, it quickly became clear that the promises made in this 'March Manifesto' would not be fulfilled. Conflict broke out between the Kurds and government's armed forces in the spring of 1974. The Kurds were supported by the Shah of Iran, who was concerned about what he saw as Soviet influence over the Iraqi regime. Jordanian intervention led to the signing of the Algiers Agreement between Iran and Iraq in March 1975. Iran closed its border with Iraq which led to the collapse of the Kurdish military force. Kurdish resistance was violently repressed, villages were destroyed and their inhabitants resettled in specially constructed villages surrounded by barbed wire and fortified posts.

The economic strength of Iraq in the late 1970s allowed its political leaders to build up their power. The Ba'ath party itself lost influence and real power was increasingly concentrated in the hands of Saddam Hussein and his political backers. In July 1978 a decree was passed which made any non-Ba'ath party political activity illegal.

President Ahmad Hasan al-Bakr announced his resignation, and the handover of power to Saddam Hussein, on 16 July 1979. Huge oil revenues enabled Saddam to spend large sums on welfare and building projects, and living standards improved due to the expanding economy. Saddam Hussein concentrated on creating his own personality cult; portraits and statues of him were built all over the country. The Republican Guard - the elite presidential security force - was also formed in this period.

Relations with Iran seriously deteriorated in the period following the Iranian Islamic revolution of 1979. Cross-border incidents resulted in Iraq invading Iran and in a full outbreak of war on 22 September 1980. Iraq was supported by its Arab neighbors, particularly Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, and by the US, the Soviet Union and France. Massive losses were experienced by both sides and in 1986 a stalemate was reached.

The UN Security Council passed Resolution 598, calling for an end to the war, on 20 July 1987. It was not accepted by Iran, which launched a further attack on northern Iraq in the spring of 1988. The Iraqi air force responded with poison gas, causing 5,000 civilian deaths in Kurdish northern Iraq. Iran finally agreed to a cease-fire in July 1988.

The Iran/Iraq war resulted in an estimated 400,000 deaths (roughly 1/4 Iraqi and 3/4 Iranian), and around 750,000 people were injured.

Despite large foreign debts and damaged infrastructure, the Iraqi regime was actually strengthened militarily by the war with Iran. Military production had increased significantly, and the army had also increased in size, to a total force of around one million. Through the army, Saddam Hussein consolidated his grip on power.

By the late 1980s Iraq was experiencing an economic crisis, largely caused by misguided economic policies. Five billion dollars a year had been allocated to military re-armament projects. Inflation and the cost of living were rising dramatically.

Iraq's relations with its neighbors declined, particularly when Saddam laid claim to the Rumaila oilfield that ran from Iraq into northern Kuwait. On August 2 1990, Iraq invaded Kuwait. On August 8 Iraq announced its annexation of Kuwait.

The UN Security Council quickly passed a series of resolutions condemning Iraq's actions. Iraq was backed politically by the PLO, and also, rather hesitantly, by Jordan. Forces from Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Syria, Morocco, Britain, France, Pakistan, Bangladesh and the US began gathering in Saudi Arabia. Iraq did not receive military support from any state. The UN Security Council passed Resolution 678, authorizing military force to be used against Iraq, at the end of November 1990.

On 17 January 1991, the allied forces, led by the U.S., began their aerial bombardment of Iraq. The Iraqi army surrendered in large numbers on February 23 and 24. The US declared a cease-fire on February 28 1991 and the Gulf War was over.

After the Gulf War cease-fire, an international group of scientists, engineers and weapons specialists assembled to ensure Iraq complied with U.N. Security Council demands to disclose, destroy or render harmless all weapons of mass destruction (nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons). Weapons inspection teams were set up to make regular visits to Iraq to see that it was complying with the terms of the UN ceasefire resolutions. The team was called the United Nations Special Commission (UNSCOM).

In 1991, the first UNSCOM weapons inspectors began work in Iraq. Their detective work revealed indisputable evidence of both chemical and biological weapons.

As the U.N. inspectors worked alongside their Iraqi counterparts, the level of cooperation and tolerance varied. But by 1993, at the chemical weapons decommissioning site of Al-Muthana, the very scientists who had overseen the manufacture of Hussein's chemical weapons were overseeing their destruction. UNSCOM destroyed more of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction than were eliminated by the combined forces of Desert Storm.

Despite all the progress being made, however, the weapons inspectors became convinced that Iraq was still concealing parts of its arsenal. Iraq strenuously denied the accusations.

In August of 1995, Saddam Hussein's son-in-law Hussein Kamel, defected. Kamel had been in charge of Iraq's secret weapons concealment operations, and informed the press that "a lot of information was hidden and many files were destroyed in the nuclear chemical and biological programs. These were not individual acts of concealment, but they were the result of direct orders from the Iraqi head of state."

In response, Baghdad turned over a hoard of documents containing a treasure trove of information on every aspect of Iraq's weapons programs, and claimed that Kamel had hidden them, without the authority of the leadership.

In the past five years, the main causes of the continued hostility between the United States and Iraq is disagreement over the extent and need for continued United Nations weapons inspections and over UN economic sanctions. The U.S. and the UN claim that Iraq is not living up to the terms of the disarmament agreement and is continuing to develop weapons of mass destruction. Iraq denies this and claims that the U.S. is attempting to subvert its national sovereignty and cripple the country through continued economic sanctions. Periodically, the government of Saddam Hussein forces the UN weapons inspectors from the country and the U.S. and UN respond with threats and occasional bomb and missile attacks.

In order to force Iraq to comply with these restrictions on weaponry and permit weapons inspections, the United Nations and the United States have conducted an economic embargo of Iraq which has devastated the economy and the infrastructure of the nation. Iraq claims several hundred thousand children have died of malnutrition and poor medical care resulting from these economic sanctions.

In December of 1998, the Iraqi government evicted the UNSCOM inspectors, accusing them of spying for the American CIA. This allegation may be at least partially true. As a result of the end of Iraqi cooperation with UNSCOM, the United States and Britain unleashed Operation Desert Fox on Iraq. From December 16th through the 20th, Allied warplanes and cruise missiles hammered Iraqi targets. Saddam then declared that Iraq would no longer recognize the validity of the "no-fly zones" and would actively contest the Allies for control of all Iraqi airspace. This has resulted in nearly continual combat in the skies over Iraq as air-defense missile batteries attempt to shoot down American and British warplanes. In response, Allied forces attack these missile batteries and occasionally engage in punishing air strikes on other targets in Iraq.

Another point of contention is the continuation of the "no-fly zones" over northern and southern Iraq. Originally designed to protect the rebellious Kurdish minority in the north and the oppressed Shiite minority in the south, these zones are Iraqi airspace in which Iraqi aircraft are not allowed to fly. Gulf Coalition air forces have occasionally enforced these zones by shooting down Iraqi planes and attacking Iraqi air defense missile batteries on the ground.