![]() ![]() Politically, Iraq's Shiite parties, freed from the yoke of Sunni dictator Saddam, have become "the most powerful players", says Hamdi Malik, associate fellow at the Washington Institute. Iraq became a key economic lifeline for the Islamic republic as it was hit by sanctions over its contested nuclear programme, while Iran provides Iraq with gas and electricity as well as consumer goods. ![]() Iran and Iraq fought a protracted war in the 1980s, but the neighbours also have close cultural and religious ties as majority Shiite countries. US Marines arrest an Iraqi man during a house-to-house search in the Jolan district of the restive city of Fallujah, in this file photo from Novem/ ©Ī major unintended consequence of the US invasion has been a huge rise in the influence its arch foe Iran now wields in Iraq. Tensions also simmer between the Baghdad federal government and the autonomous Kurdish authority of northern Iraq, especially over oil exports. The minority Yazidis were targeted in what the UN called a genocidal campaign, and much of the once vibrant Christian community has been driven out. The years of violence have deeply altered society in Iraq, long home to a diverse mix of ethnic and religious groups. Today some 2,500 US forces are based in Iraq - not as occupiers, but in an advisory, non-combat role in the international coalition against IS, whose remnant cells continue to launch sporadic bombings and other attacks. More horrors came to Iraq when the IS group declared its "caliphate" and in 2014 swept across nearly a third of the country - a savage reign that only ended in Iraq in 2017 after a gruelling military campaign. Much of Mosul's Old City was destroyed, as seen in this file photo from July 9, 2017, in the gruelling battle to dislodge the jihhadists of the Islamic State group / © ![]()
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