Iraq 1998

Iraq Capital

Iraq in 1998 was a predominantly Muslim country with a population of over 23 million people. It was the fourth most populous country in the Middle East, and its capital city was Baghdad. The official language of Iraq was Arabic, and the official religion was Islam. See dentistrymyth for Iraq in the year of 2015.

The economy of Iraq in 1998 had been heavily affected by international sanctions imposed due to its occupation of Kuwait during the Gulf War, as well as a sharp decline in oil prices due to overproduction in the region. Despite this, it still had a diverse economy with agriculture and industry making up significant portions of its GDP. Poverty levels were high however, with almost half of the population living below the poverty line. Education levels were also low; only around 60% of children attended primary school and only about 30% attended secondary school.

The political situation in 1998 was relatively unstable due to ongoing internal conflicts between various ethnic groups as well as tensions between Iraq and its neighbours such as Iran and Kuwait. In response, the government implemented policies aimed at promoting economic development through increased investment in infrastructure projects as well as education reform initiatives such as free primary school education for all children. Despite these efforts however, much work still needed to be done in order for Iraq’s citizens to experience real economic prosperity and social progress.

Yearbook 1998

Iraq. According to Countryaah, the capital of Iraq is Baghdad. During the year, Iraq continued to prevent UN weapons inspectors UNSCOM (United Nations Special Commission) from carrying out their missions, ie. inspect facilities suspected of harboring weapons of mass destruction. Twice a military American action was averted at the last moment: in February and November. In February, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan negotiated an agreement with Iraq President Saddam Hussein. In November, Iraq backed the military threat and promised to give the inspectors access to all the information they needed.

But December 16-20, citing a UNSCOM report, the United States and Britain conducted a massive offensive with cruise missiles and laser-guided bombs against Iraqi defense facilities, in particular. According to the United States, the motive was to reduce I’s ability to use weapons of mass destruction, to force the country to follow relevant UN resolutions, and in the long term to remove Saddam Hussein from power. According to Iraq, the purpose of the United States was to destroy Iraq as a modern state. Of all judgments, the missiles and bombs missed many targets. Iraq claimed that thousands of civilians were killed, but that could not be confirmed. The offensive split the UN Security Council, where Russia in particular felt overwhelmed, as did the EU where criticism was raised against Britain. Iraq received strong support from the residents of the Arab countries, whose leaders in several cases – e.g. in Saudi Arabia,

After the military offensive, Iraq announced that the cooperation with UNSCOM was over. Much indicated that the United States was also ready to try new roads. In October, the US Congress decided to give President Bill Clinton the power to distribute $ 97 million. dollars to the deeply divided exile-Iraqi opposition in order to overthrow Saddam Hussein. Most of the support would be provided through the London-based Iraqi National Congress (Iraqi National Congress, INC).

  • Abbreviationfinder: What does IRQ stand for in geography? Here, this 3 letter acronym refers to the country of Iraq.

For Iraq, a break with UNSCOM may mean that the sanctions against the country remain for an indefinite future, but they only affect the civilian population and for that, Saddam Hussein has never shown any care. As the country’s contacts with the outside world have increased, the sanctions have also become less effective. During the summer, for example, Syria and Iraq agree that an oil pipeline between the countries would be opened, and Egypt signed a cooperation agreement with Iraq. The US allies south of the Persian Gulf have also been approaching. Iraq and Saudi Arabia has utilized the so-called oil-to-food program for export to Iraq. Its relations with non-Arab countries have also improved. In August, Iranian pilgrims were allowed to visit shrines in Iraq for the first time since the war between countries erupted in 1980.

In domestic politics, Iraq continued throughout the year to categorically defy respect for human rights. About 16,000 people are believed to have been imprisoned or murdered for political reasons in the past year, according to an investigation commissioned by the UN in March.

In April, the UN reported that 1,500 people were executed in Iraq over the past year, the vast majority for political reasons. The UN also reported that the country is carrying out large population movements. Above all, Kurdish and Turkmen families are forced to leave the oil-rich Kirkuk area. During the year, the regime also hit the Shiites in southern Iraq. Two Ayatolls were murdered, and during the fall an offensive against Shi’ite Muslim rebels was reported. However, for the Iraqis who were subordinate to the dictatorship, life became somewhat easier. In February, the UN Security Council doubled the value of the oil that Iraq was allowed to sell under the oil-for-food program. Iraq was thus able to sell oil worth $ 5.3 billion every six months, but due to the low crude oil prices and the obsolete equipment of the oil industry could not sell oil for the full amount. Even more liberal corporate legislation in Iraq, such as the clear sign for private imports of medicine, has improved everyday life. However, according to the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in Baghdad, half of all children under five are still malnourished.

In February 2016, the Prime Minister issued Decree 91, making the so-called People’s Mobilization Units (PMUs) predominantly made up of Shia militants into an integral part of the Iraqi army. In November, Parliament confirmed this resolution.

The extreme violence in the country continued through 2016. IS carried out terrorist operations in Baghdad and other major cities, and Shia militias again responded with assaults on the Sunni population. 6,878 were killed during the year and twice as many injured.

2016 The split campaigned against Mosul

After over 2 years of preparation, the Kurdish army, Shia militias and Iraqi army backed by planes from the United States and several other countries in October 2016 launched the attack on the million city of Mosul to recapture it from IS. Despite this coalition’s superior firepower, number of weapons and soldiers, the recapture would be extremely complicated (and possibly unsuccessful) because the coalition was characterized by deep internal and regional divisions:

  • The best-prepared group was the Iraqi Kurdish Peshmerga with reinforcements from the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia. They were by far the only ones who had effectively fought and defeated IS in previous years. In particular, IS was terrified by the female Kurdish fighting units. However, the Iraqi Kurds had their own political interest in gaining full or partial control over the important city of Mosul.
  • Just north of the Kurdish forces stood the Turkish military, which had occupied parts of northern Iraq with up to 2,000 soldiers. At the start of the offensive, the Islamic State of Turkey declared that it would in no case allow Kurdish forces to move into Mosul. It was understood that wild Turkey happened to step into the fight on IS’s side and attack the Kurds from the north.
  • The main force from Baghdad was Shia militias. Their perspective was revanchism towards the Sunnis in Mosul. These militias had ravaged and abused Sunnis after the conquest of Ramadi.
  • Saudi Arabia had therefore declared that it would in no case allow Shia militias access to Mosul. There was a threat of intervention from the sheep if this were to happen.
  • Thus, the regional IS supports, Turkey and Saudi Arabia would not allow the only forces that had just prevented IS from entering Mosul. That task was to be left to the Sunnis of the Iraqi army, who were extremely weak militarily.
  • To support the recapture, the United States and its allies were to participate in aerial bombardments, but this threat was dismantled from the first day of the campaign by IS, which ignited car tires and oil wells, concealing the battlefield in a dense, suffocating smoke that made bombing almost impossible when the pilots were to bomb. in the blind.

Facing the campaign were 5-6,000 IS soldiers. After a few days, Western war propaganda claimed that IS leaders had fled from Mosul and predominantly foreign holy warriors remained. This story was demented by refugees from Mosul who could tell that it was the foreign fighters who were gone and that IS’s soldiers in Mosul were now almost exclusively from Mosul itself and from the uplands. In other words, soldiers there knew the city as their own trouser pocket and wanted to defend their “home”. At the same time, they were increasingly concentrated in the eastern part of Mosul, from which they had no opportunity to escape. For a long time they had established defense works – i.e. with an extensive network of tunnels. In VietnamFor example, in the 1960s and ’70s, Vietcong had also built an extensive network of tunnels, which allowed partisans to drop North American troops in the back and move partisans and supplies without being discovered. In other words, the re-conquest of Mosul could be extremely complicated, long-lasting, bloody and perhaps impossible. It had taken YPG almost 4 months to recapture the much smaller city of Kobane in 2014. However, a small bright spot was that the Mosul refugees could simultaneously report on resistance cells inside Mosul fighting IS. However, it was unknown how important these cells could have.

In June 2016, PMU militias abducted 1300 men and boys who fled from Saqlawiya north of Fallujah. Three days later, 605 of them reappeared with signs of torture. 643 had disappeared. A commission of inquiry set up by Anbar’s governor found that 49 had been shot and killed, tortured or burned to death by PMU militants. Prime Minister al-Abadi promised to set up a commission of inquiry to uncover the process.

Iraq Capital