Iraq war

The republic of Iraq shares the borders with counties like Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Syria, Iran, Turkey and Jordan. It is located between the river Euphrates and Tigris. It is well developed, westernized with oil mining being a major economic activity

In 1979 Saddam Hussein came to power after killing and arresting his political enemies. . In the same year the neighboring Iran was seized through the famous Islamic revolution. The revolution was under the leadership of Ayatollah Ruhollah. In the following year, Saddam made claims that the Iranian army was making an attempt to overthrow his regime. Therefore war broke between the neighboring nations.

During the war, the US gave out chemical weapons to Iraq. At the same time, it sold similar weapons to Iran. The weapons were used to attack both the soldiers and the civilians.

In 1988 the Kurdish town of Halbja was attacked using poison gas by the Iraqis. Saddam claimed that they helped the Iranian forces to attack the Iraqis. This prompted the Human Rights Watch to condemn the acts of Iraq and the US. They referred to the attacks as act of genocide. The US then adopted the policy of containment that saw the war come to an end.

In 1990Sadddam Hussein attacked Kuwait claiming that they were stealing Iraqi oil and selling to the US. He also declared Kuwait an Iraqi territory. This angered the US and stopped buying the cheap Iraqi oil. Sanctions were then passed on Iraqi by the United Nations. The organization demanded that the Iraqi troops to be withdrawn from Kuwait. and all biological and chemical weapons to be destroyed.

In the year 1993, the Iraqi plotted to assassinate Bush but the plan was discovered. In the year 1998, Saddam banned the UN weapons inspectors from Iraq claiming that they were CIA spies. This prompted president bill Clinton to impose economic sanctions on Iraq. He initiated a four day bombing campaign. The campaign was referred to as Operation Desert Fox. Its aim was to undermine the authority of Saddam. During the operation, an estimated half a million civilians died of starvation and communicable diseases.

In March 2003, American and the British forces invaded Iraq claiming that it was developing weapons of mass destruction. Saddam went into hiding but was later captured in December. On 30th December 2006, he was tried and charged with war crimes and crime against humanity. He was convicted and hanged.