Iraq

Iraq is a country in the Middle East (or Western Asia), sharing borders with Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Iran, Jordan and Turkey. It has two main rivers, the Tigris and the Euphrates.

In classical times, its main region was known as Mesopotamia (Greek: "between the rivers"), and the civilizations that populated it as far back as 5,000 BCE were responsible for many early intellectual advances.

The modern boundaries of Iraq go back to the 1920s, when the British joined three former districts of the Ottoman Empire. Iraq was occupied by Britain during the course of World War I; in 1920, it was declared a League of Nations mandate under UK administration. In stages over the next dozen years, Iraq attained its independence as a kingdom in 1932.

In the last several decades, Iraq has been involved in three major wars:

• Iran-Iraq War between 1980 and 1988, triggered by an Iraqi invasion of Iran,
• Gulf War, fought by a United Nations authorized coalition after the 1990 invasion of Kuwait by Iraq,
• Iraq War, begun by a US-led coalition in 2003.

The three wars were fought with Saddam Hussein as head of state and government. Following the Iraq War, Hussein was tried by the new government and executed, by hanging, on 30 December 2006.

Occupation following 2003 war

Following the overthrow of the regime of Saddam Hussein in April 2003, Iraq was administered by the U.S. military, and then by the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA).

Evolving new government

The CPA, after a year, transferred nominal power to a sovereign Interim Iraqi Government in June 2004. This was followed by a Transitional Government in May 2005, which drafted a constitution and held elections in late 2005, after which the current Iraqi government came into being in May 2006.

The Prime Minister of Iraq, currently Nouri al-Maliki, is head of government, and the President of Iraq, Jalal Talabani, is head of state.