Religious Sects of Iraq

In understanding the civil war in Iraq, it is important to note that while most Middle Eastern countries are chiefly Sunni Muslims, in Iraq the Shi'ite Muslims outnumber the Sunnis. Approximately 97% of Iraqi citizens are Muslim, over 60% of whom are Shi'ite Muslims. The Sunni Muslim minority (somewhere between 32 and 37 percent of Iraq's Muslim population) dominated Iraq while Saddam Hussein was in power, but now the government is led mainly by Shi'ites. Shi'ite Muslims were largely oppressed under Hussein. "Sectarian violence" in Iraq is between these two sects of Islam - Shi'ite and Sunni.

Ethnically speaking, the country of Iraq is predominately Arab, but also has a sizable population of Kurdish citizens - about 20%. Former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein's forces killed thousands of Kurds before a no-fly zone was instituted over Kurdish areas in the north after the Persian Gulf War.

(Information gleaned from 1. CIA World factbook; "The Reckoning, Iraq and the Legacy of Saddam Hussien" by S. Mackey; "A History of Iraq" by Charles Tripp, AP via CNN.com and 2. Washington Post, 1.5.07)

When examining the map below, note that most of the sectarian violence is in the Baghdad area, where Sunni and Shi'ite Muslims live together. Basra is also a hot spot, and Najaf was a critical early target of U.S. troops. Anbar is an predominately Sunni province in Iraq. The city of Fallujah is in Anbar. Anbar is the region targeted by Bush's latest troop escalation.