Editing History of Iraq (section)

=== 2003 U.S. invasion ===
{{Main|2003 invasion of Iraq}}

After the [[September 11 attacks|terrorist attacks on New York and Washington in the United States in 2001]] were linked to the group formed by the multi-millionaire Saudi [[Osama bin Laden]], American foreign policy began to call for the removal of the Ba'ath government in Iraq. Neoconservative think-tanks in Washington had for years been urging [[regime change]] in Baghdad. On 14 August 1998, President Clinton signed Public Law 105–235, which declared that ‘‘the Government of Iraq is in material and unacceptable breach of its international obligations.’’ It urged the President ‘‘to take appropriate action, in accordance with the Constitution and relevant laws of the United States, to bring Iraq into compliance with its international obligations.’’ Several months later, Congress enacted the [[Iraq Liberation Act|Iraq Liberation Act of 1998]] on 31 October 1998. This law stated that it "should be the policy of the United States to support efforts to remove the regime headed by Saddam Hussein from power in Iraq and to promote the emergence of a democratic government to replace that regime." It was passed 360 - 38 by the [[United States House of Representatives]] and 99–0 by the [[United States Senate]] in 1998.

The US urged the [[United Nations]] to take military action against Iraq. American president [[George W. Bush]] stated that Saddām had repeatedly violated 16 UN Security Council resolutions. The Iraqi government rejected Bush's assertions. A team of U.N. inspectors, led by Swedish diplomat [[Hans Blix]] was admitted, into the country; their final report stated that Iraqis capability in producing "weapons of mass destruction" was not significantly different from 1992 when the country dismantled the bulk of their remaining arsenals under terms of the ceasefire agreement with U.N. forces, but did not completely rule out the possibility that Saddam still had weapons of mass destruction. The [[United States]] and the [[United Kingdom]] charged that Iraq was hiding WMD and opposed the team's requests for more time to further investigate the matter. [[UN Security Council Resolution 1441|Resolution 1441]] was passed unanimously by the [[UN Security Council]] on 8 November 2002, offering Iraq "a final opportunity to comply with its disarmament obligations" that had been set out in several previous UN resolutions, threatening "serious consequences" if the obligations were not fulfilled. The UN Security Council did not issue a resolution authorizing the use of force against Iraq.

In March 2003, the [[United States]] and the [[United Kingdom]], with military aid from other nations, invaded Iraq.

Over the following years in the [[Occupation of Iraq (2003–2011)|U.S. occupation of Iraq]], Iraq disintegrated into a [[Iraqi civil war (2006–2008)|civil war]] from 2006 to 2008, and the situation deteriorated in 2011 which later escalated into a [[War in Iraq (2013–2017)|renewed war]] following ISIL gains in the country in 2014. [[History of Iraq (2011–present)|By 2015]], Iraq was effectively divided, the central and southern part being controlled by the [[government of Iraq|government]], the northwest by the [[Kurdistan Regional Government]] and the western part by the [[Islamic State]]. IS was expelled from Iraq in 2017, but a low-intensity [[ISIL insurgency in Iraq (2017–present)|ISIL insurgency]] continues mostly in the rural parts of northern western parts of the country, due to Iraq's long border with Syria.<ref>{{citation |title=Timeline&ndash;Rise, fall and spread of the Islamic State |url=https://www.wilsoncenter.org/article/timeline-the-rise-spread-and-fall-the-islamic-state |access-date=14 December 2020 |archive-date=8 February 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210208025300/https://www.wilsoncenter.org/article/timeline-the-rise-spread-and-fall-the-islamic-state |url-status=live }}</ref>