https://crsreports.congress.gov
Updated August 1, 2023
Iraq
The Republic of Iraq is strategically located in the central
Middle East region (Figure 1) and has large energy
resources and a growing, diverse population. Its potential
and regional influence make it a venue for competition
between outside powers, including the United States and
Iran. About 2,000 U.S. military forces are deployed in Iraq
at the invitation of the Iraqi government and provide advice
and aid to Iraqi security forces, including the peshmerga
forces of the federally recognized Kurdistan Regional
Government (KRG). The Biden Administration supports
continued U.S.-Iraqi security cooperation and encourages
Iraqi leaders to fight corruption and respect citizens’ rights.
Neighboring Iran’s ties to some Iraqi parties and militias
complicate U.S.-Iraqi relations, and some Iraqis with ties to
the Iranian government call for the expulsion of U.S. and
other foreign forces from Iraq. In 2019, Iran-backed Iraqi
groups expanded attacks on U.S. targets, and in 2020, a
U.S. strike in Iraq killed Iranian Islamic Revolutionary
Guard Corps Qods Force Commander Qassem Soleimani
and Iraqi Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) leader Abu
Mahdi al Muhandis. Iran retaliated with attacks on Iraqi
sites hosting U.S. forces. Intermittent attacks claimed by
Iran-backed Iraqi groups have followed, targeting U.S. and
Coalition forces—and their Iraqi hosts. The United States
has condemned a series of indirect fire and infrastructure
attacks in the Kurdistan region, including March and
September 2022 missile attacks from Iran.
The 118
th
Congress is considering developments in Iraq and
Iraq’s relationships with its neighbors as Members review
the Biden Administration’s requests for U.S. foreign aid
and defense assistance for Iraq. Members also may consider
steps to shape U.S.-Iraq economic ties, support positive
relations between Iraq’s national government and the KRG,
meet humanitarian needs, and promote human rights,
including those of religious and ethnic minorities.
Background
Iraqis have persevered through intermittent wars, internal
conflicts, sanctions, displacements, terrorism, and political
unrest since the 1980s. The legacies of the 2003 U.S.-led
invasion of Iraq continue to shape U.S.-Iraq relations: the
invasion ousted the dictatorial government of Saddam
Hussein and ended the decades-long rule of the Baath Party
but ushered in a period of chaos, violence, and political
transition from which the country struggled to emerge. U.S.
forces withdrew in 2011, but conflict in neighboring Syria
and divisive sectarianism in Iraq enabled the insurgent
terrorist forces of the Islamic State organization (IS, aka
ISIS/ISIL) to seize and exploit much of northwestern Iraq
from 2014 to 2018. Iraqis leveraged new U.S. and coalition
military support to reclaim ground lost to the Islamic State,
but as of 2023, some IS remnants retain an ability to operate
in rural areas, especially in disputed territories between the
Kurdistan region and areas to the south secured by national
government forces.
Iraq’s government still struggles to meet the demands of its
citizens for more accountable, transparent, and responsive
governance. During mass protests in 2019 and 2020,
security forces and politically aligned militias killed
hundreds of demonstrators, but protestors succeeded in
bringing down the government formed after the 2018
national election and prompted changes to Iraq’s electoral
system that were then reversed in 2023. A caretaker
government led the country through a severe economic and
fiscal crisis in 2020 and 2021 but lacked a legislative
mandate for new initiatives.
Figure 1. Iraq
Sources: CRS, using ESRI and U.S. State Department data.
Iraq’s Government Seeks to Move
Beyond Stalemate, Improve Services
Following an October 2021 early legislative election for
Iraq’s unicameral Council of Representatives (COR),
competition among Iraqi factions devolved into stalemate
over government formation. After a year marked by
contested judicial decisions, protests, high-profile
resignations, and some armed confrontations, Iraqi parties
in October 2022 formed a power-sharing government led by
Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al Sudani, the nominee of
the Shia political coalition known as the Coordination
Framework (CF). The government is the first since 2003
that does not include all major political factions, following
the resignation and withdrawal of followers of Shia
religious and social movement leader Muqtada Al Sadr,
who won the most seats in the 2021 election.
Sudani, like his predecessors, faces challenges posed by
patterns of patronage and corruption in the Iraqi
government, Iraq’s fiscal dependence on oil revenue, Iraq’s
assertive neighbors, and the activities of armed non-state
