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C OMMUNITIES

cities, and a 2011 study by an American consulting firm found that Baghdad had the worst quality of life of 221 major cities worldwide. M OSUL The second-largest city in Iraq is Mosul, located in the northern part of the country near the Kurdish region. For thousands of years Mosul has been known for textile exports. More recently, it served as an important center for oil refining, because it is near Iraq’s northern oil fields, which are among the richest in the world. In June 2014, the Islamic State captured Mosul from the Iraqi Army. It is the largest Iraqi city held by the Islamic State. The city had a population of about 1.8 million in 2008, but it is believed that more than half a million people fled Mosul after its capture. Most of them were Kurds, Shiite Muslims, or Christians, leaving Sunni Muslim Arabs as the predominant residents of Mosul. The Islamic State has maintained control of the city, although there have been problems like frequent power outages, as well as the execution without trial of many people that group deemed to be enemies. In January 2015, the United States launched airstrikes against Islamic State strongholds in Mosul, in support of a Kurdish effort to recapture the city. The city of Tikrit, located near Mosul, is notable as the birth- place of both the 12th-century Islamic leader Saladin and Saddam Hussein. B ASRA

Did You Know? The most famous Kurd in history was Saladin (1137–1193), who was born in the area that is now Iraq. Saladin was a great military leader who battled the European forces during the Crusades, reconquering Jerusalem in 1187.

Basra, in southeastern Iraq, is the country’s principal port and one of its largest cities. It is located on the Shatt al Arab, about 75 miles (121 km) from the Persian Gulf. Basra is one of