9781422277171

Foreign terrorists flooded into Iraq to fight the Americans and their Iraqi al- lies. Moreover, a bloody sectarian war between Sunni and Shia Muslims drove millions from their homes. The civil war tossed the region into even more chaos. At that time, ISIS was not known as ISIS. Instead, it was called al-Qaeda in Iraq. Under the command of Zarqawi, the group began its bloodletting by blowing up the United Nations headquarters in Baghdad in August 2003. They also killed innocent Iraqis, Americans, and others. A surge of US troops put a lid on the violence for a moment. Then, under President Barack Obama, the US began to withdraw troops from the country.

US forces aimed artillery shells at entrenched Iraqi forces during the 2003 action.

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