The Republic of Iraq is a country in south west Asia. It has a total area of 434,920 km2. The climate is desert with mild to cool winters and dry, hot, cloudless summers. The terrain is mostly broad plains with reedy marshes in the south-east; mountains along the borders with Iran and Turkey. Natural resources are crude oil, natural gas, phosphates, sulphur. The religion is 97% Muslim (60-65% Shia, 32-37% Sunni), 3% Christian or other. The official language is Arabic with Kurdish (the official language in Kurdish regions), Assyrian and Armenian also spoken. Iraq was part of the Ottoman Empire until becoming a monarchy under British mandate in 1920, and fully independent in 1932. In 1958 a revolution overthrew the monarchy and in 2003 an American led invasion supported mainly by Britain, and removed the Socialist government and plunged the country into a violent guerrila conflict with various religious and ethnic groups either collaborating with or opposing the invaders. Research Iraq
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Research Iraq