T HE C HRISTIAN S CIENCE M ONITOR

Dohuk
NINEVEH

Streets of Baghdad
The Tigris River divides the Iraqi capital into t pa ive ve er e apital two part a modern parts: rn n western section a an older eastern area accessible o by br on and n er ern accessib only y bridges. ridg Directorate of Military Intelligence

US military in Middle East

Black Sea

RUSSIA GEORGIA

KAZAKHSTAN

UZBEKISTAN

BULGARIA

Mosul

NO-FLY ZONE
36th parallel IF US TROOPS MARCH ON BAGHDAD THIS YEAR, theyll be walking into the cradle of civilization. Situated between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, this fertile, defensible land contributed thousands of years ago to the rise of writing, law, and agriculture (see Iraq Timeline: Babylon to Baghdad at www.csmonitor.com/iraqtimeline). The powerful empires, including Ottoman, Babylonian, and British, have long since fallen, and modern Iraqs wealth it controls roughly 11 percent of the worlds oil reserves is entangled by UN sanctions. The nation has been ravaged by war, ostracized by the West, and battered by its leader, Saddam Hussein. Though united by Mr. Husseins fierce governance for the past 23 years, Iraq is beset by simmering problems. In the north, two Kurdish groups administer semi-independent but fragile states. In the south, Shiite Muslims recall their failed 1991 uprising against Hussein with bitterness. If his regime falls, any new state-building efforts will need to address the countrys ethnic and religious divisions. Today, US bases in the Middle East are bristling with troops and supplies. But as America weighs the possibility of invasion, Husseins fighters are manning defensive positions across Iraq and possibly readying an arsenal of biological and chemical weapons. HATRA

Arbil
Muthenna Air Base Intelligence service HQ Baath Party HQ Saddam International Airport

Kirkuk (10+)

Halabja

Ministry of Defense HQ Secret police HQ Republican Guard HQ Air Defense Operations Presidential Center palace Rasheed Air Base
T igris River

TURKEY
Nahr Diyala River

Current range of Iraqi Ababil-100 and Al Samoud missiles, 100 miles.*

Caspian Sea

TURKMENISTAN

CYPRUS
LEBANON Mediterranean ISRAEL
Sea Jerusalem

SYRIA
Beirut Damascus Amman

Mosul

Tehran

Baghdad

IRAN KUWAIT

IRAQ
Basra

Facilities*

Balji (150,000)

Government Major rail lines Military

*Locations as of 1991 Gulf War Sources: AP; CIA; US Air Force.

JORDAN
O O 5 miles 5 km
AP

Tikrit
Haditha (7,000) Khanakin (100,000)

EGYPT

SAUDI ARABIA
Riyadh

BAHRAIN

QATAR

U.A.E. OMAN

At 168,709 square

Key miles, Iraq is slightly Pub Date:10/15/02 Slug:15OZIRAQMAP312.eps Size: 19p6 x 3-1/16 "
US Navy bases US Army bases Copyright 2002, The Christian Science Publishing Society 1 Norway St., Boston, MA 02115 Sources: CIA World IRAQ US air bases Distributed by the United Feature Syndicate. For info call customer service at 800-221-4816. Factbook; World Jump-off area Almanac, 2002. for a potential assault on Iraq * Estimated figures
ILLUSTRATOR.eps

larger TOM BROWN STAFF than California (163,696 sq. miles).

Red Sea

SUDAN ERITREA

Current range of Iraqi Al Hussein missile, 400 miles.*

Arabian Sea

Rutbah

Baghdad
33rd parallel

East Baghdad (11+)

YEMEN ETHIOPIA

NO-FLY ZONE
Karbala

Daura (100,000)
BABYLON

Tig

r i s River

Sources: AP, Intelligence Online, British Joint Intelligence Agency, US Department of Defense, GlobalSecurity.org.

TOM BROWN STAFF

Iraqs oil trade

Since 1997, sanctions have dictated that Iraq sell all of its oil under UN control. The UN spends the revenue on humanitarian goods such as food, medicine, and farm supplies for Iraqi civilians. But Iraq still gets money by selling oil and goods illegally.

$
Najaf
UMMA
Eu
ph
Humanitarian goods sold on black market: Est. $20 million/year

$
IRAQ
OIL

Oil sold on black market: Est. $860 million/year

rat

CK

R MA

GOODS

K MAR

Mary Wiltenburg and James Norton

Iraqi military airfields Iraqi Special Republican Guard

UR

Basra
Rumaila (10+) Basra (140,000)

Revenue used for humanitarian goods: Avg. $6 billion/year

Iraq quick facts:

Population: 23,331,985 (July 2001 est.) Capital: Baghdad pop 4,797,000 (2001 est.) Infant mortality rate: 58 deaths/1,000 live births (compared to 7/1000 in US; 2002 est.) Life expectancy: 67 years (2001 est.) Airports: 110 (2000 est.) (paved runways: 76; unpaved: 34) Telephone lines in use: 675,000 (1997) Television broadcast stations: 13 (1997) Televisions: 1.75 million (1997) Internet service providers: 1 (2000)
Sources: CIA World Factbook; US Department of Energy; World Almanac, 2002. Sources: AP; 1981 Current Biography; Iraqi mission to the United Nations; Tales of a Tyrant (by Mark Bowden, The Atlantic Monthly, May 2002); Encyclopedia of the Orient. Photos from left to right: AP Jassim Mohammed/AP AP/FILE, Jack Dabaghian/REUTERS, Jamal Saidi/REUTERS. , ,

Iraqi Republican Guard Forces Iraqi Army Divisions

UNITED NATIONS

Sources: AP, Reuters, Washington Post.

LILIAN AKWISOMBE STAFF

200 miles 00

Saddams presidential palaces (approximate locations) Oil fields (reserves in billions of barrels, 1998) Oil refineries (crude refining capacity in barrels per day, 2000)

Sources: GlobalSecurity.org; CIA World Factbook; US Department of Energy; Platts; Perry-Castaneda Map Collection, University of Texas. Iraq map: Dave Herring Art Direction: Stuart S. Cox Jr. Research: Leigh Montgomery and Alan Messmer

200 km

Sunni i

SY Y YRIA

and Sunni Kurds T

R Euphrate

Shiite Arabs and Shiite Kurds

IRAN

CHILDHOOD
Hussein is born on April 28, 1937, in a mud house in a small village near Tikrit. Orphaned at an early age, he is raised on a melon farm by a devout Sunni uncle. In later years, relatives from his town become some of his most powerful advisers and henchmen; they earn the nickname Tikriti mafia.

PRISON
When a 1963 Baath party coup overthrows Kassem, Hussein returns to Iraq, gets involved in the new government, and marries his first cousin Sajida Khairallah Talfah. That same year, the Baath regime is overthrown. Hussein spends a year in hiding, and then is caught and imprisoned from 1964 to 1965.

RISE TO POWER
When he escapes, he organizes a militia that brings the Baath Party back to power in a bloodless 1968 coup. Hussein becomes vice-chairman of the Revolutionary Command Council, behind his cousin, Gen. Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr. Targeted by multiple coup and assassination attempts, they respond with mass executions that lead Amnesty International to condemn Iraq as one of the worlds worst violators of human rights.

OIL AND OIL MONEY

In 1972 Hussein begins to nationalize the countrys oil industry, formerly under the control of Western companies. Iraq sits on at least 11 percent of the worlds oil the second-largest reserve in the world, after Saudi Arabia. Hussein uses the new oil revenue to build schools, hospitals, and roads; to fund literacy programs; and to decontaminate water.

PRESIDENT
In June 1979, Hussein seizes the Iraqi presidency; in August, he orders the execution of about 400 members of his party. Meanwhile, unrest in Iran provokes Iraqi Kurds, who have, over the past two deacades, staged numerous rebellions against Hussein and his predecessors. Relations between Iraq and Iran deteriorate.

GULF WAR
1 9 8 0 - 1 9 8 8 1 9 9 0 - 1 9 9 1 1 9 9 2 - 2 0 0 2
Iraqi forces invade Kuwait in August 1990; seven months later theyre driven out by a US-led coalition army. Allied bombing causes 100,000 military casualties and destroys most of the countrys military infrastructure.

1 9 3 7 - 1 9 5 4

1 9 5 5 - 1 9 6 2

1 9 6 3 - 1 9 6 6

1 9 6 7 - 1 9 7 9

INSPECTIONS / SANCTIONS
The UN requires that Hussein open Iraq to weapons inspectors; strict international sanctions are imposed until he does. Living conditions worsen; as many as 800,000 Iraqi children die. In 1995, Husseins sons-in-law defect to Jordan with their wives and leak Iraqi weapons secrets; UN inspectors locate and destroy weapons. Hussein lures his two sons-in-law back to Iraq and has them killed.

ANOTHER WAR?
Hussein is now engaged in a difficult diplomatic dance: trying to win the support of other Arab states, and playing historical rivals (and Security Council veto holders) Russia and the US against each other. If the US has its way, the leaders 23-year reign may be nearing its end. But many wonder who or what will replace him.

Sunni Arabs

Shiites

1 9 7 0 s

1 9 7 9

2 0 0 2

IRAN / IRAQ WAR

In September 1980, Iraq invades Iran, beginning with US aid an inconclusive eight-year war that kills as many as 1.5 million people. Iraq is internationally condemned for its tactical use of chemical weapons, its execution of political opponents, and the murder, by poison gas, of thousands of Kurds.

SCHOOL / EXILE
In 1955, he enrolls at a nationalist secondary school in Baghdad, and joins the Baath Arab Socialist Party. In 1959, he tries (but fails) to assassinate Iraqi military leader Abdul Karim Kassem, and then flees to Cairo, where he studies law.

SAUDI ARABIA

Shiit Shiite and d Sunni Arabs

65 YEARS OF

SADDAM HUSSEIN

Q
WAIT

KE

Archeological sites

KE

e s River

Nasiryah

Majnoon (20) West Qurna (15)

Oil sold with UN approval: Avg. $6 billion/year

BLA

A BL