Iraqi Armed Forces

Iraqi Armed Forces
Founded	1921
Current form	2003
Service branches	Iraqi Army Iraqi Air Force Iraqi Navy Iraqi Air Defense Special Forces
Headquarters	Baghdad, Iraq
Leadership
Commander-in-Chief	Haider al-Abadi
Minister of Defence	Irfan Al Hayali
Chief of Staff, Iraqi Joint Forces	General Othman Al-Ghanimi
Manpower
Military age	18–49
Expenditures
Percent of GDP	8.7%
Related articles
History	Military history of Iraq Anglo-Iraqi War 1948 Arab-Israeli War Six-Day War Yom Kippur War Iran–Iraq War Gulf War Iraq War Iraqi insurgency
Ranks	Iraqi Army ranks insignia

The Iraqi Armed Forces are the military forces of the Iraqi government. They consist of the Iraqi Army, the Iraqi Air Force, and the Iraqi Navy.

They were initially formed in the early 1920s. Six military Coup d'états were mounted by the Army between 1936 and 1941. The armed forces first saw combat in the Anglo-Iraqi War of 1941. They fought against Israel in the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, in the 1967 Six Day War, and in the 1973 Yom Kippur War. Two wars with the Kurds were fought in 1961–70 and 1974–75. A much larger conflict was the Iran–Iraq War, initiated by the Iraqis in 1980, which continued until 1988. Thereafter Iraq began the Invasion of Kuwait, which led to the Persian Gulf War of 1991, which led in turn to confrontations over the Iraqi no-fly zones during the 1990s, and finally the Iraq War of 2003. The Iraqi armed forces have had mixed success at the strategic level but consistently poor tactical performance during most of their history. Iraq had one of the largest and strongest militaries in the world in 1990, before the Persian Gulf War of 1991.

The armed forces are administered by the Ministry of Defence (MOD). Since the 2003 invasion of Iraq, which toppled the Saddam Hussein regime, the Iraqi Armed Forces have been rebuilt with substantial assistance from the United States Armed Forces. Since the implementation of the U.S.-Iraq Status of Forces Agreement on January 1, 2009, the Iraqi Armed Forces and the forces of the Interior Ministry are responsible for providing security and upholding law and order throughout Iraq.