Sectarian violence in Iraq

Sectarian violence in Iraq or the First Iraqi Civil War is a recurring issue throughout the history of the region, since the modern borders of Iraq were mostly demarcated in 1920 by the League of Nations. The country, as established, was immediately home to a variety of religious and cultural groups that have clashed as power has ebbed back and forth between them.

When Saddam Hussein came to power concerns turned to the division between Sunni and Shi'ite factions in Iraq. Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, having been exiled from Iran in 1964, had taken up residence in Iraq, at the Shi'ite holy city of An Najaf. There he involved himself with Iraqi Shi'ites and developed a strong, worldwide religious and political following against the Iranian Government, whom Saddam tolerated. Khomeini began to urge the Shi'ites there to overthrow Saddam, contributing to Saddam's decision to expel Khomeini in 1978 to France. In early 1979, Iran's Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi was overthrown by the Islamic Revolution, thus giving way to an Islamic republic led by Khomeini. The influence of revolutionary Shi'ite Islam grew apace in the region, particularly in countries with large Shi'ite populations, especially Iraq. Saddam feared that radical Islamic ideas—hostile to his secular rule—were rapidly spreading inside his country among the majority Shi'ite population. Ultimately, an eight-year-long Iran–Iraq War ensued, ending in a stalemate.

To secure the loyalty of the Shia population during the war, Saddam allowed more Shias into the Ba'ath Party and the government, and improved Shia living standards, which had been lower than those of the Iraqi Sunnis. Saddam had the state pay for restoring Imam Ali's tomb with white marble imported from Italy. The Baathists also increased their policies of repression against the Shia. The most infamous event was the massacre of 148 civilians of the Shia town of Dujail.

Despite the costs of the war, the Iraqi regime made generous contributions to Shia waqf (religious endowments) as part of the price of buying Iraqi Shia support. The importance of winning Shia support was such that welfare services in Shia areas were expanded during a time in which the Iraqi regime was pursuing austerity in all other non-military fields. During the first years of the war in the early 1980s, the Iraqi government tried to accommodate the Kurds in order to focus on the war against Iran. In 1983, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan agreed to cooperate with Baghdad, but the Kurdish Democratic Party (KDP) remained opposed. In 1983, Saddam signed an autonomy agreement with Jalal Talabani of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), though Saddam later reneged on the agreement. By 1985, the PUK and KDP had joined forces, and Iraqi Kurdistan saw widespread guerrilla warfare up to the end of the war.

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