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PolGeoNow presents our first map of Iraq, showing control by the government and Al Qaeda rebels in the country's ongoing crisis. Areas of autonomous Kurdish administration in the north are also indicated.
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By Evan Centanni
Al Qaeda in Iraq
Though the reality is of course more complex, power politics in Iraq often revolve around the country's three largest ethnic groups: Shia (Shiite) Arabs, Sunni Arabs, and Kurds (most Kurds are religiously Sunni, but their language and cultural distinguish them from Arabs). Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, a Shia Arab, is often
accused of manipulating Iraq's democracy to exclusively serve the country's Shia majority. The Kurds govern a highly autonomous region in the northeast, but the Sunni Arabs who dominate northwestern Iraq have relatively little political power. Into the fray has jumped Al Qaeda in Iraq, now part of the Islamic
State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) organization which also controls parts of Syria (
map). Al Qaeda has waged a fierce campaign against the Iraqi government in the
name of Sunnis, though the group is still rejected by many of the people it claims to protect.