IRAQ

Iraq stamps available online at Io Collezionista. Iraq, which holds the third largest oil reserve in the world, has been one of the main actors on the Middle Eastern geopolitical stage of recent decades. Its best known figure is certainly the politician and soldier Saddam Hussein, who governed the country from 1979 to 2003, the year the regime fell less than a month after the start of the second Gulf War. The military operation, conducted by United States and British forces, was justified by the suspicion of strong links between Saddam's regime and Al-Qaeda, responsible for the attack on the Twin Towers in 2001, and by the presence of nuclear and mass destruction weapons at secret army bases, in breach of the obligations imposed by the international community. Both charges later proved groundless. Saddam's trial began in 2005 and led to the conviction and death by hanging of the former Rais in December 2006.