The war has been waged three times in Iraq since 1980. In the first war, Iraq fought against Iran, and in the next two wars, several countries under the leadership of USA fought with Iraq. For many years, the West – in an attempt to secure its influence in the Middle East rich in oil – had supported the Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. However, the tables turned in 1990 when Iraq occupied the small neighbouring country of Kuwait and the western countries came to its rescue. The main issue was crude oil. The USA accused Iraq of having weapons of mass destruction, and invaded the country in 2003 with the western allies, defeated the army there, and arrested Saddam Hussein. Since then, the country has been facing a humanitarian crisis of alarming scale of severity.
