Sectarian violence in Iraq

Sectarian violence in Iraq refers to the conflict that had developed in the aftermath of the 2003 invasion of Iraq as a result of rising sectarian tensions between the different religious and ethnic groups of Iraq, most notably the conflict between the Shi'ite Muslim majority and the Sunni Muslim minority within the country, which escalated into a full-scale civil war between 2006 until 2008, and had largely ceased following the defeat of ISIS in 2017 during the 2013–2017 war in Iraq.

According to most sources, including the CIA's World Factbook, the majority of Iraqis are Shi'i Arab Muslims amounting to around 64% to 69% of the population, whereas Sunni Muslims represent between 32% and 37% of the population. Furthermore, the Sunnis are split ethnically among Arabs, Kurds and Turkmen.