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C. Iraq's majority Shiites and minority Sunnis are members of competing branches of Islam. Separate from Iraq's ethnic Arab majority, the Kurds rule a semi-autonomous region in northern Iraq. Kurdish forces took control of the oil city of Kirkuk after government forces fled last week.
D. Iraq borders Turkey to the north, Iran to the east, Kuwait to the southeast, Saudi Arabia to the south, Jordan to the southwest and Syria to the west. The Sunni insurgents are members of the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant, which grew out of an al-Qaeda-linked organization in Iraq.
A. Iran is the world's largest Shia nation with 77 million people, and Shia religious leaders control its government. Sunni and Shiites have been fighting and killing each other since sects were formed in a dispute over who would succeed the Prophet Muhammad when he died in 632.
B. Most Muslims are Sunnis - estimates suggest the figure is somewhere between 85 percent and 90 percent. But, Shia Muslims are in the majority in Iran, Iraq, Bahrain and Azerbaijan with large communities in Yemen, Afghanistan, India, Kuwait, Lebanon, Pakistan, Qatar, Syria, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and the UAE.