Iraq
Military: Iraq
Military branches:
Counterterrorism Service Forces: Counterterrorism Command; Iraqi Special Operations Forces (ISOF); Ministry of Defense Forces: Iraqi Army (includes Army Aviation Directorate, former National Guard Iraqi Intervention Forces, and Strategic Infrastructure Battalions), Iraqi Navy (former Iraqi Coastal Defense Force, includes Iraq Marine Force), Iraqi Air Force (Al-Quwwat al-Jawwiya al-Iraqiya) (2011)
Military service age and obligation:
18-40 years of age for voluntary military service; no conscription (2013)
Manpower available for military service:
males age 16-49: 7,767,329
females age 16-49: 7,461,766 (2010 est.)
Manpower fit for military service:
males age 16-49: 6,591,185
females age 16-49: 6,421,717 (2010 est.)
Manpower reaching militarily significant age annually:
male: 332,194
female: 322,010 (2010 est.)
Military expenditures:
country comparison to the world: 6
Transnational Issues: Iraq
Disputes - international:
approximately two million Iraqis have fled the conflict in Iraq, with the majority taking refuge in Syria and Jordan, and lesser numbers to Egypt, Lebanon, Iran, and Turkey; Iraq's lack of a maritime boundary with Iran prompts jurisdiction disputes beyond the mouth of the Shatt al Arab in the Persian Gulf; Turkey has expressed concern over the autonomous status of Kurds in Iraq
Refugees and internally displaced persons:
refugees (country of origin): 15,496 (Turkey); 11,467 (West Bank and Gaza Strip); 8,259 (Iran) (2012); 199,297 (Syria) (2013)
IDPs: 1.1 million (since 2006 from ethno-sectarian violence) (2013)
stateless persons: 120,000 (2012); note - in the 1970s and 1980s under SADDAM Husayn's administration, thousands of Iraq's Faili Kurds, followers of Shia Islam, were stripped of their Iraqi citizenship, had their property seized by the government, and many were deported; some Faili Kurds had their citizenship reinstated under the 2006 Iraqi Nationality Law, but others lack the documentation to prove their Iraqi origins; some Palestinian refugees, who were also persecuted under the SADDAM Husayn regime, still remain stateless in Iraq