Sunni Delegation Briefing Packet
While the Iraqi Sunni population accounts for only about 20 percent of the total Iraqi population, they have traditionally exerted disproportionate control over the Iraqi political, military and economic structure. Indeed, Saddam Hussein was a Sunni himself, and many of the leading Ba’ath party members hailed from the “Sunni Triangle” region of central Iraq. The Sunni Arabs are ethnically related to the Shi’a of the south but differ in their religious interpretation of Islam. This has created much conflict between Sunni-dominated central Iraq and the Shi’adominated south.