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Brad Paisley

Bradley Douglas Paisley (born October 28, 1972) is an American country music singer, songwriter, and guitarist. Starting with his 1999 debut album Who Needs Pictures, he has released twelve studio albums and a Christmas compilation on the Arista Nashville label, with all of his albums certified Gold or higher by the RIAA. He has scored 35 Top 10 singles on the US Billboard Country Airplay chart, 20 of which have reached number one. He set a new record in 2009 for the most consecutive singles (10) reaching the top spot on that chart.

Paisley has sold over 11 million albums and has won three Grammy Awards, 14 Academy of Country Music Awards, 14 Country Music Association Awards, and two American Music Awards. He has also earned country music's crowning achievement, becoming a member of the Grand Ole Opry. Paisley also wrote songs for Pixar's Cars franchise ("Behind the Clouds", "Find Yourself", "Collision of Worlds" with Robbie Williams, "Nobody's Fool", etc.), and is known for his comedic songwriting style and skilled guitar playing.

Early life
Paisley was born and raised in Glen Dale, West Virginia. He is the only child of Douglas Edward "Doug" Paisley, who worked for the West Virginia Department of Transportation, and Sandra Jean "Sandy" (née Jarvis) Paisley, a teacher.

He has stated that his love of country music stems from his maternal grandfather, Warren Jarvis, who gave him his first guitar, a Sears Danelectro Silvertone, and taught him how to play at eight years old. In third grade, he performed for the first time in public by singing in his church. Initially, they were just going to have him play the song on the guitar instead of a piano. But then the adults heard him sing the tune and said, "Forget the choir, let's just have Brad do the whole thing."

After that, he never had to ask for a gig until he left Glen Dale. He later recalled that "Pretty soon, I was performing at every Christmas party and Mother's Day event. The neat thing about a small town is that when you want to be an artist, by golly, they'll make you one." At age 13, he wrote his first song, "Born on Christmas Day", which later appeared on his album Brad Paisley Christmas. He had been taking lessons with local guitarist Clarence "Hank" Goddard. By 13, Goddard and Paisley formed a band called "Brad Paisley and the C-Notes", with the addition of two of Paisley's adult friends.

When he was in junior high, his school's principal heard him perform "Born On Christmas Day" and invited him to play at the local Rotary Club meeting. In attendance was Tom Miller, the program director of a radio station in Wheeling, West Virginia. Miller asked him if he would like to be a guest on Jamboree USA. After his first performance, he was asked to become a member of the show's weekly lineup. For the next eight years, he opened for country singers such as The Judds, Ricky Skaggs and George Jones. He would become the youngest person inducted into the Jamboree USA Hall of Fame. He also performed at the Jamboree in the Hills.

Paisley graduated from John Marshall High School in Glen Dale, West Virginia, in 1991, and then studied for two years at West Liberty State College in West Liberty, West Virginia. He was awarded a fully paid ASCAP scholarship to Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee, where he majored in music business and received a Bachelor of Business Administration degree from the Mike Curb School of Music Business in 1995. He interned at ASCAP, Atlantic Records, and the Fitzgerald-Hartley management firm. While in college, he met Frank Rogers, a fellow student who went on to serve as his producer. Paisley also met Kelley Lovelace, who became his songwriting partner. He also met Chris DuBois in college, and he, too, would write songs for him.

Within a week after graduating from Belmont, Paisley signed a songwriting contract with EMI Music Publishing; and he wrote David Kersh's Top 5 hit, "Another You", as well as David Ball's 1999 single, "Watching My Baby Not Come Back". The latter song was also co-written by Ball.

1999–2003: Who Needs Pictures and Part II
His debut as a singer was with the label Arista Nashville, with the song "Who Needs Pictures" (released February 1, 1999). In May of that same year, he made his first appearance on the Grand Ole Opry. Seven months later he had his first No. 1 hit with "He Didn't Have to Be", which detailed the story of Paisley's frequent co-writer Kelley Lovelace and Lovelace's stepson, McCain Merren. The album also produced a Top 20 hit with "Me Neither" and his second number 1 hit, "We Danced", both in 2000. By February 2001, the album was certified platinum. Later in 2000, Paisley won the Country Music Association's (CMA) Horizon Award and the Academy of Country Music's best new male vocalist trophy. He received his first Grammy Award nomination a year later for Best New Artist. On February 17, 2001, Paisley was inducted into the Grand Ole Opry. He was 28 when he accepted the invitation. PBS did a 75th anniversary concert special, in which Paisley and Chely Wright sang a song that they co-wrote called "Hard to Be a Husband, Hard to Be a Wife". This song later appeared on the compilation album Grand Ole Opry 75th Anniversary, Vol. 2. The concert would get a CMA nomination for Vocal Event of the Year.

Paisley would later contribute to Wright's 2001 album Never Love You Enough, co-writing the tracks "One Night in Las Vegas", "Horoscope", and "Not as In Love". Paisley co-produced the former two tracks with her, in addition to playing guitar on them and featuring members of his road band, The Drama Kings; he also sang backing vocals on "One Night in Las Vegas" and "Not as In Love". In 2002, he won the CMA Music Video of the Year for "I'm Gonna Miss Her (The Fishin' Song)". Several celebrities made notable guest appearances in the video, including Little Jimmy Dickens, Kimberly Williams, Dan Patrick, and Jerry Springer. His three other singles from the Part II album, "I Wish You'd Stay", "Wrapped Around", and "Two People Fell in Love", all charted in the top 10. The album stayed in the charts for more than 70 weeks and was certified platinum in August 2002. To support his album, he toured the country as the opening act for Lonestar.

2003–2007: Mud on the Tires, Time Well Wasted and 5th Gear
Paisley released his third album, Mud on the Tires (2003), following Who Needs Pictures and Part II. The album features the hit song "Celebrity", the video of which parodies television shows such as Fear Factor, American Idol, The Bachelorette, and According to Jim, and included such celebrities as Jason Alexander, James Belushi, Little Jimmy Dickens, Trista Rehn, and William Shatner. (Paisley later contributed to Shatner's album Has Been.) The album's title track, "Mud on the Tires", reached Billboard No. 1 in 2004. In addition, the ninth track from Mud on the Tires, "Whiskey Lullaby", a duet with Alison Krauss, reached No. 3 on the Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks (now Hot Country Songs) charts, and No. 41 on the Billboard Hot 100. The music video for Whiskey Lullaby also won several awards and was rated No. 2 on the 100 Greatest Videos by CMT in 2008. The album was certified double platinum.

In 2005, after touring with Reba McEntire and Terri Clark on the Two Hats and a Redhead Tour, he released Time Well Wasted which included the singles "Alcohol" reaching number 4, "When I Get Where I'm Going" a duet with Dolly Parton, "The World" and "She's Everything" with the last three all reaching number 1. On November 6, 2006, Time Well Wasted won the Country Music Association CMA Award for Best Album. It also won album of the year at the 2006 ACM Awards. Paisley also contributed two original songs to the Disney Pixar's film Cars. These can be found on the film's soundtrack. This was in recognition of his contribution to the "Route 66: Main Street America" television special. At the 2006 Grammy Awards, Paisley received four nominations: Best Country Album (for Time Well Wasted), Best Country Song (for "Alcohol"), Best Country Instrumental (for "Time Warp") and Best Country Vocal, Male (for "Alcohol").

Paisley's fifth studio album, 5th Gear, was released in the United States on June 19, 2007. The first four singles from the album, "Ticks", "Online", "Letter to Me", and "I'm Still a Guy", all reached number one on the country music single charts, making seven straight number one hits for Paisley. "Online" featured the Brentwood High School marching band playing toward the end of the song, a cameo by Jason Alexander, and again featured a cameo by William Shatner. Throttleneck would also reach number one, which would get Paisley his first Grammy. The fifth single from 5th Gear actually came from a reissued version of the album – a new recording of "Waitin' on a Woman", a track cut from Time Well Wasted. The reissued version received unsolicited airplay in late 2006, and features less prominent string guitar and violin parts and a more "muted" musical tone. For the chart week of September 20, 2008, the song became Paisley's twelfth number-one single and his eighth straight number-one hit, making him the artist with the most consecutive Number One country hits since the inception of Nielsen SoundScan in 1990. Paisley toured April 26, 2007, through February 24, 2008, in support of 5th Gear on the Bonfires & Amplifiers Tour. The tour visited 94 cities over a 10-month period and played for more than a million fans. The tour was so successful that it was extended past its original end date to February 2008. Some of the opening acts who appeared during the tour were Taylor Swift, Kellie Pickler, Jack Ingram, Rodney Atkins and Chuck Wicks.

Paisley was nominated for three 2008 Grammy Awards related to 5th Gear: Best Country Album (for 5th Gear), Best Country Collaboration (for "Oh Love" with Carrie Underwood), and Best Country Instrumental (for "Throttleneck"). On February 10, 2008, he won his first Grammy award for Best Country Instrumental for "Throttleneck". In March 2008, Paisley announced his next tour, The Paisley Party, a 42-date tour sponsored by Hershey's. The tour kicked off on June 11, 2008, in Albuquerque, New Mexico, with Wicks, Julianne Hough and Jewel as the opening acts.

2008–2010: Play and American Saturday Night
A sixth instrumental album, titled Play, was released on November 4, 2008. Paisley and Keith Urban released to country radio their first duet together on September 8, 2008, "Start a Band". It was the first and only single from Play, and it went on to become Paisley's thirteenth number one hit and his ninth in a row. The album also features collaborations with James Burton, Little Jimmy Dickens, Vince Gill, John Jorgenson, B.B. King, Albert Lee, Brent Mason, Buck Owens, Redd Volkaert and Steve Wariner. Paisley and Urban both received Entertainer of the Year nominations from the CMA on September 10, 2008. On November 12, 2008, Paisley won Male Vocalist of the Year and Music Video of the Year for "Waitin' on a Woman" during the CMAs.

Paisley announced on January 26, 2009, that he would be embarking on a new tour named American Saturday Night, with Dierks Bentley and Jimmy Wayne opening for most of the shows. Paisley's seventh studio album, American Saturday Night, was released on June 30, 2009. The album's lead single, "Then", was released in March 2009 and performed for the first time on American Idol on March 18. It went on to become Paisley's 14th number one single and his tenth in a row. On July 21, 2009, Paisley performed at the White House for President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama in celebration of country music. Country Music at the White House was streamed live on the White House website as well as a special on Great American Country. On November 11, 2009, Paisley co-hosted the CMA Awards for the second straight year. He also performed "Welcome to the Future", and won both Male Vocalist of the Year and Musical Event of the Year for "Start a Band" with Keith Urban.

On March 1, 2010, Paisley was the first musical performance with "American Saturday Night" for the second tenure of The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. On March 5, 2010, Paisley slipped and fell performing his last song of the set, "Alcohol", at a concert at the North Charleston Coliseum in Charleston, South Carolina, on the final date of the American Saturday Night Tour. Fearing a broken rib, he was held overnight at an area hospital, but was released when an MRI was negative. On July 31, 2010, Paisley performed alongside Carrie Underwood at the inaugural Greenbrier Classic PGA Tour Event in Lewisburg, West Virginia. An estimated 60,000 people attended the outdoor event to watch Underwood and Paisley perform in the pouring rain. On August 4, 2010, it was announced on his official website that Paisley would release his first official greatest hits package, entitled Hits Alive. Released on November 2, 2010, Hits Alive is a double-disc collection, with one disc containing studio versions of Paisley's hit singles, while the companion disc features previously unreleased live versions of his songs. Paisley cohosted the 44th Annual CMA Awards on November 10, 2010, where he was also awarded the CMA's top award, Entertainer of the Year. During his acceptance speech, Paisley emotionally honored his grandfather, who inspired him to play the guitar. In 2012, MSN.com listed American Saturday Night as one of the 21 Essential 21st-Century Albums.

2011–2014: This Is Country Music and Wheelhouse
In December 2010, Paisley released "This Is Country Music" as the title track to his eighth studio album, released May 23, 2011. The album's second single, "Old Alabama" (with Alabama), released to country radio on March 14, 2011, and became Paisley's nineteenth number one hit. "Remind Me", with Carrie Underwood, was released May 23, 2011, to radio. On March 22, 2011, Paisley's website announced a new beta game titled Brad Paisley World. The game is modeled after other Facebook games such as Farmville or Mafia Wars and features original animation. The game provides a new way for fans to interact with each other and view exclusive material that would otherwise be unavailable. On May 12, 2011, Paisley's website announced that he would release two songs on the soundtrack for the film Cars 2. One of them would be a collaboration with British pop singer Robbie Williams.

On September 21, 2011, Mailboat Records released Mark Twain: Words & Music, a double-CD telling Mark Twain's life in spoken word and song, including a new song by Paisley titled "Huck Finn Blues". Paisley's website announced that he was a fan of Twain, prompting his collaboration on the project with Clint Eastwood, Jimmy Buffett, Sheryl Crow, Vince Gill, and others. On October 19, 2011, Paisley made a voice cameo as various background characters in the South Park episode "Bass to Mouth".

On January 14, 2012, Paisley was a guest on Garrison Keillor's Prairie Home Companion, during which he did a rendition of "Life's Railway to Heaven" by Charles Davis Tillman. On April 25, 2012, Paisley was featured on the South Park episode "Cartman Finds Love", in which he voiced himself, sang the national anthem and helped Cartman sing the 1990s hit song "I Swear", which was popularized in 1994 by the country musician John Michael Montgomery and the pop group All-4-One. Paisley extended his Virtual Reality World Tour through mid-2012. He toured the country and made pit stops at local country music festivals.

On September 20, 2012, Paisley released a new single, "Southern Comfort Zone". The song debuted at number 25 on the Hot Country Songs chart, becoming Paisley's highest debut to date. It reached number 2 on the Country Airplay chart in 2013. The song was the first single from his ninth studio album, Wheelhouse, released on April 9, 2013. The album's second single, "Beat This Summer", was released to country radio on March 4, 2013. It also reached number 2 on the Country Airplay chart in July 2013. The album's third single, "I Can't Change the World", was released to country radio on August 19, 2013: despite a moderately good debut, the single failed to reach the top 20 on country charts, peaking at number 22 on Country Airplay and becoming Paisley's lowest-charting single to date. The album's fourth single, "The Mona Lisa", was released to country radio on December 9, 2013. It peaked at number 19 on Country Airplay.

On June 12, 2013, Paisley announced on his Twitter page that he would join the Rolling Stones onstage during the band's concert in Philadelphia. His track "Accidental Racist", a duet with rapper LL Cool J, generated notoriety when it was released. Paisley sings about how he finds himself "caught between Southern pride and Southern blame": Paisley explained that he is proud of where he is from, but he feels ashamed of the South's history of slavery and racism. The song generated controversy for its discussion of racism, particularly the song's message of showing "Southern pride", which includes re-appropriation of the Confederate flag.

2014–2017: Moonshine in the Trunk and Love and War
On April 6, 2014, Paisley released "River Bank". It is the lead single from his tenth studio album for Sony Music Entertainment, Moonshine in the Trunk, which was released on August 26, 2014. Paisley co-wrote the song with Kelley Lovelace and co-produced it with Luke Wooten. The album's second single, "Perfect Storm", was released to country radio on September 2, 2014. It reached number one on the Country Airplay chart in January 2015. The album's third single, "Crushin' It", was released to country radio on January 26, 2015. The album's fourth single, "Country Nation", was released to country radio on September 14, 2015. On May 24, 2014, Paisley traveled on Air Force One with President Barack Obama to visit US troops at Bagram Air Base in Bagram, Afghanistan. Paisley played a full concert for the troops stationed there. On June 1, 2014, Rolling Stone magazine ranked "Welcome to the Future" #100 in their list of the 100 greatest country songs. In September 2014, Moonshine in the Trunk became Paisley's eighth number one album on Billboard's Top Country Albums chart. It also became his ninth Top 10 Pop album and fifth album to reach #2 on the Billboard 200.

Paisley released "Without a Fight", a duet with Demi Lovato, on May 13, 2016. It was to have served as the lead single to his eleventh studio album, but due to poor chart performance it did not make the album's final cut. He was selected as one of thirty artists to perform on "Forever Country", a mash-up track of "Take Me Home, Country Roads", "On the Road Again" and "I Will Always Love You" which celebrates 50 years of the CMA Awards. The second single "Today" was released on October 6, 2016, which gave Paisley his first Country Digital Song Sales No. 1, opening at the top of the chart with 41,000 first-week downloads. The single landed in the No.1 spot on the Country Aircheck/Mediabase charts, marking Paisley's 24th No.1 song. On November 11, Paisley announced on Twitter that the title of the album would be Love and War, which was released in April 2017. Love and War features several collaborations with iconic artists, including Timbaland, John Fogerty, Bill Anderson, and Mick Jagger, as well as a songwriting credit with Johnny Cash.

2018–present: The Store, label change and Son of the Mountains
On October 4, 2018, Paisley and his wife Kimberly Williams-Paisley partnered with Belmont University and opened a free referral-based grocery store in Nashville to help the community in need. The board of trustees for The Store include Brad Paisley, president; Megan Zarling, chair; Pete Fisher, vice-chair; Doug Paisley, secretary and Elaine Bryan, treasurer. In November 2018, Paisley released "Bucked Off". On March 11, 2019, Paisley released "My Miracle".

In 2019, Paisley was a guest judge on season 14 of America's Got Talent. During the "Judge Cuts", he pressed the Golden Buzzer for singer/guitarist Sophie Pecora. In 2021, Paisley was featured on Jimmie Allen's "Freedom Was a Highway", which reached number one on the Billboard Country Airplay chart in February 2022, becoming Paisley's twentieth number one single, and his first since "Perfect Storm" in January 2015. This distinction also tied Paisley with Brooks & Dunn and Toby Keith for the tenth most number one singles since the chart's inception in January 1990.

In February 2023, after being on Arista Nashville since the beginning of his career, Paisley signed a new record deal with EMI Nashville. On February 24, 2023, he released "Same Here" featuring Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Paisley also plans to release his thirteenth studio album, Son of the Mountains set to be released in 2024. On June 24, 2023, Paisley released the second single of his upcoming album, titled "So Many Summers".

Jug Fishing for Greazy and Other Brad Paisley Fishing Stories
Paisley released his book Jug Fishing for Greazy and Other Brad Paisley Fishing Stories in 2003 under Thomas Nelson Publishing. He co-wrote the book with author M. B. Roberts.

Diary of a Player
Paisley released his book Diary of a Player: How My Musical Heroes Made a Guitar Man Out of Me in 2011 under Howard Books Publishing. He co-wrote the book with author David Wild, a contributing editor for Rolling Stone magazine and an Emmy nominated TV writer and producer. The book is an autobiography and talks about Paisley's introduction to the music industry and how the events in his life helped to prepare him for what was up ahead. The book features topics such as the first guitar that his grandfather gave him, his first band the C-notes, the first song he wrote, and many more music/guitar related topics. Although the book does speak briefly of his personal life, the main focus is on his music and the start of his career.

Discography

 * Studio albums
 * Who Needs Pictures (1999)
 * Part II (2001)
 * Mud on the Tires (2003)
 * Time Well Wasted (2005)
 * Brad Paisley Christmas (2006)
 * 5th Gear (2007)
 * Play: The Guitar Album (2008)
 * American Saturday Night (2009)
 * This Is Country Music (2011)
 * Wheelhouse (2013)
 * Moonshine in the Trunk (2014)
 * Love and War (2017)
 * Son of the Mountains (2024)

Tours

 * Headlining

 * Time Well Wasted Tour (2005–06)
 * Bonfires & Amplifiers Tour (2007–08)
 * The Paisley Party Tour (2008–09)
 * American Saturday Night Tour (2009–10)
 * The H2O Tour (2010)
 * The iH2O Frozen Over Tour (2011)
 * H2O II: Wetter and Wilder World Tour (2012)
 * Virtual Reality World Tour (2012)
 * Beat This Summer Tour (2013)
 * Beat This Winter Tour (2014)
 * Country Nation World Tour (2014–15)
 * Crushin' It World Tour (2015–16)
 * Life Amplified World Tour (2016–17)
 * Weekend Warrior World Tour (2017–18)
 * Brad Paisley World Tour (2019)
 * Tour 2021 (2021)
 * World Tour 2022 (2022)
 * Son of the Mountains World Tour (2024)

 * Co-headlining
 * Mud and Suds Tour (2005) (with Sara Evans & Andy Griggs)
 * Two Hats and a Redhead Tour (2005) (with Reba McEntire and Terri Clark)

 * Opening
 * Brooks & Dunn's Neon Circus & Wild West Show (2003)

Band
Paisley records his studio albums, in most part, with the backing of his live band, The Drama Kings. Their first gig together was May 7, 1999.

Current members

 * Brad Paisley – lead vocals, lead guitar
 * Gary Hooker – rhythm guitar
 * Randle Currie – steel guitar
 * Kendal Marcy – keyboards, banjo, mandolin
 * Justin Williamson – fiddle, mandolin
 * Kenny Lewis – bass guitar, vocals
 * Ben Sesar – drums
 * Kevin Freeman - live audio

Former members

 * Jimmy Heffernan – steel guitar
 * Ken Lush – keyboards
 * Earl Clark – steel guitar
 * Mike Johnson – steel guitar
 * Jody Harris – guitar, mandolin, banjo

Relationships
In the last months of 2000, Paisley had a relationship with fellow country music singer Chely Wright. Unbeknownst to Paisley, Wright and her female partner had moved together into a new home earlier in the year. In her autobiography, Wright expressed regret for how she treated him.

Paisley and Kimberly Williams began dating in 2001. The singer had first seen the actress 10 years earlier in her feature film debut while on a date to see Father of the Bride with a local girl. Four years later, and after his date left him for his best friend, he went to see the sequel alone. Paisley stated that he watched Williams' performance and thought "She seems like a great girl — smart and funny and all those things that are so hard to find."

Paisley's sophomore album, Part II, featured several songs he'd written about the old girlfriend, including one about going to see Father of the Bride. When it came time to cast the music video for "I'm Gonna Miss Her (The Fishin' Song)", Paisley said, "It felt natural to ask [Williams, the girl from the movie] to be in it." The two began dating soon after and were married on March 15, 2003, at Stauffer Chapel on the campus of Pepperdine University after a nine-month engagement. They live in Franklin, Tennessee, and had another home in Pacific Palisades that was sold in 2013.

Paisley and Williams' first son was born on February 22, 2007, in Nashville. Their second son, Jasper Warren (named after his grandfather, who bought Paisley his first guitar), was born on April 17, 2009.

Hobbies and other interests
Paisley is an active Freemason, a member of Hiram Lodge #7 in Franklin, Tennessee. Paisley is a member of the Southern Jurisdiction of the Scottish Rite of Freemasonry, and a Noble of the AAONMS, also known as Shriners. He was accompanied by his father, Doug Paisley (33º), for the ceremony on October 28, 2006, and has done a number of recordings supporting the virtues of Freemasonry and DeMolay International. Paisley has described himself as a Christian.

He is also a lifelong fan of the Cleveland Browns and Los Angeles Dodgers. Paisley sang the National Anthem at Dodger Stadium before Game 2 of the Dodgers vs Astros World Series in 2017, and again before Game 3 of the 2018 World Series against the Boston Red Sox. Paisley also sang the national anthem before a Browns game during the 1999 season, and stated in an interview with ESPN his dream job would be to play football for them. He also invited former Browns Quarterback Brady Quinn to a concert at the Blossom Music Center, in 2008.

Paisley is also a fan of West Virginia athletics. In 2014, Paisley appeared as a celebrity guest picker on the popular ESPN show College Gameday, when it was held on the campus of West Virginia University.

In late 2009, it was announced in Variety that Paisley would enter the world of scripted television as an executive producer of a new hour-long drama series for The CW network called, appropriately, Nashville. The plot was written and created by Neal Dodson and actor Matt Bomer. The creator of the series One Tree Hill, Mark Schwahn directed the pilot and was to oversee the series had it been picked up. Actor Zachary Quinto was also an executive producer on the series, along with Dodson, Bomer, and Corey Moosa. The pilot was not picked up for a series when The CW's fall schedule was announced in May 2010. The CW project was completely unrelated to the ABC/CMT series, of the same name, even though his wife had a recurring role in it, and he had two cameo appearances himself.

Instruments
Paisley's first guitar, a gift from his grandfather, was a Silvertone Danelectro 1451, which came with an "amp-in-case". His next guitar, which he got at the age of 10 or 11, also from his grandfather, was a Sekova copy of a Gibson ES-335, with a Fender Deluxe Reverb. The instrument most often associated with him is a 1968 Pink Paisley Fender Telecaster. Brad's main guitars are Crook Custom Guitars. These guitars are designed by Bill Crook and feature the paisley wallpaper in a variety of colors.

Like many Nashville-based musicians, he lost a number of instruments and other gear in the 2010 flood in Nashville, including a 1970s Gibson Les Paul and the prototype for a Z Wreck, one of the signature Paisley Dr. Z amplifiers. The insurance money, however, allowed him to buy (from George Gruhn's store) an exclusive 1937 herringbone Martin D-28.

In 2010, Paisley and Wampler Pedals released the Brad Paisley signature Paisley Drive, a guitar overdrive pedal designed to his specifications. Paisley has also used Audiotech Guitar Products ABY Selector's for controlling his wireless receiver units.

In 2015 Santa Cruz Guitar Company introduced the Brad Paisley Signature Model, B/PW, acoustic dreadnought guitar. Paisley is often seen playing this model of guitar, such as in the 2017 Netflix original Brad Paisley's Comedy Rodeo.

In 2016 Paisley and Dr. Z Amplification collaborated and released the DB4 model. The name DB4 is thus named because it is "Doc & Brad's fourth amp design". The pentode preamp tube is a 5879 with EL84 output tubes.

Charity and advocacy
In June 2021, Paisley promoted the COVID vaccine along with First Lady Jill Biden in Tennessee. He sang a version of Dolly Parton's song Jolene, substituting the words “vaccine, vaccine, vaccine”.

On January 24, 2023, Brad Paisley became an ambassador of the United24 project and will support the "Rebuilding Ukraine" program.

On March 14, 2023, it became known that Brad Paisley would donate royalties for his track "Same Here", (which he dedicated to Ukraine), to rebuild Ukraine.

Paisley is a harsh critic of the pharmaceutical industry and blames much of the opioid crisis in West Virginia and through the rural United States on drugmakers. His 2021 song "The Medicine Will" addresses his thoughts on the subject.

title: Brad Paisley


text:
Moss Landing Marine Laboratories

The Moss Landing Marine Laboratories (MLML) is a multi-campus marine research consortium of the California State University System, headquartered at Moss Landing, California.

Organization
Moss Landing Marine Laboratories is part of the California State University, administered by San Jose State University (SJSU), and located in Moss Landing, California. The main building is located at 8272 Moss Landing Road, 36.79441°N, -121.78762°W. It was established in 1966. At the midpoint of the coast of Monterey Bay, it is only a few hundred meters from Monterey Canyon, the largest undersea canyon on the west coast of the Americas. As a result, researchers are able to reach areas with depths greater than 1000 meters in less than an hour by boat from the facility.

The facility is a sea grant college, which offers a Master's of Science degree in marine sciences through the seven universities that make up the consortium, as well as offering graduate and undergraduate marine science courses to the students of the campuses.

The seven members of the Moss Landing Marine Laboratories consortium are:
 * California State University, East Bay
 * California State University, Fresno
 * California State University, Monterey Bay
 * California State University, Sacramento
 * San Francisco State University
 * San Jose State University
 * California State University, Stanislaus

Researchers at Moss Landing Marine Laboratories also collaborate with scientists at other institutions in analysis of marine chemistry and marine species. One frequent partner for such collaboration is the Marine Mammal Center.

Research vessels
MLML operates two vessels, the 56 ft R/V John H. Martin, and the 30 ft R/V Sheila B.

Sea Grant
Moss Landing Marine Laboratories participates in the Sea Grant Colleges program by hosting an office of the UC Sea Grant Extension Program, affiliated with University of California, San Diego.

Projects
The Submersible Capable of Under Ice Navigation and Imaging was a National Science Foundation funded research project for robotic under the sea ice for surveying and exploration in Antarctica from 2007 through 2009.

The Vertical Transport and Exchange of Ocean Particulate program (VERTEX) was initiated by Moss Landing Marine Labs in 1981 by Dr. John Martin. This project resulted in the development of the Iron Iron fertilization theory (then known as the Iron Hypothesis) which stated iron was a limiting factor in ocean water phytoplankton production and its influence for climate change. Dr.Martin was dubbed the nickname "Iron Man" for his role in this discovery.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Moss Landing Marine Laboratories


text:
Holy Synod

In several of the autocephalous Eastern Orthodox churches and Eastern Catholic Churches, the patriarch or head bishop is elected by a group of bishops called the Holy Synod. For instance, the Holy Synod is a ruling body of the Georgian Orthodox Church.

In Oriental Orthodoxy the Holy Synod is the highest authority in the church and it formulates the rules and regulations regarding matters of church organization, faith, and order of service.

Early synods
The principle of summoning a synod or council of ecclesiastical persons to discuss some grave question affecting the Church goes back to the very beginning of the Church's history. Since the day when the Apostles met at Jerusalem to settle whether Gentile converts were to keep the Old Law (Acts 15:6–29), it had been the custom to call together such gatherings as occasion required. Bishops summoned synods of their clergy, metropolitans and patriarchs summoned their suffragans, and then since 325 there was a succession of those greatest synods, representing the whole Catholic world, that are known as general councils.

Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate
The Ecumenical Patriarchate is governed by the "Holy and Sacred Synod", developed from the "endemousa synod" (the "resident" synod), which consisted of the bishops living (even if only transiently) in or near Constantinople. It is presided over by the Patriarch of Constantinople and consists of twelve hierarchs, each of whom holds membership for a year, with half of them being replaced every six months.

The Russian Holy Synod
The Most Holy Synod or Most Holy Governing Synod (Святейший Правительствующий Синод) was a congregation of Orthodox church leaders in Russia. It was established by Peter the Great, Stefan Yavorsky and Feofan Prokopovich in January 1721 to replace the Patriarchate of Moscow. It was abolished following the February Revolution of 1917 and replaced with a restored patriarchate under Tikhon of Moscow. In modern Russia, the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church is the highest governing body of the Russian Orthodox Church between Sobors. It is headed by the Patriarch of Moscow and all the Rus'.

The Greek Holy Synod
The first other Orthodox Church to imitate the Russian Government by synod was that of Greece. The national assemblies of free Greece in 1822 and 1827 began the process of making their Church independent of the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople. In 1833 the Greek Parliament formally rejected the patriarch's authority and set up a Holy Directing Synod in exact imitation of Russia. After much dispute, the patriarch gave in and acknowledged the Greek synod, in 1850. Since then, the Church of Greece has been governed by a Holy Synod exactly as was the Church of Russia.

A law in 1852 regulated its rights and duties. It met at Athens under the presidency of the Metropolitan of Athens. Four other bishops were appointed by the Government as members for a year by vote. The members took an oath of fidelity to the king and government. Their deliberations were controlled by a royal commissioner, who was a layman chosen by government, just as the Russian oberprocuror. No act was valid without the commissioner's assent. There were also secretaries, writers, and a servant all appointed by the State. The Holy Synod was the highest authority in the Greek Church and had the same rights and duties as its Russian model, and was named in the liturgy instead of a patriarch.

After the proclamation of the Greek Republic in 1924, royal control of the Holy Synod naturally ceased, and with the elevation of the Metropolitan of Athens to an Archbishophric in 1932, the Archbishop began to be named in liturgies. Today, supreme authority is vested in the synod of all the diocesan bishops, who all have metropolitical status (the Hierarchy of the Church of Greece) under the presidency of the Archbishop of Athens and all Greece. This synod deals with general church questions. The Standing Synod is under the same presidency, and consists of the Primate and 12 bishops, each serving for one term on a rotating basis and deals with details of administration.

Holy Synod of the Romanian Orthodox Church
The Holy Synod of the Romanian Orthodox Church is organized as the highest authority on all matters concerning the church. It comprises the Patriarch, all metropolitans, archbishops, bishops and vicar bishops of the church. The Holy Synod usually meets two times a year, in spring and autumn in ordinary sessions but extraordinary sessions are organized whenever necessary. Whilst is the supreme authority on all matters of the church, it is a deliberative authority, as all of its members are the leaders of the entire church, directly representing all of the believers of the RoOC.

Holy Synod of the Serbian Orthodox Church
The Serbian Orthodox Church is governed by a five-member Holy Synod. The patriarch is a permanent member, while the other four are bishops elected for two-year terms by the Bishops' Council, a body that represents all the metropolitans and other bishops of the church.

Holy Synod of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church
The supreme clerical, judicial and administrative power for the whole domain of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church is exercised by the Holy Synod, which includes the Patriarch and the diocesan prelates, who are called metropolitans.

The Coptic Holy Synod
The Holy Synod of the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria is the highest authority in the Church of Alexandria and it formulates the rules and regulations regarding matters of church's organization, faith, service's order.

The Synod is chaired by the Pope of Alexandria and the members are the Church's Metropolitans, Bishops, Chorbishops and the Patriarchal Vicar for Alexandria.

The Syriac Holy Synod
The Holy Synod of the Syriac Orthodox Church of Antioch is the highest authority of the Church of Antioch. It is chaired by the Patriarch of Antioch with metropolitans and bishops as members.

Catholic Church
Within the Catholic Church, each sui iuris patriarchal church and each major archiepiscopal church has its own synod of bishops, which is exclusively competent to make laws for the entire sui iuris church in question and is its tribunal.

The Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches makes mention 115 times of the synod of bishops in this sense. It does not add honorific adjectives such as "holy", "holy and sacred" "most holy", as used in some Eastern Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox churches.

The Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches distinguishes between a patriarchal or major archiepiscopal church's standing synod and the synod of its bishops as a whole. It is the standing synod that corresponds to the term "holy synod" as used above. The standing synod consists of the patriarch or major archbishop and four bishops appointed for a five-year term. Of these four, three are elected by the church's synod of bishops and one is appointed by the patriarch or major archbishop, while another four are designated in the same way to replace any member who is impeded. A meeting of the synod of all the church's bishops is called when a decision is required on a question that only it is authorized to decide, or when the patriarch or major archbishop, with the agreement of the standing synod, judges it to be necessary, or when at least one third of the bishops request that it be held to consider some specific matter. In addition, the individual canon law of some of these churches requires that their synod of bishops be convoked at predetermined intervals.

In metropolitan sui iuris churches a role analogous to that of the synod of bishops is played by a council of hierarchs.

title: Holy Synod


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INH

INH or inh may refer to:

 * Ingush language, ISO 639 code
 * Inhambane Airport, Mozambique, IATA code INH
 * Isonicotinic acid hydrazide or isoniazid, an antibiotic for treatment of tuberculosis

Historic uses

 * Dutch East Indies, former FIFA country code INH
 * Instituto Nacional de Hidrocarburos (INH, National Hydrocarbons Institute, 1980–1995), Spanish state-owned petroleum management company

title: INH


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Ilf and Petrov

Ilya Ilf (Ilya Arnoldovich Feinsilberg or Илья Арнольдович Файнзильберг, 1897–1937) and Yevgeny Petrov (Yevgeniy Petrovich Katayev or Евгений Петрович Катаев, 1902–1942) were two Soviet prose authors of the 1920s and 1930s. They did much of their writing together, and are almost always referred to as "Ilf and Petrov". They were natives of Odessa.

The duo were arguably the most popular satirical writers in the Soviet period. representatives of the "Odessa School" of humorist writers, and some of the very prominent, mostly Jewish (Odessa native) cultural figures along with Isaac Babel and Leonid Utesov, who moved to work in the Soviet capital after the abolition of restrictions on Jewish residence in the Pale of Settlement.

Publications
Ilf and Petrov gained a high profile for their two satirical novels: The Twelve Chairs (1928) and its sequel, The Little Golden Calf (1931). The two texts are connected by their main character, Ostap Bender, a con man in pursuit of elusive riches. Both books follow exploits of Bender and his associates looking for treasure amidst the contemporary Soviet reality. They were written and are set in the relatively liberal era in Soviet history, the New Economic Policy of the 1920s. The main characters generally avoid contact with the apparently lax law enforcement. Their position outside the organized, goal-driven, productive Soviet society is emphasized. It also gives the authors a convenient platform from which to look at this society and to make fun of its less attractive and less Socialist aspects. These are among the most widely read and quoted books in Russian culture. The Twelve Chairs was adapted for ca. twenty movies; in the Soviet Union (by Leonid Gaidai and by Mark Zakharov), in the US (in particular by Mel Brooks) and in other countries.

From the late 1920s to 1937, the co-authors wrote several theatrical plays and screenplays, as well as many humorous short stories and satirical articles in the magazines Chudak, 30 days, Krokodil and Ogoniok; and the newspapers Pravda and Literaturnaya Gazeta. In the first years of joint creativity Ilf and Petrov published their stories and satires under parodic pseudonyms: Tolstoevsky (composed of the names of writers Tolstoy and Dostoevsky), Don Busilio (from Don Basilio, a character in the opera The Barber of Seville, and the Russian verb busa – scandal, noise), Cold philosopher and others.

The two writers also traveled across the Great Depression-era United States. Ilf took many pictures throughout the journey, and the authors produced a photo essay entitled "American Photographs", published in Ogoniok magazine. Shortly after that they published the book Одноэтажная Америка (literally: "One-storied America"), translated as Little Golden America (an allusion to The Little Golden Calf). The first edition of the book did not include Ilf's photographs. Both the photo essay and the book document their adventures with their characteristic humor and playfulness. Notably, Ilf and Petrov were not afraid to praise many aspects of the American lifestyle in these works while being highly critical of others. The title comes from the following description.

"America is primarily a one-and two-storey country. The majority of the American population lives in small towns of three thousand, maybe five, nine, or fifteen thousand inhabitants."

Vladimir Nabokov considered them to be "wonderfully gifted writers".

Ilf died of tuberculosis a few months after their return from the USA. Petrov became a front line correspondent during the Second World War and, after covering the fighting in Sevastopol, was killed when the airplane he was travelling in back to Moscow crashed while flying low to avoid anti-aircraft fire.

Script authors

 * Woman-Sycophant – comic play (1930, “Подхалимка”)
 * House-Barracks – screenplay (1931, “Барак”)
 * Strong Feeling – vaudeville (1933, “Сильное чувство”)
 * Under the Circus Dome – comic play (1934, with Valentin Kataev, “Под куполом цирка”)

In culture
The minor planet 3668 Ilfpetrov, discovered by Soviet astronomer Lyudmila Georgievna Karachkina in 1982, is named after them.

title: Ilf and Petrov


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List of members of the European Parliament for Estonia, 2004–2009

This is the list of the 6 members of the European Parliament for Estonia in the 2004 to 2009 session.


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Iraqi insurgency (2003–2011)

An Iraqi insurgency began shortly after the 2003 American invasion deposed longtime leader Saddam Hussein. It is considered to have lasted until the end of the Iraq War and U.S. withdrawal in 2011. It was followed by a renewed insurgency.

The initial outbreak of violence (the 2003–2006 phase) was triggered by the fall and preceded the establishment of the new Iraqi government by the Multi-National Force – Iraq (MNF–I), which was led by the United States. From around 2004 to May 2007, Iraqi insurgents largely focused their attacks on MNF-I troops, but later shifted to targeting the post-invasion Iraqi security forces as well.

The insurgents were composed of a diverse mix of private militias, pro-Saddam Ba'athists, local Iraqis opposed to the MNF–I and/or the post-Saddam Iraqi government, and a number of foreign jihadists. The various insurgent groups fought an asymmetric war of attrition against the MNF–I and the Iraqi government, while also fighting among themselves.

The insurgency was shaped by sectarian tensions in Iraq, particularly between Shia Muslims (~60% of the population) and Sunni Muslims (~35% of the population). By February 2006, the violence escalated into a Shia–Sunni civil war, and for the next two years, the MNF–I and the Iraqi government were locked in intense fighting with various militants, who were also targeting each other based on their sectarian affiliations. Many of the militant attacks in American-controlled territories were directed at the Shia-dominated government of Nouri al-Maliki. Militancy continued amid post-invasion Iraqi reconstruction efforts, as the federal government tried to establish itself in the country. The civil war and sectarian violence ended in mid-2008, having been quelled by the American troop surge of 2007.

However, after the American withdrawal from Iraq in December 2011, a renewed sectarian and anti-government insurgency swept through the country, causing thousands of casualties. Two years later, the violence of the new insurgency escalated into the Second Iraq War, largely triggered by the rise of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.

Background
The 2003 invasion of Iraq (20 March – 1 May 2003) began the Iraq War, or Operation Iraqi Freedom, in which a combined force of troops from the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, and Poland invaded Iraq and toppled the government of Saddam Hussein within 26 days of major combat operations. The invasion phase consisted of a conventionally fought war which concluded with the capture of the Iraq capital Baghdad by U.S. forces.

Four countries participated with troops during the initial invasion phase, which lasted from 20 March to 15 April 2003. These were the United States (148,000), United Kingdom (45,000), Australia (2,000), and Poland (194). Thirty-six other countries were involved in its aftermath. In preparation for the invasion, 100,000 U.S. troops were assembled in Kuwait by 18 February. The United States supplied the majority of the invading forces, but also received support from Kurdish irregulars in Iraqi Kurdistan.

The invasion was preceded by an air strike on the Presidential Palace in Baghdad on 20 March 2003. The following day coalition forces launched an incursion into Basra Province from their massing point close to the Iraqi-Kuwaiti border. While the special forces launched an amphibious assault from the Persian Gulf to secure Basra and the surrounding petroleum fields, the main invasion army moved into southern Iraq, occupying the region and engaging in the Battle of Nasiriyah on 23 March. Massive air strikes across the country and against Iraqi command and control threw the defending army into chaos and prevented an effective resistance. On 26 March the 173rd Airborne Brigade was airdropped near the northern city of Kirkuk where they joined forces with Kurdish rebels and fought several actions against the Iraqi army to secure the northern part of the country.

The main body of coalition forces continued their drive into the heart of Iraq and met with little resistance. Most of the Iraqi military was quickly defeated and Baghdad was occupied on 9 April. Other operations occurred against pockets of the Iraqi army including the capture and occupation of Kirkuk on 10 April, and the attack and capture of Tikrit on 15 April. Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and the central leadership went into hiding as the coalition forces completed the occupation of the country.

On 1 May, an end of major combat operations was declared, ending the invasion stage of the Iraq War and beginning the military occupation period and the Iraqi insurgency against coalition forces.

On 23 May 2003, Iraqi military personnel, police and security services were disbanded per Order 2 of the Coalition Provisional Authority under Administrator Paul Bremer, leaving 400,000 soldiers jobless, which Western and Iraqi critics of the U.S. action said provided a ready pool of recruits for Islamist groups and other insurgents that emerged. Furthermore for 10 months Iraq’s borders were left open for anyone to come in without even a visa or a passport.

2003–2006: initial insurgency
The Iraqi insurgency of 2003–06 erupted following the invasion of Iraq and the toppling of Saddam Hussein's rule in May 2003. The armed insurgent opposition to the United States-led multinational force in Iraq and the post-2003 Iraqi government lasted until early 2006, when it deteriorated into a sectarian civil war, the most violent phase of the Iraq War.

2006–2008: insurgency to civil war
Following the U.S.-launched 2003 invasion of Iraq, the situation deteriorated, and by 2007, the intercommunal violence between Iraqi Sunni and Shi'a factions was described by the National Intelligence Estimate as having elements of a civil war. In a 10 January 2007 address to the American people, President George W. Bush stated that "80% of Iraq's sectarian violence occurs within 30 mi of the capital. This violence is splitting Baghdad into sectarian enclaves, and shaking the confidence of all Iraqis." Two polls of Americans conducted in 2006 found that between 65% and 85% believed Iraq was in a civil war; however, a similar poll of Iraqis conducted in 2007 found that 61% did not believe that they were in a civil war.

In October 2006, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the Iraqi government estimated that more than 370,000 Iraqis had been displaced since the 2006 bombing of the al-Askari Mosque, bringing the total number of Iraqi refugees to more than 1.6 million. By 2008, the UNHCR raised the estimate of refugees to a total of about 4.7 million (~16% of the population). The number of refugees estimated abroad was 2 million (a number close to CIA projections ) and the number of internally displaced people was 2.7 million. The estimated number of orphans across Iraq has ranged from 400,000 (according to the Baghdad Provincial Council), to five million (according to Iraq's anti-corruption board). A UN report from 2008 placed the number of orphans at about 870,000. The Red Cross has also stated that Iraq's humanitarian situation remains among the most critical in the world, with millions of Iraqis forced to rely on insufficient and poor-quality water sources.

According to the Failed States Index, produced by Foreign Policy magazine and the Fund for Peace, Iraq was one of the world's top 5 unstable states from 2005 to 2008. A poll of top U.S. foreign policy experts conducted in 2007 showed that over the next 10 years, just 3% of experts believed the U.S. would be able to rebuild Iraq into a "beacon of democracy" and 58% of experts believed that Sunni-Shiite tensions would dramatically increase in the Middle East.

In June 2008, the U.S. Department of Defense reported that "the security, political and economic trends in Iraq continue to be positive; however, they remain fragile, reversible and uneven." In July 2008, the audit arm of the U.S. Congress recommended that the U.S. Government should "develop an updated strategy for Iraq that defines U.S. goals and objectives after July 2008 and addresses the long-term goal of achieving an Iraq that can govern, defend, and sustain itself". Steven Simon, a Senior Fellow for Middle Eastern Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, wrote in May 2008 that "the recent short-term gains" had "come at the expense of the long-term goal of a stable, unitary Iraq."

After Iraqi security forces took the lead in security operations on 30 June 2009, Iraq experienced a "dramatic reduction in war-related violence of all types ..., with civilian and military deaths down by 80 to 90 percent compared with the same period in 2008."

2008–2011: low-level insurgency
In 2010, the low point for the al-Qaeda effort in Iraq, car bombings declined to an average of ten a month and multiple-location attacks occurred only two or three times a year.

2011–2013: American withdrawal and renewed insurgency
The Iraqi attacks since U.S. withdrawal relates to the last stage of violent terror activities engaged by Iraqi, primarily radical Sunni and Shia insurgent groups against the central government and the sectarian warfare between various factions within Iraq in the aftermath of the U.S. withdrawal. The events of post-U.S. withdrawal violence succeeded the previous insurgency in Iraq (prior to 18 December 2011), but have showed increasingly violent patterns, raising concerns that the surging violence might slide into another civil war.

Militant organizations
The Iraqi insurgency is composed of at least a dozen major organizations and perhaps as many as 40 distinct groups. These groups are subdivided into countless smaller cells. The Washington-based Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) estimates that less than 10% of insurgents are non-Iraqi foreign fighters. According to the Chief of the British General Staff, General Sir Richard Dannatt, speaking in September 2007,

"The militants (and I use the word deliberately because not all are insurgents, or terrorists, or criminals; they are a mixture of them all) are well armed – probably with outside help, and probably from Iran. By motivation, essentially, and with the exception of the Al Qaeda in Iraq element who have endeavoured to exploit the situation for their own ends, our opponents are Iraqi Nationalists, and are most concerned with their own needs – jobs, money, security – and the majority are not bad people."

Because of its clandestine nature, the exact composition of the Iraqi insurgency is difficult to determine, but the main groupings are:
 * Ba'athists, the supporters of Saddam Hussein's former administration including army or intelligence officers, whose ideology is a variant of Pan-Arabism.
 * Iraqi nationalists, Iraqis who believe in a strong version of Iraqi self-determination. These policies may not necessarily espouse a Pan-Arab ideology, but rather advocate the country's territorial integrity including Kuwait and Khuzestan. Historical figures of this movement include the pre-Ba'athist leader of Iraq Abd al-Karim Qasim and his government.
 * Iraqi Salafi Islamists, the indigenous armed followers of the Salafi movement, as well as any remnants of the Kurdish Ansar al-Islam: individuals with a Salafi-only policy opposed to non-Salafis though not aligned to one specific ethnic group. Though opposed to the U.S.-led invasion, these groups are not wholly sympathetic towards the former Ba'ath Party as its members included non-Salafis.
 * Shi'a militias, including the southern, Iran-linked Badr Organization, the Mahdi Army, and the central-Iraq followers of Muqtada al-Sadr. These groups neither advocate the dominance of a single ethnic group, nor the traditional ideologies behind the Iraqi state (e.g. these particular Shi'as do not support the capture of Khuzestan or other border areas with Iran, but rather promote warm relations with Iran's Shi'a government).
 * Foreign Islamist volunteers, including those often linked to al Qaeda and largely driven by the Salafi/Wahhabi doctrine (the two preceding categories are often lumped as "jihadists");
 * Possibly some socialist revolutionaries (such as the Iraqi Armed Revolutionary Resistance, which claimed one attack in 2007).
 * Non-violent resistance groups and political parties (not part of the armed insurgency).

Ba'athists and pro-Saddamists
The Ba'athists include former Ba'ath Party officials, the Fedayeen Saddam, and some former agents of the Iraqi intelligence elements and security services, such as the Mukhabarat and the Special Security Organization. Their goal, at least before the capture of Saddam Hussein, was the restoration of the former Ba'athist government to power. The pre-war organization of the Ba'ath Party and its militias as a cellular structure aided the continued pro-Saddam resistance after the fall of Baghdad, and Iraqi intelligence operatives may have developed a plan for guerrilla war following the toppling of Saddam Hussein from power.

Following Saddam's capture, the Ba'athist movement largely faded; its surviving factions were increasingly shifting to either nationalist factions (Iraqi, though not Pan-Arab, such as the ideology of the pre-Ba'athist regime), or Islamist (Sunni or Shia, depending on the actual faith of the individual, though Ba'ath Party policy had been secular).

As the goal of restoring the Ba'ath Party to power was seemingly out of reach, the alternative solution appeared to be to join forces with organisations who opposed the U.S.-led invasion. Many former Ba'athists had adopted an Islamist façade to attract more credibility within the country, and perhaps gain support from outside Iraq. Others, especially following the January 2005 elections, became more interested in politics.

The fall of Baghdad effectively ended the existence of the Fedayeen Saddam as an organized paramilitary. Several of its members died during the war. A large number survived, however, and were willing to carry on the fight even after the fall of Saddam Hussein from power. Many former members joined guerrilla organizations that began to form to resist the U.S-led coalition in Iraq. By June, an insurgency was underway in central and northern Iraq, especially in an area known as the Sunni Triangle. Some units of the Fedayeen also continued to operate independently of other insurgent organizations in the Sunni areas of Iraq. On 30 November 2003, a U.S. convoy traveling through the town of Samarra in the Sunni Triangle was ambushed by over 100 Iraqi guerillas, reportedly wearing trademark Fedayeen Saddam uniforms.

Following the execution of Saddam Hussein, Deputy Leader of the Iraqi-cell of the Iraqi-led Ba'ath Party and former Vice President of Iraq Izzat Ibrahim ad-Douri became a leading candidate to succeed him as Leader of the Iraqi Ba'ath Party. Ad-Douri had taken over the running of the Iraqi Ba'ath Party following Saddam Hussein's capture in 2003 and had been endorsed by a previously unknown group calling itself Baghdad Citizens Gathering. On 3 January 2007 the website of the banned Iraqi Ba'ath Party confirmed that he was new leader of the party.

Increasing Syrian influence in the Iraqi Ba'ath Party may well have a major effect on result in a fragmentation of Ba'athist parts of the insurgency.

Iraqi nationalists (non-Ba'athist)
Iraqi nationalists are mostly drawn from the Arab regions. Their reasons for opposing the Coalition vary from a rejection of the Coalition presence as a matter of principle to the failure of the multinational forces to fully restore public services and to quickly restore complete sovereignty.

One notable leader of the insurgency among nationalist Sunni is former aide to Saddam Hussein and a former regional Ba'ath Party Organiser Mohammed Younis al-Ahmed al-Muwali who has been crossing the border between Iraq and Syria disbursing funds, smuggling weaponry and organising much of the fighting in the central area of Iraq.

One former minister in the interim government, Ayham al-Samarai, announced the launch in 2005 of "a new political movement, saying he aimed to give a voice to figures from the legitimate Iraqi resistance. 'The birth of this political bloc is to silence the skeptics who say there is no legitimate Iraqi resistance and that they cannot reveal their political face,' he told a news conference." It is unclear what became of this movement.

Government inefficacy and Iranian support
The Shia militias have presented Nouri al-Maliki with perhaps the greatest conundrum of his administration given the capture of Amarah. American officials have pressed him hard to disarm the militias and rid the state security forces of their influence.

A 2008 report by the Combating Terrorism Center at West Point based on reports from the interrogations of dozens of captured Shia fighters described an Iranian-run network smuggling Shia fighters into Iran where they received training and weapons before returning to Iraq.

Badr Organization
One major Shia militia in Iraq is the Badr Organization, the military wing of the Supreme Islamic Council of Iraq. The group is currently based in Karbala, Iraq, and is also active in areas throughout southern Iraq. The group was formed by the Iranian Government to fight the Saddam Hussein-controlled Iraq during the Iran–Iraq War. Originally, the group consisted of Iraqi exiles who were banished from Iraq during the reign of Saddam Hussein. After the war ended in 1988, the organization remained in Iran until Saddam Hussein was overthrown during the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Following the invasion, the brigade then moved into Iraq, became members of the new Iraq Army, and aided coalition forces in insurgents.

Colonel Derek Harvey told Reuters "that the U.S. military detained Badr assassination teams possessing target lists of Sunni officers and pilots in 2003 and 2004 but did not hold them. Harvey said his superiors told him that 'this stuff had to play itself out' – implying that revenge attacks by returning Shi'ite groups were to be expected. He also said Badr and ISCI offered intelligence and advice to U.S. officials on how to navigate Iraqi politics."

In a letter published by the Coalition in February 2004, an insurgent believed to be Zarqawi wrote that jihadis should start an open sectarian war so that Sunnis would mobilize against what would otherwise be a secret war being waged by Shia. The author only specifically pointed to assassinations carried out by the Badr Brigade as an example of this secret war.

In December 2005, the group and their leaders in the Supreme Islamic Council of Iraq participated in parliament elections, under the pro-Shiite coalition known as the United Iraqi Alliance, and managed to get 36 members into the Iraqi Parliament.

The Badr organization supports the government of Nouri Al-Maliki.

Muqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army
Supporters of the young Shi'a cleric Muqtada al-Sadr are largely impoverished men from the Shi'a urban areas and slums in Baghdad and the southern Shi'a cities. The Mahdi Army area of operation stretches from Basra in the south to the Sadr City section of Baghdad in central Iraq (some scattered Shi'a militia activity has also been reported in Baquba and Kirkuk, where Shi'a minorities exist).

During his group's active militant phase, Al-Sadr enjoyed wide support from the Iraqi people according to some polls. A poll by the Iraq Center for Research and Studies found that 32% of Iraqis "strongly supported" him and another 36% "somewhat supported" him, making him the second most popular man in Iraq, behind only Ayatollah Ali Al-Sistani. The Mahdi Army is believed to have around 60,000 members.

After the December 2005 elections in Iraq, Al-Sadr's party got 32 new seats giving him substantial political power in the divided Iraqi Parliament. In January 2006, he used these seats to swing the vote for prime minister to Ibrahim Al-Jaafari, giving Al-Sadr a legitimate stake in the new Iraqi government and allying Al-Jaafari with the cleric.

On 27 November 2006, a senior American intelligence official told reporters that the Iranian-backed group Hezbollah had been training members of the Mahdi Army. The official said that 1,000 to 2,000 fighters from the Mahdi Army and other Shia militias had been trained by Hezbollah in Lebanon, and a small number of Hezbollah operatives have also visited Iraq to help with training. Iran has facilitated the link between Hezbollah and the Shia militias in Iraq, the official said. "There seems to have been a strategic decision taken sometime over late winter or early spring by Damascus, Tehran, along with their partners in ait Lebanese Hezbollah, to provide more support to Sadr to increase pressure on the U.S.," the American intelligence official said.

Foreign participants
When Saddam Hussein was captured in December 2003, several documents were found in his possession. One particular document, which was apparently written after he lost power, appeared to be a directive to his Ba'athist loyalists warning them to be wary of Islamist mujahideen and other foreign Arabs entering the country to join the insurgency. The directive supposedly shows Saddam having concerns that foreign fighters would not share the same objectives as Ba'ath loyalists (i.e. the eventual return of Saddam to power and the restoration of his regime). A U.S. official commenting on the document stressed that while Saddam urged his followers to be cautious in their dealings with other Arab fighters, he did not order them to avoid contact or rule out co-operation. Bruce Hoffman, a Washington counter-terrorism expert stated that the existence of the document underscores the fact that "this is an insurgency cut of many different cloths...[and] everybody's jockeying for their position of power in the future Iraq." Many experts believe that fighters from other countries who have flocked to Iraq to join the insurgents are motivated by animosity toward the United States and the desire to install an Islamic state in place of the Ba'ath Party's secular regime.

Foreign fighters are mostly Arabs from neighboring countries, who have entered Iraq, primarily through the porous desert borders of Syria and Saudi Arabia, to assist the Iraqi insurgency. Many of these fighters are Wahhabi fundamentalists who see Iraq as the new "field of jihad" in the battle against U.S. forces. It is generally believed that most are freelance fighters, but a few members of Al-Qaeda and the related group Ansar al-Islam are suspected of infiltrating into the Sunni areas of Iraq through the mountainous northeastern border with Iran. The United States and its allies point to Jordanian-born Al-Qaeda in Iraq leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi as the key player in this group. Zarqawi was considered the head of an insurgent group called Al-Tawhid Wal-Jihad ("Monotheism and Holy War") until his death on 7 June 2006, which according to U.S. estimates numbers in the low hundreds.

Usage of the term "foreign fighters" has received criticism as being Western-centric because, taken literally, the term would encompass all non-Iraqi forces, including Coalition forces. Zarqawi has taken to taunting the American forces about the irony of the term: "Who is the foreigner, O cross worshippers? You are the ones who came to the land of the Muslims from your distant corrupt land." (Communiqué of 10 May 2005). Zarqawi's group has since announced the formation of the Ansar platoon, a squad of Iraqi suicide bombers, which an AP writer called "an apparent bid to deflect criticism that most suicide bombers in Iraq are foreigners."

While it is not known how many of those fighting the U.S. forces in Iraq are from outside the country, it is generally agreed that foreign fighters make up a very small percentage of the insurgency. Major General Joseph Taluto, head of the 42nd Infantry Division, said that "99.9 per cent" of captured Insurgents are Iraqi. The estimate has been confirmed by the Pentagon's own figures; in one analysis of over 1000 insurgents captured in Fallujah, only 15 were non-Iraqi. According to the Daily Telegraph, information from military commanders engaging in battles around Ramadi exposed the fact that out of 1300 suspected insurgents arrested in five months of 2005, none were foreign, although Colonel John Gronski stated that foreigners provided money and logistical support: "The foreign fighters are staying north of the [Euphrates] river, training and advising, like the Soviets were doing in Vietnam"

In September 2006, the Christian Science Monitor reported, "It's true that foreign fighters are in Iraq, such as Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. But they are a small minority of the insurgents, say administration critics. Most Iraqi mujahideen are Sunnis who fear their interests will be ignored under Iraq's Shia-dominated government. They are fighting for concrete, local political goals – not the destruction of America." The paper quoted University of Michigan history professor Juan Cole: "If the Iraqi Sunni nationalists could take over their own territory, they would not put up with the few hundred foreign volunteers blowing things up, and would send them away or slit their throats." In 2005, the Washington-based Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) concluded that foreign fighters accounted for less than 10% of the estimated 30,000 insurgents and argued that the U.S. and Iraqi Governments were "feeding the myth" that they comprised the backbone of the insurgency.

Despite the low numbers of foreign fighters their presence has been confirmed in several ways and Coalition forces believe the majority of suicide bombings are believed to be carried out by non-Iraqi foreigners. Kenneth Katzman, a Middle East expert with the Congressional Research Service, stated in June 2005: "I still think 80 percent of the Insurgents, the day-to-day activity, is Iraqi – the roadside bombings, mortars, direct weapons fire, rifle fire, automatic weapons fire...[but] the foreign fighters attract the headlines with the suicide bombings, no question."

In September 2005, Iraqi and U.S. forces conducted a counter-insurgency operation in the predominantly Turkmen town of Tal Afar. According to an AP, report, an Iraqi Army Captain claimed that Iraqi forces arrested 150 non-Iraqi Arabs (Syria, Sudan, Yemen and Jordan) in the operation; the American army claimed 20% of arrests were foreign combatants, while Donald Rumsfeld on PBS confirmed that foreign combatants were present. However, not all accounts of the battle mention these arrests, and U.S. Army commander Colonel H. R. McMaster said the "vast majority" of Insurgents captured there were "Iraqis and not foreigners." Iraqi journalist Nasir Ali claimed that there were "very few foreign combatants" in Tal Afar and charged "Every time the US army and the Iraqi government want to destroy a specific city, they claim it hosts Arab fighters and Abu Musab al-Zarqawi."

There are allegations that the U.S. government has attempted to inflate the number of foreign fighters in order to advance the theory that the insurgency is not a local movement. U.S. Army Specialist Tony Lagouranis spoke about his job identifying many of the bodies after the assault on Fallujah:

"We had women and children, old men, young boys. So, you know, it's hard to say. I think initially, the reason that we were doing this was they were trying to find foreign fighters. [U.S. commanders] were trying to prove that there were a lot of foreign fighters in Fallujah. So, mainly, that's what we were going for, but most of them really didn't have I.D.'s but maybe half of them had I.D.'s. Very few of them had foreign I.D.'s. There were people working with me who would—in an effort to sort of cook the books, you know they would find a Koran on the guy and the Koran was printed in Algeria, and they would mark him down as an Algerian, or you know guys would come in with a black shirt and khaki pants and they would say, well, this is the Hezbollah uniform and they would mark him down as a Lebanese, which was ridiculous, but—you know... [AMY GOODMAN: So, what did you say?] Well, I was only a specialist, so actually, you know, I did say something to the staff sergeant, who was really in charge, and you know, I just got yelled down you know, shot down."

Foreign fighters' nationality distribution
In July 2007, the Los Angeles Times reported that 45% of all foreign militants targeting U.S. troops and Iraqi civilians and security forces are from Saudi Arabia; 15% are from Syria and Lebanon; and 10% are from North Africa. 50% of all Saudi fighters in Iraq come as suicide bombers. In the six months preceding that article, such bombings have killed or injured 4,000 Iraqis.

According to a U.S. military press briefing on 20 October 2005, 312 foreign nationals from 27 countries had been captured in Iraq from April to October 2005. This represents a component of the Iraqi insurgent movement, which also includes a nationalist movement encompassing over 30 Shia and Sunni militias.

Foreign insurgents captured in Iraq in the 7-month period April–October 2005:

Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, al-Qaeda in Iraq, and Sunni jihadists
The extent of Zarqawi's influence is a source of much controversy. Zarqawi was reported killed in action in March 2004 in "a statement signed by a dozen alleged insurgent groups". His Jordanian family then held a funeral service on his behalf, although no body was recovered and positively identified. Iraqi leaders denied the presence of Zarqawi in Fallujah prior to the U.S. attack on that city in November 2004. Zarqawi's existence was even questioned.

Involvement of Zarqawi in significant terrorist incidents was not usually proven, although his group often claimed it perpetrated bombings. As al-Qaeda is an "opt-in" group (meaning everyone who agrees to some basic Wahhabi moral tenets and the fundamental goals may consider himself a member), it is most likely that "Al-Qaeda in Iraq" is a loose association of largely independent cells united by a common strategy and vision, rather than a unified organization with a firm internal structure.

On 8 June 2006, Iraqi officials confirmed Zarqawi was killed by two 500 lb laser-guided bombs dropped from an F-16 the previous evening. Abu Ayyub al-Masri, an Egyptian who was trained in Al-Qaeda camps in Afghanistan took his place.

A document found in Zarqawi's safe house indicates that the guerrilla group was trying to provoke the U.S. to attack Iran in order to reinvigorate the resistance in Iraq and to weaken American forces in Iraq. "The question remains, how to draw the Americans into fighting a war against Iran? It is not known whether American is serious in its animosity towards Iraq, because of the big support Iran is offering to America in its war in Afghanistan and in Iraq. Hence, it is necessary first to exaggerate the Iranian danger and to convince America and the west in general, of the real danger coming from Iran...". The document then outlines 6 ways to incite war between the two nations. Iraqi national security adviser Mowaffak al-Rubaie said the document, shows al-Qaeda in Iraq is in "pretty bad shape." He added that "we believe that this is the beginning of the end of al-Qaeda in Iraq."

Journalist Jill Carroll, detailing her captivity in Iraq, described one of her captors who identified himself as Abdullah Rashid and leader of the Mujahideen Shura Council in Iraq. He told her that; "The Americans were constantly saying that the mujahideen in Iraq were led by foreigners... So, the Iraqi insurgents went to Zarqawi and insisted that an Iraqi be put in charge." She continued by stating; "But as I saw in coming weeks, Zarqawi remained the insurgents' hero, and the most influential member of their council, whatever Nour/Rashid's position... At various times, I heard my captors discussing changes in their plans because of directives from the council and Zarqawi."

Schism between foreign fighters and native Iraqi insurgency
Large-scale terrorist attacks against civilians carried out by foreign fighters, as well as the interpretation of Islam that they attempt to impose on the local population in areas under their control, have increasingly turned Iraqis against them, in some cases breaking out into open fighting between different groups in the insurgency. There are signs that local Islamist insurgent groups have also increasingly caused the population to turn against them.

Opinions differ on how broad this schism is. Terrorism expert Jessica Stern warned that; "In the run-up to the war, most Iraqis viewed the foreign volunteers who were rushing in to fight against America as troublemakers, and Saddam Hussein's forces reportedly killed many of them." This opinion contradicts Iraqi scholar Mustapha Alani, who says that these foreigners are increasingly welcomed by the public, especially in the former Ba'athist strongholds north of Baghdad.

While some have noted an alliance of convenience that existed between the foreign fighters and the native Sunni insurgents, there are signs that the foreign militants, especially those who follow Zarqawi, are increasingly unpopular among the native fighters. In the run-up to the December 2005 elections, Sunni fighters were warning al-Qaeda members and foreign fighters not to attack polling stations. One former Ba'athist told Reuters; "Sunnis should vote to make political gains. We have sent leaflets telling al-Qaeda that they will face us if they attack voters." An unnamed Sunni leader was quoted commenting on Zarqawi; "Zarqawi is an American, Israeli and Iranian agent who is trying to keep our country unstable so that the Sunnis will keep facing occupation."

By early 2006, the split between the Sunni groups and the Zarqawi-led foreign fighters had grown dramatically, and Sunni forces began targeting al-Qaeda forces for assassination. One senior intelligence official told the Telegraph that Zarqawi had fled to Iran as a result of the attacks. In response to al-Qaeda killings in Iraq, Sunni insurgents in al-Anbar province led by former Ba'athist intelligence officer Ahmed Ftaikhan formed an anti-al-Qaeda militia called the Anbar Revolutionaries. All of the militia's core members have relatives who have been killed by al-Qaeda in Iraq, and they have sought to prevent foreign jihadis from entering the country. The group "claims to have killed 20 foreign fighters and 33 Iraqi sympathizers." The schism became all the more apparent in when a tape alleged to be from the Mujahedeen Shura Council urged Osama Bin Laden to replace al-Qaeda in Iraq's current head with an Iraqi national. The Mujahedeen Shura Council, however, issued a statement shortly afterwards denying the authenticity of this tape.

On 19 July 2007 seven domestic insurgent groups informed journalists in Damascus that they were forming a united front independent of al-Qaeda.

Covert Iranian military involvement
An estimated 150 Iranian intelligence officers, plus members of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, are believed to be active inside Iraq at any given time. For more than a year, U.S. troops have detained and recorded fingerprints, photographs, and DNA samples from dozens of suspected Iranian agents in a catch and release program designed to intimidate the Iranian leadership. Iranian influence is felt most heavily within the Iraqi Government, the ISF, and Shiite militias.

Although the CPA enforced a 1987 law banning unions in public enterprises, trade unions such as the Iraqi Federation of Trade Unions (IFTU) and Iraq's Union of the Unemployed have also mounted effective opposition to the Coalition. However, no trades unions support the armed insurgents, and unions have themselves been subject to attacks from the insurgents. Hadi Saleh of the IFTU was assassinated under circumstances that pointed to a Ba'athist insurgent group on 3 January 2005. Another union federation, the General Union of Oil Employees (GUOE) opposes the Coalition forces in Iraq and calls for immediate withdrawal but was neutral on participation in the election. Whereas the GUOE wants all Coalition troops out immediately, both the IFTU and the Workers Councils' call for replacement of U.S. and British forces with neutral forces from the UN, the Arab League and other nations as a transition.

Tactics
The tactics of the Iraqi insurgency vary widely. The majority of militant elements use improvised explosive devices (IEDs), car bombs, kidnappings, hostage-taking, shootings, ambushes, sniper attacks, mortar and rocket strikes and other types of attacks to target Iraqis and U.S. forces with little regard for civilian casualties.

Awareness of American public opinion
A single study has compared the number of insurgent attacks in Iraq to supposedly negative statements in the U.S. media, release of public opinion polls, and geographic variations in access to international media by Iraqis. The purpose was to determine if there was a link between insurgent activity and media reports. The researchers' study suggested it may be possible that insurgent attacks spiked by 5 to 10% after increases in the number of negative reports of the war in the media. The authors believe this may possibly be an "emboldenment effect" and speculated that "insurgent groups respond rationally to expected probability of US withdrawal."

Iraqi public opinion
A series of several polls have been conducted to ascertain the position of the Iraqi public further on Al Qaeda in Iraq and the U.S. presence. Some polls have found the following:
 * Polls suggest the majority of Iraqis disapprove of the presence of Coalition forces.
 * A majority of both Sunnis and Shi'as want an end to the U.S. presence as soon as possible, although Sunnis are opposed to the Coalition soldiers being there by greater margins.
 * Polls suggest the vast majority of Iraqis support attacks on insurgent groups with 80% supporting US attacks on Al-Qaeda.

Directly after the invasion, polling suggested that a slight majority supported the US invasion. However polls conducted in June 2005 suggest that there is some sentiment towards Coalition armies being in Iraq. A 2005 poll by British intelligence said that 45% of Iraqis support attacks against Coalition forces, rising to 65% in some areas, and that 82% are "strongly opposed" to the presence of Coalition troops. Demands for U.S. withdrawal have also been signed on by one third of Iraq's Parliament. These results are consistent with a January 2006 poll that found an overall 47% approval for attacks on U.S.-led forces. That figure climbed to 88% among Sunnis. Attacks on Iraqi security forces and civilians, however, were approved of by only 7% and 12% of respondents respectively. Polls conducted between 2005 and 2007 showed 31–37% of Iraqi's wanted US and other Coalition forces to withdraw once security was restored and that 26–35% wanted immediate withdrawal instead.

A September 2006 poll of both Sunnis and Shias found that 71% of Iraqis wanted the U.S. to leave within a year, with 65% favoring an immediate pullout and 77% voicing suspicion that the U.S. wanted to keep permanent bases in Iraq. 61% approved of attacks on U.S. forces. A later poll in March 2007 suggests the percentage of Iraqis who approve of attacks on Coalition forces has dropped to 51%. In 2006 a poll conducted on the Iraqi public revealed that 52% of the ones polled said Iraq was going in the wrong direction and 61% claimed it was worth ousting Saddam Hussein.

Despite a majority having previously been opposed to the US presence, 60% of Iraqis opposed American troops leaving directly prior to withdrawal, with 51% saying withdrawal would have a negative effect.

Scope and size of the insurgency
The most intense Sunni insurgent activity takes place in the cities and countryside along the Euphrates River from the Syrian border town of al-Qaim through Ramadi and Fallujah to Baghdad, as well as along the Tigris river from Baghdad north to Tikrit. Heavy guerrilla activity also takes place around the cities of Mosul and Tal Afar in the north, as well as the "Triangle of Death" south of Baghdad, which includes the "-iya" cities of Iskandariya, Mahmudiya, Latifiya, and Yusufiya. Lesser activity takes place in several other areas of the country. The insurgents are believed to maintain a key supply line stretching from Syria through al-Qaim and along the Euphrates to Baghdad and central Iraq, the Iraqi equivalent of the Ho Chi Minh trail. A second "ratline" runs from the Syrian border through Tal Afar to Mosul. Although estimates of the total number of Iraqi guerrillas varies by group and fluctuates under changing political climate, the latest assessments put the present number at between 3,000 and 7,000 fighters along with numerous supporters and facilitators throughout the Sunni Arab community. At various points U.S. forces provided estimates on the number of fighters in specific regions. A few are provided here (although these numbers almost certainly have fluctuated): Guerilla forces operate in many of the cities and towns of al-Anbar province, due to mostly ineffective Iraqi security forces in this area. There was extensive guerrilla activity in Ramadi, the capital of the province, as well as al-Qa'im, the first stop on an insurgent movement route between Iraq and Syria. In 2006, reports suggested that the Anbar capital Ramadi had largely fallen under insurgent control along with most of the Anbar region, and that as a result the United States had sent an extra 3,500 marines to reestablish control of the region. In the early part of 2007 the insurgency suffered serious setbacks in Ramadi after they were defeated in the Second Battle of Ramadi in the fall of 2006. With the help of the Anbar Salvation Council, incidents fell from an average of 30 attacks per day in December 2006 to an average of fewer than four in April 2007.
 * Fallujah (mid-2004): 2,000–5,000 In a November 2004 operation, the Fallujah insurgency has been destroyed or dispersed, but had staged a comeback in 2005, albeit not to former strength, in the course of 2005–2008 the remainder of the insurgency was defeated in Fallujah and the rest of Al-Anbar province.
 * Samarra (August 2011): 1,000+
 * Baquba (August 2011 ): 1,000+
 * Baghdad (August 2011): 2,000+

Baghdad is still one of the most violent regions of the country, even after the 2007 troop surge more than two-thirds of the violence that takes place in Iraq happens in Baghdad even though the Iraqi Government is in firm control of the entire city. Suicide attacks and car bombs are near daily occurrences in Baghdad. The road from Baghdad to the city airport is the most dangerous in the country, if not the world. Iraqi security and police forces had also been significantly built up in the capital and, despite being constantly targeted, had enjoyed some successes such as the pacification of Haifa Street, which however subsequently saw a massive surge of insurgent activity. and after the failed Coalition Operation Together Forward fell under Sunni insurgent control. The U.S. and Iraqi Forces scored many decisive victories in 2007 during the U.S. troops surge when they launched Operation Law and Order and Operation Phantam Thunder which broke the back of the insurgency and has since the saw a mass reduction in violence by 80 percent since then.

Recent intelligence suggests that the base of foreign paramilitary operations has moved from Anbar to the religiously and ethnically mixed Diyala province. By July 2007 Diyala had fallen under almost total Insurgent control, and had become the headquarters for the Sunni-dominated Islamic State of Iraq, which has issued a proclamation declaring the regional capital Baqubah its capital.

In response to a law allowing for the partitioning of Iraq into autonomous regions, members of the Mutayibeen Coalition (Khalf al-Mutayibeen ), a coalition of Sunni insurgent groups including Al Qaeda in Iraq, announced the creation of the Islamic State of Iraq encompassing parts of 6 of Iraq's 18 provinces on 15 October 2006. Yet another show of defiance came on 18 October when Sunni fighters brazenly paraded in Ramadi. Similar parades were held two days later in several towns across western Iraq, two of which occurred within two miles of U.S. military bases.

By October 2006, small radicalized militias had seemed to overshadow the larger and more organized Sunni groups which had composed the insurgency previously. As disagreements emerged in pre-existing groups for reasons ranging from the rift in the Sunni forces between foreign and Iraqi fighters, competition between Mahdi Army and Badr Brigade, and anger over various decisions such as Muqtada al Sadr's agreement to join the political process, dozens of insurgency groups sprung up across the country, though particularly in Baghdad where the U.S. army has listed 23 active militias. Residents have described the capital as being a patchwork of militia run fiefs. As a result of the insurgency's splintering nature, many established leaders seemed to lose influence. This was particularly illustrated on 19 October, when members of the Mahdi army briefly seized control of Amarah. The attack, while demonstrating the influence of the Madhi army, is believed to have originated as a result of contention between local units of the Madhi army and the allegedly Badr brigade run security forces, and the timing suggested that neither Al Sadr nor his top commanders had known or orchestrated the offensive.

At the height of the war, insurgents launched hundreds of attacks each month against Coalition forces. Overtime, insurgency groups moved to more sophisticated methods of attack such as Explosively formed penetrators, and infrared lasers, which cannot be easily jammed. These attacks contributed to the rate of civilian casualties which in turn reduced Iraq's public safety as well as the reliability of infrastructure.

As of 29 January 2009 4,235 U.S. soldiers, 178 British soldiers and 139 soldiers from other nations (allied with the coalition) have died in Iraq. 31,834 U.S. soldiers had been wounded. Coalition forces do not usually release death counts. As such, the exact number of insurgents killed by the Coalition or Iraqi forces is unknown. Through September 2007 more than 19,000 insurgents were reported to have been killed in fighting with Coalition forces and tens of thousands of Iraqi "suspected civilians" were captured (including 25,000 detainees in U.S. military custody at the time), according to military statistics released for the first time.

American-led counter-insurgency operations
Over 500 counter-insurgency operations have been undertaken by the U.S.-led Coalition or the Iraqi government. These include Operation Option North and Operation Bayonet Lightning in Kirkuk, Operation Desert Thrust, Operation Abilene and Operation All American Tiger throughout Iraq, Operation Iron Hammer in Baghdad and Operation Ivy Blizzard in Samarra – all in 2003; Operation Market Sweep, Operation Vigilant Resolve and Operation Phantom Fury in Fallujah in 2004; Operation Matador in Anbar, Operation Squeeze Play and Operation Lightning in Baghdad, Operation New Market near Haditha, Operation Spear in Karabillah and the Battle of Tal Afar – all in 2005; Operation Swarmer in Samarra and Operation Together Forward in Baghdad in 2006; and Operation Law and Order in Baghdad, Operation Arrowhead Ripper in Baqouba and Operation Phantom Strike throughout Iraq – all in 2007.

Analysis

 * Christopher Alexander, Charles Kyle and William McCallister The Iraqi Insurgent Movement, Commonwealth Institute 14 November 2003
 * Carl Conetta "400 Days and Out: A Strategy for Solving the Iraq Impasse". Project on Defense Alternatives, 19 July 2005.
 * Frontline: The Insurgency PBS Frontline 21 February 2006
 * Insurgent Iraq: Links to full-text online articles and reports about the Iraqi Insurgency. Compiled by Project on Defense Alternatives, March 2006. Updated 22 August 2006.
 * "Electronic Propaganda in Iraq". wadinet.de (PDF)

News articles

 * Biedermann, Ferry. "Portrait of an Iraqi Rebel." Salon. 16 August 2003, via globalpolicy.
 * "Crushing Iraq's insurgency may take up to 10 years." Middle East Online (UK). 23 August 2004.
 * multimedia article by Australian Journalist Paul McGeogh of the Sydney Morning Herald

Supportive of the insurgents

 * Iraqi Resistance Reports from albasrah.net.

Profiles of insurgent groups

 * "Iraq's Insurgents: Who's Who". Washington Post, 19 March 2006.
 * BBC: Abu Musab al-Zarqawi

title: Iraqi insurgency (2003–2011)