9/11• Al Qaeda operatives managed to take control of 4 American

passenger jets and fly two into the World Trade Center in New York, NY, one into the Pentagon in Washington D.C., and one into a field in Pennsylvania.

Al Qaeda• An international terrorist network which has a serious distaste for

Saudi Arabia and the United States.

Osama bin Laden• Saudi leader of Al Qaeda that was killed in 2011.

Taliban• An Islamic fundamentalist regime that imposed strict Islamic law in

Afghanistan that was removed by U.S. and U.N. forces.

Holy Warriors• Resistors of Communism and Soviet intervention in Afghanistan

during the Civil War in the country.

Nur Muhammad Taraki• Marxist military leader of Afghanistan that tried to install Communism

and Soviet intervention in the country.

Jala Talabani• Elected Kurdish President of Iraq in 2006.

Nouri al-Maliki• Shi'ite Prime Minister of Iraq under President Talabani.

Persian Gulf War• War between Iraq and Kuwait (with U.N. & U.S. forces) when Iraq

invaded Kuwait in an effort to double Iraq's oil reserves. Resulted in Iraq being drove out, UN monitoring, severe limitations on its military activities, and economic sanctions.

Saddam Hussein• Dictator of Iraq that caused the Persian Gulf War.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad• Tehran's ultra conservative mayor that was President of Iran between

2005-2013.

Ayatollah Khamenei• Successor of Ayatollah Khomeini.

Iran-Iraq War• War between Iran and U.S. backed Iraq that resulted in neither side

gaining much ground until a cease-fire was signed.

Ayatollah• Literally means "Mirror of God". The Shi'ite Caliph.

Ayatollah Khomeini• Leader that sent Iran back into a theocracy after the Iranian

Revolution.

President Jimmy Carter• President of the United States that visited Iran to congratulate it on its

programs of modernization and Westernization.

Reza Shan Phalavi• Shan of Iran who attempted to modernize and Westernize Iran.

Hezbollah• A militant Shi'ite group backed by Syria and Iran, that operates the

Israel border region near Lebanon and Syria.

The Middle East• Comprised of old Ottoman lands.