The Iraqi Army, officially the Iraqi Ground Forces, is the ground force component of the Iraqi military, having been active in various incarnations throughout the 20th and 21st centuries. The Iraqi Army in its modern form was first created by the United Kingdom during the inter-war period of de facto British control of Mandatory Iraq. Following the invasion of Iraq by U.S. forces in 2003, the Iraqi Army was rebuilt along American lines with enormous amounts of U.S. military assistance at every level. Because of the Iraqi insurgency that began shortly after the invasion, the Iraqi Army was later designed to initially be a counter-insurgency force. With the withdrawal of U.S. troops in 2011, Iraqi forces have assumed full responsibility for their own security. A New York Times article sugges