Iraqi National Congress
In the days following the defeat of Iraq in 1991, a wave of opposition to Saddam Hussein's regime staged uprisings in northern and southern Iraq. A number of Iraqi coalitions formed alliances and so began a series of meetings in the Middle East and Europe to establish a plan of action to remove Saddam Hussein from office.

The Iraqi National Congress [INC] was formed when the two main Kurdish separatist militias — the Kurdistan Democratic Party [KDP] headed by Masud Barzani and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan [PUK] headed by Jalal Talabani — participated in a June 1992 meeting in Vienna of nearly 200 delegates from dozens of opposition groups.

At the June meeting, a National Assembly of 87 members was elected. It expanded to 234 members at Salahuddin, Iraq in October 1992. The INC Web site calls the Salahuddin meeting a historic event because it was "the first unified opposition meeting on Iraqi soil since Saddam and his Baath party seized power in 1968."

The group is an ethnic and religious mix of Sunnis, Shias, Kurds and Christians and maintains its headquarters in Salahuddin with an external base in London.

INC leader Ahmed Chalabi has been mentioned as a potential successor if Saddam is ousted. Chalabi has said he does not want to head a provisional government but will continue to support the U.S. campaign to oust Hussein.

"If the United States says they are going to support ... regime change in Iraq, then the Iraqi military will not defend Saddam and will come over to our side in large numbers," Chalabi said in early October 2002. "And I think we should plan for this contingency."

In recent years, the INC has been plagued by a lack of funds from its international backers — including the United States — and continued pressure from Iraqi intelligence services. In August 2002, the State Department stated that the U.S. would provide the group with $8 million in additional funding.

-- By Raven Tyler, Online NewsHour