The Islamic Action Organization is a Shia group which has had various goals over the course of its history but has primarily functioned as an anti-Baathist organization in Iraq. <p><br />  The group was founded in Karbala in 1961 under the name Islamic Task Organization and supported the establishment of an Islamic government in Iraq. It was vehemently opposed to the rise of the secular Baath party, which came to power in Iraq in 1963. From its inception, the IAO/ITO was closely aligned with the Islamic Dawa Party, a significant militant Islamic group founded in Iraq in the late 1950s. <p><br />  The Islamic Action Organization, under that name, appeared in 1980 as a group of exiled ITO members living in Iran. The group conducted numerous attacks against Iraqi targets during the Iran-Iraq War, hoping to use the war as a means to bring Islamic rule to Iraq. By the late 1980s, however, Iran  --  formerly the refuge for Shia militant groups like the IAO  --  began to crack down on the activities of exiled Iraqi groups. As a response, the IAO and others turned to Syria for support. Syria's decision to shelter the leaders of these groups created an intense friction between Syria and Iran. Syrian opposition to Saddam Hussein, however, was strong enough that the Syrian government permitted the IAO and al-Dawa to hold anti-Baathist meetings. The IAO organized several meetings, bringing together groups from numerous sects and ethnicities for the common goal of overthrowing Hussein. In an attempt to diffuse criticism over harboring militant group leaders, Syria denied that the groups had any significance influence in Iraq or in the diaspora. By the 1990s, the group had split into two rival factions, one based in Iran, the other based in Syria. <p><br />  During the Gulf War of 1991, the IAO urged US President George H.W. Bush not to invade Iraq, telling him that economic sanctions would be sufficient to create an uprising against Saddam Hussein from within the country. The group attempted to foment uprising several times but was unsuccessful.  Several group members and leaders were arrested over the course of these attempts. <p><br />  The IAO did not support the US invasion of Iraq in Gulf War of 2003, but was more than happy to see Hussein fall from power. Weeks after US forces entered Iraq, one of the IAO's top members was murdered. Many believe the murder was ordered by Muqtada al-Sadr, who apparently feared the IAO threaten the power of his own militant Shia group, the Mahdi Army by monopolizing Iraqi Shia loyalty. The murder significantly debilitated the IAO, and it has remained a relatively peripheral Shia group ever since. <p><br />  The IAO's fall from power during the early days of the Gulf War of 2003 kept it from participating in the provisional government established after the U.S. invasion. No member of the IAO served on the Iraqi Governing Council. For the 2005 election, the IAO, along with most other Shia groups, joined the United Iraqi Alliance, which won the most votes in the December 2005 National Assembly election. <br />