Following the 2003 Invasion of Iraq and subsequent fall of Saddam Hussein's regime, the minority Sunni sect, which had previously enjoyed increased benefits under Saddam's rule, now found itself out of power as the Shia majority, suppressed under Saddam, sought to establish power. Such sectarian tensions resulted in a violent insurgency waged by different Sunni and Shia militant groups, such as al-Qaeda in Iraq and the Mahdi Army. Following 2006 tens of thousands of people were killed across Iraq, when a civil war between the two Muslim rival sects erupted after the 2006 al-Askari mosque bombing, lasting until 2008. After the U.S. withdrawal from Iraq in 2011, Sunnis went out in protests against the Iraqi government and violence increased to 2008 levels, which escalated in 2014 into a renewed war involving the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant lasting until 2017.