Sectarian issues between the Iraq's territorial disputes have long been a source of conflict. Between 1936 and 1975 there was the long standing dispute over Shatt al-Arab, ending in conflict. There was the Shia uprising in 1979. In 1980 Iran was invaded by neighbouring Ba'athist Iraq leading to an 8 year war partly to try and prevent Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini from exporting the 1979 Iranian Revolution movement to Shia-majority Iraq and threaten the Sunni-dominated Ba'athist leadership. The invasion of Kuwait sparkied the Gulf War in 1990, and the 2003 invasion sparked the Iraq War. The sectarian issue was particularly evident during the civil war between 2005 and 2009, as intercommunal violence between Iraqi Sunni and Shi'a factions became prevalent. In February 2006, the Sunni organization Al-Qaeda in Iraq bombed one of the holiest sites in Shi'a Islam—the al-Askari Mosque in Samarra. This set off a wave of Shi'a reprisals against Sunnis followed by Sunni counterattacks. The conflict escalated over the next several months until by 2007, the National Intelligence Estimate described the situation as having elements of a civil war. In the mid to late 2010s, despite the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant having lost territorial control in the civil war, the insurgency continued.