 In Lebanon, Hezbollah, the Lebanese Shia militia and political movement is the "strongest political actor" in the country.Since the 2003 invasion of Iraq removed Saddam Hussein from power and instituted elected government, the Shia majority has dominated the parliament and its prime ministers have been Shia.In Syria, a Shia minority—the heterodox Alawi sect that makes up only about 13 percent of the population—dominate the upper reaches of the government, military and security services in Syria, and are the "backbone" of the forces fighting to protect the Bashir al-Assad regime in Syria's civil war.