# 2003 invasion of Iraq

| 2003 invasion of Iraq |
| --- |
| Part of the Iraq War |
|  From left to right: Marines of the U.S. 1st Marine Regiment escort Iraqi prisoners of war; a convoy of U.S. military vehicles in a sandstorm; U.S. soldiers watch an enemy building in Baghdad burn; Iraqi civilians cheer as a statue of Saddam Hussein is toppled. |
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|  |  |
| --- | --- |
| Date | 20 March – 1 May 2003 (1 month, 1 week and 4 days) |
| Location | Iraq |
| Result |
Coalition operational success
* Iraqi Ba'athist government deposed
* Occupation of Iraq until June 2004
* New Iraqi government established
* Beginning of the Iraq War
 |

 |
| Belligerents |
| **Coalition forces:**
 United States
 United Kingdom
 Australia
 Poland

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*With military support from:*
Iraqi National Congress
 Peshmerga
* KDP
* PUK
 |  Iraq* Arab volunteers

 MEK (until ceasefire in 2003)

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 Ansar al-Islam |
| Commanders and leaders |
|  **George W. Bush**  Dick Cheney  Donald Rumsfeld  Tommy Franks  **Tony Blair**  Brian Burridge  **John Howard**  Peter Cosgrove  **Aleksander Kwaśniewski**
 Masoud Barzani  Babakir Zebari  Jalal Talabani  Kosrat Rasul Ali Ahmed Chalabi |  **Saddam Hussein**  Qusay Hussein  Uday Hussein  Abid Hamid Mahmud  Ali Hassan al-Majid  Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti  Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri  Ra'ad al-Hamdani  Taha Yassin Ramadan  Tariq Aziz  Muqtada AlSadr |
| Strength |
|  United States: 466,985 personnel  United Kingdom: 45,000 troops
 Australia: 2,000 troops
 Poland: 194 Special Forces
 Peshmerga: 70,000
Iraqi National Congress: 620 |  **Iraqi Armed Forces**: 538,000 active 650,000 reserves 2,000 tanks 3,700 APCs and IFVs 2,300 artillery pieces 300 combat aircraft  Special Iraqi Republican Guard: 12,000  Iraqi Republican Guard: 70,000–75,000  Fedayeen Saddam: 30,000 Arab volunteers: 6,000

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Shia Al Mahdi Army: 1600–2800 |
| Casualties and losses |
| **Coalition:** 214 killed 606 wounded (U.S.) **Peshmerga:** 24+ killed
**Total:** 238 dead, 1,000+ wounded |
Estimated Iraqi combatant fatalities: 30,000 (figure attributed to General Tommy Franks)

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7,600–11,000 (4,895–6,370 observed and reported) (Project on Defense Alternatives study)

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13,500–45,000 (extrapolated from fatality rates in units serving around Baghdad) **Total:** 7,600–8,000 killed |
|
Estimated Iraqi civilian fatalities:
7,269 (Iraq Body Count)
3,200–4,300 (Project on Defense Alternatives study) |

The famous statue of Saddam Hussein being knocked down by US forces
The **2003 invasion of Iraq** (20 March 2003 – 1 May 2003) was the invasion committed by the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, Poland and some other countries against Iraq, to end the rule of Saddam Hussein. The main reason that the invasion started was said to be because the British and American Governments believed that Iraq had dangerous weapons of mass destruction (such as chemical or nuclear weapons) that could be used against other countries. This turned out after the invasion to not be true.

Another reason for the start of the invasion was that many people thought that Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, one of the leaders of al-Qaeda, was hiding in Iraq after the 11 September attacks. Though Saddam Hussein was not involved in the planning of the 11 September attacks, many people accused him of giving al-Qaeda a safe place to hide from the United States. The invasion was extremely controversial. Many British and American people blamed British Prime Minister Tony Blair and the American President, George W. Bush.

American and British paratroopers landed in the far north of Iraq and a few soldiers attacked from the sea, but most invaded from Kuwait in the south. The combined forces proceeded to advance and capture Baghdad. 4,734 NATO soldiers were killed in Iraq war including 4,600 U.S. servicemen, 179 UK servicemen and 139 Other NATO soldiers with a total of 4900 casualties. 31,882 U.S. servicemen and over 3,600 UK servicemen were wounded in Iraq. More than 180,000 Iraqi civilians who were not soldiers were also killed.

## Aftermath

The United Nations Secretary-General said that "[F]rom our point of view and from the Charter point of view [the war] was illegal."

## Related pages

* Saddam Hussein
* Execution of Saddam Hussein
* Uday Hussein
* Qusay Hussein

## Other websites

* Encyclopedia Britannica's Article on 2003 War
* War Report. More than 5,000 articles, documents and analyses of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, updated four times a week—Project on Defense Alternatives.
* CIA’s final report Archived 2008-07-23 at the Wayback Machine
* Occupation of Iraq Archived 2008-03-06 at the Wayback Machine Timeline at the History Commons
* Morgues so full, bodies turned away Archived 2006-12-12 at the Wayback Machine
* The War In Context News aggregator
* ProCon's examination of Iraq Invasion Archived 2008-06-20 at the Wayback Machine
* by Professor Dr. Sedat Laciner, "Ten Impasses of the Resistance in Iraq" Archived 2005-04-03 at the Wayback Machine
* Amnesty International Report on Iraq Archived 2003-04-28 at the Wayback Machine