2003 invasion of Iraq

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 September 11, 2001 attacks. Though Saddam Hussein was not involved in the planning of the September 11 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
- Occupation of Iraq  Timeline at the History Commons
- Morgues so full, bodies turned away
- The War In Context News aggregator
- ProCon's examination of Iraq Invasion
- by Professor Dr. Sedat Laciner, "Ten Impasses of the Resistance in Iraq"
- Amnesty International Report on Iraq

## Infobox (military conflict)

- **campaign**: War on Terror, Global War on Terrorism
- **partof**: the Iraq War
- **caption**: 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.
- **date**: 20 March – 1 May 2003
()
- **place**: Iraq
- **casus**: The officially stated sole trigger for the invasion was the assertion by the U.S. and other allied governments that Iraq had failed comply with 17 successive United Nations Security Council, U.N. Security Council resolutions calling upon the country to disarm itself of Weapon of mass destruction, weapons of mass destruction; Iraq also expelled U.N. weapons inspectors from its country.
- **result**: Coalition operational success
* Ba'athist Iraq, Iraqi Ba'athist government deposed
* History of Iraq (2003–2011), Occupation of Iraq until June 2004
* Al Maliki I Government, New Iraqi government established
* Beginning of the Iraq War
- **combatant1**: **Coalition forces:**

---
_With military support from:_

Iraqi National Congress

Peshmerga
*  Kurdistan Democratic Party, KDP
*  Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, PUK
- **combatant2**: *  Arab volunteers
 People's Mujahedin of Iran, MEK (until ceasefire in 2003)
---
 Ansar al-Islam
- **commander1**: **George W. Bush**
 Dick Cheney
 Donald Rumsfeld
 Tommy Franks
 **Tony Blair**
 Brian Burridge
 **John Howard**
 Peter Cosgrove
 **Aleksander Kwaśniewski**

Masoud Barzani
 Babaker Shawkat B. Zebari, Babakir Zebari
 Jalal Talabani
 Kosrat Rasul Ali
Ahmed Chalabi
- **commander2**:
 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
- **strength1**: : 466,985 personnel
: 45,000 troops

: 2,000 troops

: 194 Special Forces

Peshmerga: 70,000

Iraqi National Congress: 620
- **strength2**:  **Iraqi Armed Forces**: 538,000 active
650,000 reserves<small></small>
2,000 tanks
3,700 APCs and IFVs
2,300 artillery pieces
300 combat aircraft
 Special Republican Guard (Iraq), Special Iraqi Republican Guard: 12,000
 Republican Guard (Iraq), Iraqi Republican Guard: 70,000–75,000
 Fedayeen Saddam: 30,000
Arab volunteers: 6,000

---
Shia Al Mahdi Army: 1600–2800
- **casualties1**: **Coalition:** 214 killed
606 wounded (U.S.)
**Peshmerga:**
24+ killed

**Total:**
238 dead, 1,000+ wounded
- **casualties2**: Estimated Casualties of the Iraq War#Iraqi invasion casualties, Iraqi combatant fatalities: 30,000 (figure attributed to General Tommy Franks)
---
7,600–11,000 (4,895–6,370 observed and reported) (Project on Defense Alternatives study)
---
13,500–45,000 (extrapolated from fatality rates in units serving around Baghdad)
**Total:** 7,600–8,000 killed
- **casualties3**: Estimated Casualties of the Iraq War#Iraqi invasion casualties, Iraqi civilian fatalities:

7,269 (Iraq Body Count)

3,200–4,300 (Project on Defense Alternatives study)