Battle of Baghdad ( 2003 ) The Battle of Baghdad also known as the Fall of Baghdad was a military invasion of Baghdad that took place in early April 2003 , as part of the invasion of Iraq . Three weeks into the invasion of Iraq , Coalition Forces Land Component Command elements , led by the U . S . Army 3rd Infantry Division moved into Baghdad . The United States declared victory on April 14 , and President George W . Bush gave his Mission Accomplished Speech on May 1 . Baghdad suffered serious damage to its civilian infrastructure , economy , and cultural inheritance from its bombing and invasion , as well as looting and arson . During the invasion , the Al - Yarmouk Hospital in south Baghdad saw a steady rate of about 100 new patients an hour . Several thousand Iraqi soldiers were killed in the battle , and a very small number of coalition forces . After the fall of Baghdad , Coalition forces entered the city of Kirkuk on April 10 and Tikrit on April 15 , 2003 . Preparation . Limited bombing began on March 19 , 2003 as United States forces unsuccessfully attempted to kill Saddam Hussein . Attacks continued against a small number of targets until March 21 , 2003 , when , at 1700 UTC , the main bombing campaign of the US and their allies began . Its forces launched approximately 1700 air sortie s ( 504 using cruise missile s ) . The invasion of the city commenced three days after Allied forces led by Major General Buford Blount and the 3rd Infantry Division had secured the Baghdad airport . U . S . officials said that their forces fought skirmishes there with Iraq ' s Special Republican Guard , with two task forces going up to the Tigris river from the southern outskirts of the city before moving west towards the airport . Major General Victor Renuart said the intention was to indicate to the Iraqi leader that coalition forces could move in and out of Baghdad whenever they wished . " The Guardian " reported that U . S . forces occupied two " presidential palaces " . The Army also surrounded the Information Ministry and other key government installations for a while . On March 24 , retired US Army general Barry McCaffrey , told BBC Newsnight : " If [ the Iraqis ] actually fight , clearly it ' s going to be brutal , dangerous work and we could take , bluntly , a couple to 3 , 000 casualties " . Forces . The invasion of Baghdad was led by the United States Army ' s 3rd Infantry Division and the United States Marine Corps ' 1st Marine Division , equipped with M1 Abrams tanks , Bradley Fighting Vehicles and M113 armored personnel carriers . These forces along with American and British aircraft , including B - 52 s , Harrier GR7 attack jets and A10 Warthog s , went against the Iraqi Special Republican Guard , of 36 , 000 soldiers protected in sprawling bunkers 30 miles outside Baghdad , using Asad Babil tanks and heavy artillery . Aerial bombing . At the time of invasion , Allied aircraft were making bombing runs on Baghdad at the rate of 1 , 000 sorties a day , most of them aimed at the Republican Guard and Special Republican Guard . U . S . planes also dropped about 200 , 000 leaflets warning civilians to stay in their homes . An American Black Hawk helicopter was shot down near Karbala , and a United States Navy F / A - 18C Hornet was shot down near Baghdad . Baghdad International Airport . On April 4 , 2003 , First Brigade , Third Infantry Division advanced on the Baghdad International Airport . This location turned out to be the best defended Iraqi location of the entire war . Intense fighting continued for several hours and resulted in the capture of what would become the hub of American logistics in Iraq for the next seven years . During the fighting , Sergeant First Class Paul Ray Smith ' s actions resulted in the awarding of division ' s first Medal of Honor since World War II . Thunder Runs . On April 5 Task Force 1 – 64 Armor of the U . S . Army ' s 3rd Infantry Division , 2nd Brigade , executed a raid , later called the " Thunder Run " , to test remaining Iraqi defenses . The operation began south of Baghdad and went through main roads to the newly secured airport . The force encountered no organized resistance , and appeared to have caught Iraqi forces completely off guard . The unit was forced to abandon one tank due to a recoilless rifle or RPG strike in the rear that penetrated a fuel cell and set the engine on fire . The crew was unharmed . Later , the Air Force bombed the tank to destroy it in place , and the Iraqi Information Ministry claimed credit for destroying it . Two days later , the entire 2nd Brigade of the 3rd Infantry Division was ordered to conduct another " Thunder Run " , following the same route as before . This route had been fortified in the intervening period , and senior leaders feared much more substantial resistance than during the prior encounter . COL David Perkins , the brigade ' s commander , followed the original Thunder Run route north into Baghdad , but then veered east into the government districts instead of west towards the airport . The 2nd Brigade easily took control of what is now the " Green Zone " in one day , dramatically speeding up the end of conventional ground combat in Iraq . This portion of the battle was described in detail in the book " Thunder Run : The Armored Strike to Capture Baghdad " by David Zucchino , published March 22 , 2004 . The book and battle are the subject of the movie " Thunder Run " , directed by Simon West , featuring stars Sam Worthington , Gerard Butler , and Matthew McConaughey . Tharthar Palace . On April 7 , U . S . troops took control of a major presidential palace along the Tigris river . It had been hoped that leaders of the regime would be found in the complex , located near Saddam Hussein ' s home town of Tikrit . American commanders on the ground said that they would remain in the city center rather than retreat to the outskirts as they had done previously . Within hours of a palace seizure and with television coverage of this spreading through Iraq , U . S . forces ordered Iraqi forces within Baghdad to surrender , or the city would face a full - scale assault . Iraqi government officials had either disappeared or had conceded defeat . Looting . As the American forces secured control of the capital , Iraqi civilians immediately began looting the palaces , as well as government offices . At the Yarmuk Hospital , not only all beds , but all medical equipment was stolen . One other hospital managed to keep on functioning in a manner by organizing local civilians as armed guards . Serious looting was described at National Museum of Iraq , and the Saddam Arts Center , the University of Baghdad , three five - star hotels : the Al - Rashid , the Al - Mansour and Babel Hotel , state - owned supermarkets , many embassies , and state - owned factories . At the National Museum of Iraq , which had been a virtual repository of treasures from the ancient Mesopotamian cultures as well as early Islamic culture , many of the 170 , 000 irreplaceable artifacts were either stolen or broken ( partially found safe and well later ) . On April 14 , the Iraq National Library and National Archives were burned down , destroying thousands of manuscripts from civilizations dating back as far as 7 , 000 years . Within eight days following the 2003 invasion , only 35 , or 5 % of the 700 animals in the Baghdad Zoo survived . This was a result of theft of some animals for human food , and starvation of caged animals that had no food or water . Survivors included larger animals like lions , tigers , and bears . Notwithstanding the chaos brought by the invasion , South African Lawrence Anthony and some of the zoo keepers cared for the animals and fed the carnivores with donkeys they had bought locally . Political control . As the U . S . forces were occupying the Republican Palace and other central landmarks and ministries on April 9 , Saddam Hussein had emerged from his command bunker beneath the Al A ' Zamiyah district of northern Baghdad , and greeted excited members of the local public . This impromptu walkabout was probably his last and his reasons for doing so are still unclear . It is possible that he wished to take what he thought might be his last opportunity to greet his people as their country ' s president . The walkabout was captured on film and broadcast several days after the event on Al - Arabia Television and was also witnessed by ordinary people who corroborated the date afterwards . He was accompanied by bodyguards and other loyal supporters including at least one of his sons and his personal secretary . After the walkabout Hussein returned to his bunker and made preparations for his family . On April 9 , 2003 , Baghdad was formally occupied by Coalition forces . Much of Baghdad remained unsecured however , and fighting continued within the city and its outskirts well into the period of occupation . Saddam , certain members of his family and close subordinates had vanished , and his whereabouts were unknown . Many Iraqis celebrated the downfall of Saddam by vandalizing the many portraits and statues of him together with other pieces of his cult of personality . One widely publicized event was the dramatic toppling of a large statue of Saddam in Baghdad ' s Fardus Square . This attracted considerable media coverage at the time . Firdos Square statue destruction . Before a conglomerate of international press ( and small crowd of around 100 U . S . - supported Iraqi militia ) , a statue of Saddam in Firdus Square was toppled by an U . S . Marine Corps M88 Recovery Vehicle . Initially , a Marine corporal named Edward Chin of the 3rd Battalion , 4th Marines Regiment placed a United States flag on the statue ' s head , though it was replaced with an Iraqi flag . Various other symbols of the president ' s personality cult were defaced . Search for Hussein . The Americans had meanwhile started receiving rumors that Saddam was in Al A ' Zamiyah and at dawn on April 10 , they dispatched three companies of U . S . Marines to capture him . The marines fought a fierce four - hour battle at a Baghdad mosque where senior Iraqi leaders had been thought to be holed up , as American warplanes attacked areas of the city under the control of Iraqi fighters . " We had information that a group of regime leadership was attempting to organize . . . a meeting . The fighting in and around the mosque complex could not be avoided as enemy forces were firing from the area of the mosque . " said Navy captain Frank Thorp . Marines came under fire from rocket - propelled grenades , mortars and assault rifles . One marine was killed and more than 20 were wounded , but neither Saddam nor any of his aides were found . Reporting . Iraq , which had no free press , initially issued a statement contradicting western reporters ' accounts of the invasion . Muhammed Saeed al - Sahaf , head of the Information Ministry , told a press conference on April 7 that there were no U . S . troops in Baghdad , saying : " Their infidels are committing suicide by the hundreds on the gates of Baghdad . Be assured , Baghdad is safe , protected . Iraqis are heroes . " On April 8 , two American air to surface missile s hit Al Jazeera ' s office in Baghdad and killed a reporter and wounded a cameraman . The nearby office of Arab satellite channel Abu Dhabi was also hit by air strikes . Al Jazeera accused the U . S . of attacking Arab media to hide facts . On the same day a U . S . Army tank fired into the 15th floor of the Palestine Hotel in Baghdad , where almost all foreign journalists resided , and killed two cameramen and wounded three . In the Abu Dhabi case the station aired the picture of Iraqi fire from beneath of the camera . In the hotel case , however , other journalists on the scene deny any fire from or around the hotel .