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The as-Salam Palace, previously a home of former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein. Since 2012, the palace has been certified as a Republican Palace.
Al Salam palace is located on the site of the former Republican Guard Headquarters, which was destroyed in Desert Storm. Construction has been ongoing since then and was completed in early 1999. As-Salam Palace was taken over by coalition forces during the 2003 invasion of Iraq. The palace was significantly damaged during the shock and awe campaign, sustaining several airstrike attacks.[ citation needed ] The palace served as headquarters for the Joint Area Support Group, and was known to coalition forces as Camp Prosperity and Forward Operating Base (FOB) Prosperity.
As-Salam palace has 200 rooms with approximately 1,000,000 square feet (93,000 m2) of floor space. There are six floors, three of which are usable (others serve as 'false floors'), and two large ballrooms. The palace is internally lined with marble floors decorated with hundreds of thousands of hand-cut pieces, granite walls, and ceilings also adorned with thousands of hand-carved and inlaid hand-painted flowers.
The palace is surrounded by a sequence of square tiles bearing the initials of Saddam Hussein (S & H); the Arabic letters are "Saad" & "Haa"." The tiles are clearly visible from the top of the palace. Iraqis report that the palace dome used to be topped with a life-sized statue of Saddam.
Fireplaces around the lake in front of the palace are actually vents used to provide fresh air to bunkers below the lake. The bunkers are now inaccessible, having been flooded and sealed off by coalition forces.
In the palace basement lies an entrance to one of many concrete tunnels running beneath the city of Baghdad. These ventilated tunnels were built to provide access to other palaces, government facilities and Baghdad International Airport.
From April 2009 to January 2010, FOB Prosperity was run by the Joint Area Support Group - Central (JASG-C) 32nd Infantry Brigade Combat Team (IBCT) from Wisconsin. In 2012, the FOB was occupied by the Iraqi Government, which took over operations after the U.S. military drawdown.
This is a timeline of the events surrounding the United States-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.
Tikrit is a city in Iraq, located 140 kilometres (87 mi) northwest of Baghdad and 220 kilometres (140 mi) southeast of Mosul on the Tigris River. It is the administrative center of the Saladin Governorate. As of 2012, it had a population of approximately 160,000.
The 2003 invasion of Iraq was a United States–led invasion of the Republic of Iraq and the first stage of the Iraq War. The invasion phase began on 19 March 2003 (air) and 20 March 2003 (ground) and lasted just over one month, including 26 days of major combat operations, in which a combined force of troops from the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia and Poland invaded Iraq. Twenty-two days after the first day of the invasion, the capital city of Baghdad was captured by Coalition forces on 9 April 2003 after the six-day-long Battle of Baghdad. This early stage of the war formally ended on 1 May 2003 when U.S. President George W. Bush declared the "end of major combat operations" in his Mission Accomplished speech, after which the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) was established as the first of several successive transitional governments leading up to the first Iraqi parliamentary election in January 2005. U.S. military forces later remained in Iraq until the withdrawal in 2011.
Fedayeen Saddam was a paramilitary Fedayeen organization intensely loyal to the Ba'athist Iraqi government of Saddam Hussein. The name was chosen to mean "Saddam's Men of Sacrifice". At its height, the group had 30,000–40,000 members. The Fedayeen operated completely outside the law, above and outside political and legal structures.
The Battle of Baghdad, also known as the Fall of Baghdad, was a military engagement that took place in Baghdad in early April 2003, as part of the invasion of Iraq.
The president of the Republic of Iraq is the head of state of Iraq and "safeguards the commitment to the Constitution and the preservation of Iraq's independence, sovereignty, unity, the security of its territories in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution". The president is elected by the Council of Representatives by a two-thirds majority, and is limited to two four-year terms. The president is responsible for ratifying treaties and laws passed by the Council of Representatives, issues pardons on the recommendation of the prime minister, and performs the "duty of the Higher Command of the armed forces for ceremonial and honorary purposes". Since the mid-2000s, the presidency is primarily a symbolic office, as the position does not possess significant power within the country according to the October 2005-adopted constitution. By convention, though not by any official legal requirement, the office is expected to be held by a Kurd.
The following is a timeline of major events during the Iraq War, following the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
The Victory Arch, officially known as the Swords of Qādisīyah، and popularly called the Hands of Victory or the Crossed Swords, are a pair of triumphal arches in central Baghdad, Iraq. Each arch consists of a pair of outstretched hands holding crossed swords. The two arches mark the two entrances to Grand Festivities Square and the parade ground constructed to commemorate the Iran–Iraq War, started and led by then Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. The arches were opened to the public on 8 August 1989. It is one of Baghdad's visitor attractions and near to The Monument to the Unknown Soldier.
The Iraqi Special Republican Guard (SRG), also known as the Special Forces Brigade of the Presidential Palace, Republican Guard Special Protection Forces, or the Golden Division, was an Iraqi personal security force founded in either early 1992 or March 1995 in Ba'athist-era Iraq. The Special Republican Guard was controlled by the Special Security Organization and charged with protecting President Saddam Hussein, presidential sites, Baghdad, and responding to any rebellion, coup, or other threat to his power.
The 1991 Iraqi uprisings were ethnic and religious uprisings against Saddam Hussein in Iraq which were led by Shi'ites and Kurds. The uprisings lasted from March to April 1991 after a ceasefire following the end of the Gulf War. The mostly uncoordinated insurgency was fueled by the perception that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein had become vulnerable to regime change. This perception of weakness was largely the result of the outcome of the Iran–Iraq War and the Gulf War, both of which occurred within a single decade and devastated the population and economy of Iraq.
The Al Faw Palace is located in Baghdad approximately 5 km from the Baghdad International Airport, Iraq. Saddam Hussein commissioned its construction in the 1990s to commemorate the Iraqi forces' re-taking of the Al-Faw Peninsula during the Iran-Iraq conflict.
Radwaniyah Palace is a palace in Baghdad, Iraq, which functioned as a presidential resort for the late Iraqi president Saddam Hussein until it was taken over by Coalition forces during the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq. Inside, it was decorated with marble, luxury furniture and monuments dedicated to Saddam. Located near the Baghdad International Airport in western Baghdad, Radwaniyah Palace was the main presidential site for Saddam and was a typical Presidential site. It is bordered on the north by Qasr Tall Mihl and Al Urdun (Jordan) Street; on the south by sparse, outlying neighborhoods and on the east by suburbs Al 'Amiriyah and Hayy al-Furat. High walls surround the former resort; watchtowers contribute to more readily maintaining surveillance and security for the site. It also included a detention facility which according to Human Rights Watch was able to accommodate up to five-thousand inmates.
Victory Base Complex (VBC) was a cluster of U.S. military installations surrounding the Baghdad International Airport (BIAP). The primary component of the VBC was Camp Victory, the location of the Al-Faw Palace, which served as the headquarters for the Multi-National Corps - Iraq, and later as the headquarters for the United States Forces - Iraq.
Forward Operating Base Danger was a forward operating base operated by the United States Army in Tikrit, Iraq from the time of the occupation of Iraq in 2003 until November 2005 when it was handed over to the government of Iraq.
After World War I, Iraq passed from the failing Ottoman Empire to British control. Kingdom of Iraq was established under the British Mandate in 1932. In the 14 July Revolution of 1958, the king was deposed and the Republic of Iraq was declared. In 1963, the Ba'ath Party staged a coup d'état and was in turn toppled by another coup in the same year, but managed to retake power in 1968. Saddam Hussein took power in 1979 and ruled Iraq for the remainder of the century, during the Iran–Iraq War of the 1980s, the Invasion of Kuwait and the Gulf War of 1990 to 1991 and the UN sanction during the 1990s. Saddam was removed from power in the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
The November 1963 Iraqi coup d'état took place between November 13 and November 18, 1963, when, following internal party divisions, pro-Nasserist Iraqi officers led a military coup within the Ba'ath Party. Although the coup itself was bloodless, 250 people were killed in related actions.
The timeline of the Gulf War details the dates of the major events of the 1990–1991 war. It began with the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait on 2 August 1990 and ended with the Liberation of Kuwait by Coalition forces. Iraq subsequently agreed to the United Nations' demands on 28 February 1991. The ground war officially concluded with the signing of the armistice on 11 April 1991. However, the official end to Operation Desert Storm did not occur until sometime between 1996 - 1998. Major events in the aftermath include anti-Saddam Hussein uprisings in Iraq, massacres against the Kurds by the regime, Iraq formally recognizing the sovereignty of Kuwait in 1994, and eventually ending its cooperation with the United Nations Special Commission in 1998.
Uday and Qusay Hussein, sons of deposed Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, were killed during an American military operation conducted on July 22, 2003, in the city of Mosul, Iraq. The operation originally intended to apprehend them, but turned into a four-hour gun battle outside a fortified safehouse which ended with the death of the brothers, Qusay's son Mustafa, and a bodyguard, Abdul Samad al-Hadushi.
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