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.
Three weeks into the invasion of Iraq, Coalition Forces Land Component Command elements, led by the U.S. Army 3rd Infantry Division, captured Baghdad. Over 2,000 Iraqi soldiers as well as 34 coalition troops were killed in the battle. After the fall of Baghdad, Coalition forces entered the city of Kirkuk on April 10 and Tikrit on April 15, 2003. The United States officially declared victory against the Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein on April 15, 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 the battle and following unrest, including looting and arson. During the invasion, the Al-Yarmouk Hospital in south Baghdad saw a steady rate of about 100 new patients an hour.[7]
A T-72 Asad Babil abandoned after facing the final US attack into BaghdadA Marine CorpsM1 Abrams tank patrols a Baghdad street after its fall in 2003 during Operation Iraqi Freedom.NASALandsat 7 image of Baghdad, April 2, 2003. The dark streaks are smoke from oil well fires set in an attempt to hinder attacking air forces.
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 17:00 UTC, the main bombing campaign of the US and their allies began. Its forces launched approximately 1,700 air sorties (504 using cruise missiles).[8] 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.
US officials said that their forces fought skirmishes there with the Iraqi 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 GeneralVictor Renuart said the intention was to indicate to the Iraqi leader that coalition forces could move in and out of Baghdad whenever they wished.[9]The Guardian reported that US forces occupied two "presidential palaces".[10] The Army also surrounded the Information Ministry and other key government installations for a while.[11]
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".[12] In order to avoid the disastrous effects of house to house urban combat, US military planners agreed that seizing western Baghdad (now known as the Green Zone) was one of the main military objectives for securing Baghdad. By seizing only critical nodes and infrastructure in a rapid manner, it was believed such targeted assaults would weaken the regime of Saddam Hussein and hasten its collapse, all the while avoiding the deployment of troops to clear every single block of Baghdad. In preparation for the impending attack, Iraqi military planners organised hybrid groups of paramilitary and regular army units, deployed improvised barriers and destroyed the eastern Diyala River bridges to block US army mechanised units.[13]
At the time of invasion, coalition 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.[15] U.S. planes also dropped about 200,000 leaflets warning civilians to stay in their homes.[7] Royal Air Force Tornados from 9 and 617 Squadrons attacked the radar defense systems protecting Baghdad, but lost a Tornado on March 22 along with the pilot and navigator (Flight Lieutenant Kevin Main and Flight Lieutenant Dave Williams) in a friendly fire incident, shot down by an American Patriot missile as they returned to their airbase in Kuwait.[16] On April 2, a US Army Black Hawk helicopter and a United States NavyF/A-18C Hornet were shot down near Karbala.[15][17][18][19] On 8 April, an A-10 Warthog attack plane was shot down in the fighting around Jumhuriya Bridge by an Iraqi surface-to-air missile.[20][21]
At Tuwayhah
On April 4, 2003, the 2nd Tank Battalion Marine Corps had a stiff fight with the Al Nida Division of the Republican Guards and foreign Islamist fighters on the outskirts of Baghdad. By the end of the day, the Al Nida was considered rendered "combat-ineffective", but three US Marines (1st Lieutenant Brian McPhillips, Sergeant Duane Rios and Corporal Bernard Gooden[22]) were killed in the At Tuwayhah fighting and a tank lost.[23] That day, the 5th Regimental Combat Team reported that two supporting Abrams tanks were destroyed battling the Fedayeen and Al Nida Republican Guards, the latter attempting to use anti-aircraft guns in the ground role.[3]
The entrance when the airport was called Saddam International Airport
On the morning of April 3, 2003, US forces advanced on Saddam International Airport. This location turned out to be the best defended Iraqi position of the entire war and two US soldiers were killed by mortar fire early in the fighting.[24] After several hours of combat, the First Brigade, Third Infantry Division succeeded in taking control of Baghdad International Airport, which would become the hub of American logistics in Iraq for the next seven years. Before sunrise on April 4, the Americans were subjected to a fierce counter-attack by Iraqi troops. The First Brigade's Tactical Operations Center (TOC) began receiving small arms and mortar fire. Under the cover of darkness, a number of T-72 tanks managed to get within several hundred meters of their position. According to one source: "It was not until a chemical reconnaissance vehicle was fired on, and a Bradley actually was hit by a T-72 main gun round, that the battalion became aware of its peril."[25]
Fortunately for the crew, the hit was only a glancing one, and they were able to drive their vehicle to safety. A fireteam with a Javelin ATGM destroyed two of the Iraqi tanks, while the rest were destroyed by a passing M1 Abrams. As dawn approached, the attack on the TOC intensified, and Iraqi infantry flooded into the position on foot. During the fighting, Sergeant First Class Paul Ray Smith was killed by enemy fire while fighting off an Iraqi attack on his team in an action that resulted in the posthumous awarding of division's first Medal of Honor since World War II. During the softening up bombardment of Baghdad Airport on April 3, 2003, an Air Force F-15E fighter mistakenly attacked Battery C, 3rd Battalion, 13th Field Artillery (supporting Third Infantry Division), destroying two Humvees and killing Sergeant 1st Class Randy Rehn, Sergeant Todd Robbins and Specialist Donald Oaks .[26] Five other soldiers from the unit were injured in the air attack. Sergeant 1st Class Wilbert Davis is also reported to have been killed along with American journalist Michael Kelly on April 3 after coming under fire, during operations to secure Baghdad Airport.[27][28]
Thunder Runs
On April 5, Task Force 1–64 Armor of the US 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.[29] Iraqi resistance was disorganized, and the unit sustained few casualties. 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.[30] 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. Colonel 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.[31]
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.
Objectives Moe, Larry, and Curly
On April 7, 2003, intense fighting took place at three locations known as objectives Moe, Larry, and Curly (named after the characters in The Three Stooges). Each objective was a cloverleaf where east–west roads intersected with the main north–south route (Highway 8) being used for the Thunder run. Successfully holding these highway interchanges was essential to keep Highway 8 open thus allowing US forces to remain in the city center following the second Thunder run. Objective Moe was at the junction of Highway 8 and the Qadisiyah expressway, Larry at Qatar Al-Nada street leading to the Al Jadriyah bridge, and Curly at the Dora expressway. At the southernmost location, Objective Curly, an 18-hour battle by the 3–15 Infantry resulted in the deaths of two US soldiers (Staff Sergeant Robert Stever and Sergeant 1st Class John Marshall) killed by RPG rounds and about 40 wounded[32] with 350 to 500 Iraqi casualties (Special Republican Guard, Fedayeen and Syrian fighters[32]). US tank (1st and 4th Battalions of the 64th Armored Regiments) and infantry units nearly ran out of fuel and ammunition and were almost overrun until reinforcements broke through and were able to resupply Objective Curly.[32] Toward the end of the fighting, an Ababil-100 SSM missile or an Iraqi FROG-7 rocket exploded among the parked vehicles of the headquarters of 2nd Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division, killing two soldiers (Private 1st Class Anthony Miller and Staff Sergeant Lincoln Hollinsaid) and two embedded journalists (Julio Parrado and Christian Liebig), wounding 15 others and destroying 17 military vehicles.[4]
Tharthar Palace
US Marines fighting Iraqi army in March 2003
On April 7, US 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 city of Tikrit.[33] American commanders on the ground said that they would remain in the city center rather than return to the outskirts as they had done previously.
Within hours of a palace seizure and with television coverage of this spreading through Iraq, US 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.
Jumhuriya Bridge
On April 8, 2003, some 500 Iraqi soldiers, including Republican Guard mounted a fierce counterattack across the Jumhuriya Bridge, forcing part of the US forces on the western side of Baghdad to initially retreat, but the Iraqis reportedly lost 50 soldiers in the fighting that included the use of A-10 Warthogs on the part of the US forces.[34] An A-10 attack plane was shot down in combating the counterattack by an Iraqi surface-to-air missile.[20][21]
Looting
As the American forces secured control of the capital, Iraqi civilians immediately began plundering the palaces, as well as government offices. At the Yarmuk Hospital, not only all beds, but all medical equipment was stolen.[citation needed] One other hospital managed to continue functioning in a manner by organizing local civilians as armed guards.
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.[36]
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.[37] Survivors included larger animals like lions, tigers, and bears.[37] 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.[37][38] Some of the smaller animals were fed to the larger carnivores by Special Forces (who are trained in veterinarian practices) [citation needed]for humane purposes as all animals had been neglected in the time leading to their arrival and considering the smaller animals were in poor health and stood little chance of survival even with care that was unavailable to them. Sacrifices were made for the lions and other large carnivores to survive until better care could be established.[citation needed]
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 of the regime 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 legacy. One widely publicized event was the dramatic toppling of a large statue of Saddam in Baghdad's Firdus Square. This attracted considerable media coverage at the time.
Before a conglomerate of international press (and small crowd of around 100 U.S.-supported Iraqi militia[39][40]), a 39-foot-tall (12m) statue of Saddam in Firdus Square was toppled by a U.S. Marine Corps M88 Recovery Vehicle. Initially, a Marinecorporal 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 were defaced.
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 with Iraqi government forces 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 the Iraqi military. "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
Prior to the invasion, the US policy was that journalists reporting from the ground should be "embedded", that is, be stationed within military units. Such reporters were required to sign contracts with the military and agree to rules that restricted what they could report on. Journalists found breaking those rules risked losing their embedded accreditation and being expelled from Iraq.[41][42]
Black Hawk helicopters from 5th Battalion, 101st Combat Aviation Brigade, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) move into an Iraqi city during an operation to occupy the city, April 5.
Iraq 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."[43]
On April 8, two American air-to-surface missiles hit Al Jazeera's office in a residential area of Baghdadkilling a reporter and wounding a cameraman. The nearby office of Arab satellite channel Abu Dhabi TV was also hit by air strikes. Al Jazeera and Abu Dhabi TV were the only international media organizations to continue operating from their headquarters in Baghdad. Since the war started, other international media organizations had moved their operations to the Palestine Hotel in Baghdad. On the same day a U.S. Army tank fired into the 15th floor of the Palestine Hotel, killing two cameramen and wounding three. These attacks prompted accusations that the US was deliberately targeting news media outlets. Al Jazeera had provided the Pentagon with co-ordinates of its office in Baghdad; the Abu Dhabi TV building was clearly identified by a large blue sign on its roof, and, for the Palestine Hotel, according to Geert Linnebank, Reuters editor-in-chief, "US troops who have known all along that this hotel is the main base for almost all foreign journalists in Baghdad".[44] In the Abu Dhabi case, the station aired the picture of Iraqi fire from beneath the camera. In the hotel case, however, other journalists on the scene stated that there was no fire from or around the hotel.[45][46]
The Iran–Iraq War, also known as the First Gulf War, was an armed conflict between Iran and Iraq that lasted from September 1980 to August 1988. Active hostilities began with the Iraqi invasion of Iran and lasted for nearly eight years, until the acceptance of United Nations Security Council Resolution 598 by both sides. Iraq's primary rationale for the attack against Iran cited the need to prevent Ruhollah Khomeini—who had spearheaded the Iranian revolution in 1979—from exporting the new Iranian ideology to Iraq. There were also fears among the Iraqi leadership of Saddam Hussein that Iran, a theocratic state with a population predominantly composed of Shia Muslims, would exploit sectarian tensions in Iraq by rallying Iraq's Shia majority against the Baʽathist government, which was officially secular and dominated by Sunni Muslims. Iraq also wished to replace Iran as the power player in the Persian Gulf, which was not seen as an achievable objective prior to the Islamic Revolution because of Pahlavi Iran's economic and military superiority as well as its close relationships with the United States and Israel.
Qusay Saddam Hussein al-Nasiri al-Tikriti was an Iraqi politician, military leader, and the second son of Saddam Hussein. He was appointed as his father's heir apparent in 2000. He was also in charge of the Republican Guard, a branch of the Iraqi military. Qusay, his son Mustafa, and his brother Uday were killed in a 2003 U.S. raid in Mosul.
The Iraqi Republican Guard was a branch of the Iraqi military from 1969 to 2003, which existed primarily during the presidency of Saddam Hussein. It later became known as the Republican Guard Corps, and then the Republican Guard Forces Command (RGFC) with its expansion into two corps. The Republican Guard was disbanded in 2003 after the invasion of Iraq by a U.S.-led international coalition.
The Gulf War was an armed conflict between Iraq and a 42-country coalition led by the United States. The coalition's efforts against Iraq were carried out in two key phases: Operation Desert Shield, which marked the military buildup from August 1990 to January 1991; and Operation Desert Storm, which began with the aerial bombing campaign against Iraq on 17 January 1991 and came to a close with the American-led liberation of Kuwait on 28 February 1991.
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 kilometers (87 mi) northwest of Baghdad and 220 kilometers (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 the first stage of the Iraq War. The invasion began on 20 March 2003 and lasted just over one month, including 26 days of major combat operations, in which a United States-led combined force of troops from the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia and Poland invaded the Republic of Iraq. Twenty-two days after the first day of the invasion, the capital city of Baghdad was captured by coalition forces on 9 April after the six-day-long Battle of Baghdad. This early stage of the war formally ended on 1 May 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.
Sadr City, formerly known as Al-Thawra and Saddam City, is a suburb district of the city of Baghdad, Iraq. It was built in 1959 by Prime Minister Abdul Karim Qassim and named Al-Rafidain District. After the US-led invasion of Iraq and the toppling of Saddam, it was unofficially renamed Sadr City after Ayatollah Muhammad al-Sadr.
The following is a timeline of major events during the Iraq War, following the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
Events in the year 2004 in Iraq.
The following lists events in the year 2003 in Iraq.
The Battle of Khafji was the first major ground engagement of the Gulf War. It took place in and around the Saudi Arabian city of Khafji, from 29 January to 1 February 1991.
The military history of Iraq, due to a rich archaeological record, is one of the longest in written human history. The region of Iraq, which used to be Mesopotamia, has been referred to as the "cradle of civilization", and wars of conquest have been recorded in this region as far back as the third millennium BC. Because of its geopolitical dominance and ideology based in world domination, the Neo-Assyrian Empire is by many researchers regarded to have been the first world empire in history. The area possesses strategic value, initially for the rich, fertile agricultural region in the Mesopotamian plain, and more recently for large petroleum deposits and access to the oil-rich Persian Gulf. The present territory of Iraq lacks significant strategic barriers, making it difficult to defend against foreign invasion.
The Battle of Abu Ghraib took place between Iraqi Mujahideen and United States forces at Abu Ghraib prison on April 2, 2005.
The 2004 Iraq spring fighting was a series of operational offensives and various major engagements during the Iraq War. It was a turning point in the war; the Spring Fighting marked the entrance into the conflict of militias and religiously based militant Iraqi groups, such as the Shi'a Mahdi Army.
The Battle of Basra lasted from 21 March to 6 April 2003 and was one of the first battles of the 2003 invasion of Iraq. The British 7 Armoured Brigade fought their way into Iraq's second-largest city, Basra, on 6 April coming under constant attack by the Iraqi Army 51st Division and Fedayeen Saddam, while elements of the Parachute Regiment cleared the 'old quarter' of the city that was inaccessible to vehicles. Entering Basra had only been achieved after two weeks of conflict, which included the biggest tank battle of the war by British forces when the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards destroyed 14 abandoned Iraqi tanks on the 27 March.
The Battle of the Karbala Gap occurred during the 2003 invasion of Iraq. The Karbala Gap is a 20–25-mile wide strip of land with the Euphrates River to the east and Lake Razazah to the west. This strip of land was recognized by Iraqi commanders as a key approach to Baghdad, and was defended by the Medina and Bakhtnisar Divisions of the Iraqi Republican Guard. American forces attacked Iraqi forces in the area with massive air attacks followed by concentrated armored thrusts which resulted in the Iraqi units being surrounded and annihilated.
The Battle of Karbala took place during the 2003 invasion of Iraq as U.S. troops fought to take control of the city from Iraqi forces. The city had been bypassed during the advance on Baghdad, leaving American units to clear it in two days of street fighting against Iraqi Saddam Fedayeen Irregular forces.
The Battle of Najaf was a major battle in the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq. The first stage of the battle was fought when the U.S. 3rd Infantry Division fought to surround the town. The second stage was fought when soldiers from the U.S. 101st Airborne Division fought to clear and secure the city.
Uday and Qusay Hussein, sons of deposed Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, were killed during an American military operation conducted on 22 July 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.
1 2 "On April 4, 5th RCT ran into several hundred fedayeen from Syria, Jordan, Egypt, and other parts of the Middle East and Africa. The result was wholesale slaughter, but the cost was considerable: two Abrams tanks were destroyed by the attackers, while numerous vehicles sustained damage from RPG fire. The marines killed a senior general from the Republican Guard ... In addition, marine tankers destroyed twelve to fifteen T-72s and T-55s as well as numerous 37mm anti-aircraft guns, which the Iraqis attempted to use against advancing marines." The Iraq War, Wiiliamson Murray, Robert Scales, p.225, Harvard University Press, 2005
1 2 Tyler, Patrick E. (April 3, 2003). "Combat - U.S. Ground Forces Sweep Toward Baghdad - NYTimes.com". The New York Times. Archived from the original on October 28, 2014. Retrieved April 10, 2010. Allied aircraft are making bombing runs at the rate of 1,000 sorties a day, most of them aimed at Mr. Hussein's guard divisions.
↑ "On 2 April 2003, a US Army Sikorsky H-60 Black Hawk helicopter was shot down near Karbala, killing seven soldiers and wounding four others. This event appeared to indicate a significant enemy presence in the city. The Encyclopedia of Middle East Wars: The United States in the Persian Gulf, Afghanistan, and Iraq Conflicts, Spencer C. Tucker, p. 672, ABC-CLIO, 2010
↑ "On 2 April a navy FA-18 was shot down west of Karbala, Iraq." Leave No Man Behind: The Saga of Combat Search and Rescue, George Galdorisi, Thomas Phillips, p. 519, Zenith Imprint, 2008
1 2 "A-10 aircraft strafed both sides of the main road leading to the bridge and one aircraft was lost to a shoulder-launched missile." Cradle of Conflict: Iraq and the Birth of Modern U.S. Military Power, Michael Knights, p.326, Naval Institute Press, 2005
↑ Joe Strupp, MRE Criticizes Expelling of Embeds Over Pix of Shot-Up Humvee, Editor and Publisher December 15, 2005 Archived April 21, 2017, at the Wayback Machine
↑ Johnson and Fahmy,When Good Conflicts Go Bad; Testing a frame-building model on embeds' attitudes towards government news management in the Iraq war, pp. 523–524, International Communication Gazette, 2010, issue 72.
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