The US-led invasion of Iraq
- Date
- 20 March 2003
- Category
- Military & conflict
- Region
- Iraq
- Era
- Contemporary
- Significance
On 20 March 2003 a US-led coalition including Britain, Australia and Poland invaded Iraq, opening with a 'shock and awe' bombing campaign aimed at the government of Saddam Hussein.
The Bush administration justified the war by alleging Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction and had ties to terrorism — claims later shown to be unfounded, as no such stockpiles were found. Coalition ground forces seized Baghdad on 9 April, and President Bush declared the end of major combat operations on 1 May. However, the absence of post-war planning, the disbanding of the Iraqi army, and sectarian tensions plunged the country into a prolonged and bloody insurgency. The war, undertaken without explicit UN Security Council authorisation, deeply divided international opinion, destabilised the wider Middle East, and helped create conditions for the later rise of the Islamic State.
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Further reading
The wider story
A History of the Modern Middle East
The go-to survey of the region from the late Ottoman era to the present.
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