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created 15 February 2003. Corrected and updated
03.06.2006
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Iraq
War
2003- |
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| Causes |
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| Chronology (except battles, which see below) |
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| 1991.02.28 | ceasefire ended Persian Gulf War | |
| 1991.03-04 | Shi'ite and Kurdish uprisings crushed by the Iraqi government, resulting in exodus of 2.5 million refugees to Turkey | |
| 1991.04.06 | Iraq accepted UNSC Resolution 687 requiring destruction of weapons of mass destruction and monitoring by UNSCOM | |
| 1991.04.10 | UN established safe haven (US-UK enforced "no-fly zone") for Kurds in northern Iraq; small scale US and British air strikes against Iraqi radar and other military sites continued daily until 2003 | |
| 1992.08.26 | UN established no-fly zone in southern Iraq to protect Shi'ites | |
| 1993.06.27 | US air strikes in retaliation for never-proven Iraq assassination attempt on former US President George H. Bush in April | |
| 1995.04.14 | UNSC Resolution 986 established "Oil for Food" programme, allowing Iraq to purchase humanitarian aid with oil revenues | |
| 1995-1998 | periodic diplomatic clashes between Iraq and UNSCOM, including denial of inspectors' access to militarily sensitive areas, Iraq charges that inspectors were American spies | |
| 1996.06 | CIA-backed coup against Hussein foiled, and participants executed | |
| 1996.09.03-04 | US airstrikes against Iraqi anti-missile sites as punishment for venturing into Kurdish safe haven | |
| 1998.10.31 | Iraq cuts off work by UNSCOM | |
| 1998.11.05 | UN Security Council condemns Iraq's "flagrant violations" of resolutions | |
| 1998.12.16 | UNSCOM withdrew from Iraq citing the latter's non-compliance; US and Britain launched major air strikes on Iraq (Operation Desert Fox) to destroy suspected WMD | |
| 1998.12.19 | Allied attacks on Iraq ended amidst charges that President Clinton was distracting the world's attention from the "Monicagate" scandal | |
| 1999-2001 | Iraq rejects new weapons inspections proposals | |
| 2001.01 | George W. Bush administration came to office in the US with an agenda to finish the Iraq business of 1991 | |
| 2001.09.01 | Jund al-Islam (later Ansar al-Islam) formed in Kurdistan and began fighting PUK for territorial control | |
| 2001.09.11 | terrorist attacks on New York City and Washington DC quickly led to suspicions of Iraq complicity; although cited by the US as a cause for war, these suspicions were never proven | |
| 2001.09 | Kurdish envoys presented evidence to US of links between Jund al-Islam (later Ansar al-Islam) , Saddam Hussein and al-Qaeda, but US officially discounted the linkage until a year later (by which time the rest of the world discounted it) | |
| 2002.01.29 | in first State of the Union address Bush named Iraq as part of an "axis of evil" that sponsored terror | |
| 2002.08.02 | UN and Iraq begin negotiations on remaining disarmament issues | |
| 2002.09.12 | Bush called on UN to take action against "grave and gathering danger" of Iraq | |
| 2002.09.24 | Britain produced dossier documenting Iraq's defiance of UN resolutions | |
| 2002.10.10 | US Congress approved military action if Iraq did not disarm | |
| 2002.11.08 | UN passed Resolution 1441, sending arms inspectors (UNMOVIC) back to Iraq (implemented 18 Nov.) | |
| 2002.12.07 | Iraq reports to UN on its NBC programmes and declared it had no WMD | |
| 2002.12.14 | Iraq opposition parties met in London to plan post-Hussein government | |
| 2002.12.27 | US announced massive troop deployment to Persian Gulf region | |
| 2003.01.20 | Britain announced deployment of 26,000 land forces to Gulf region | |
| 2003.01.27 | UNMOVIC heads condemned Iraq's noncompliance | |
| 2003.01.28 | in State of the Union address, Bush continued escalation of attention on Iraq, declaring that Hussein was "deceiving" the world | |
| 2003.02.05 | US Secretary of State argued case for war to UN Security Council; UK announced deployment of 42,000 forces to Persian Gulf region | |
| 2003.02.10 | top PUK commander assassinated in talks with Ansar al-Islam | |
| 2003.02.11 | Turkey invoked mutual defence clause of North Atlantic Treaty citing potential threat from Iraq, but other NATO members refused assistance | |
| 2003.03.01 | Turkey refused US access to bases for a possible northern front in war against Iraq | |
| 2003.03.05 | France, Germany and Russia issued joint declaration that they would oppose any UN Security Council resolution authorising military action against Iraq | |
| 2003.03.16 | US-UK-Spain-Portugal summit in Azores presented a 24-hour ultimatum to the UN to enforce its Resolution 1441 for the disarmament of Iraq | |
| 2003.03.17 | President Bush issued ultimatum to Saddam Hussein to leave Iraq within 48 hours or face war | |
| 2003.03.19 | US-led assault on Iraq began with secret special operations to seize key points | |
| 2003.03.20 | US launched attempted "decapitation" strike against Hussein regime | |
| 2003.03.21 | British forces secured Faw Peninsula; US began "shock and awe" precision bombing of government sites | |
| 2003.03.22 | US began bombardment of Ansar al-Islam enclave in support of PUK | |
| 2003.03.23 | US troops began landing in Kurdistan to open a northern front | |
| 2003.03.30 | Ansar al-Islam crushed by American bombardment and PUK offensive | |
| 2003.04.06 | Baghdad encircled by US forces; significant numbers of KDP leadership killed in US "friendly fire" incident in north | |
| 2003.04.09 | government disappeared in Baghdad, and people began to tentatively celebrate fall of Hussein regime | |
| 2003.04.10 | Kirkuk fell to Kurdish forces | |
| 2003.04.11 | Mosul fell to Kurdish and American forces | |
| 2003.04.14 | after light resistance, Tikrit, the last major city, fell to US forces; US announced end of major combat phase and began withdrawing some forces | |
| 2003.04.21 | Jay Garner, head of interim civil administration (Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance), arrived in Baghdad amid much Iraqi opposition to American interference | |
| 2003.05.01 | President Bush declared that the military phase of Operation Iraqi Freedom had ended | |
| 2003.05.12 | Paul Bremer replaced Garner as head of Coalition Provisional Authority | |
| 2003.05.23 | the US disbanded the Iraq armed forces | |
| 2003.07.03 | with over 30 coalition combat deaths since the end of the war, the US offered a $25 million for the capture of Saddam Hussein, who seemed to be the inspiration for growing resistance | |
| 2003.07.16 | Gen. Abizaid characterised the low intensity conflict in Iraq as "war", as doubts about the justification for the war and a peace plan continued to rise in the US and UK | |
| 2003.07.22 | sons of Saddam Hussein, Uday and Qusay, killed in American raid in Mosul | |
| 2003.08.19 | suicide bomb killed twenty UN workers in Baghdad in one of worst post-war terror incidents | |
| 2003.08.26 | Americans killed in post-war conflict exceeded those killed during the war | |
| 2003.08.29 | Ayatollah Mohammed Baqir al-Hakim and about a hundred others assassinated in car-bombing of Najaf's Imam Ali Mosque | |
| 2003.09.? | US Iraq Survey Group reported to Congress that it found no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, one of the principal rationales for the war | |
| 2003.11.10 | as resistance increased, US moved back to war footing in "Sunni Triangle" | |
| 2003.11.12 | the US launched Operation Iron Hammer, a pre-emptive counter-insurgency strike against pro-Saddam loyalists; 18 Italians killed by a suicide bombing in Nasiriyah, putting a damper on extended international cooperation with the US in pacifying and stabilising Iraq | |
| 2003.11.21 | suicide bombing of the PUK office in Kirkuk signalled the extension of the terror campaign to the Kurdish north | |
| 2003.12.14 | Saddam Hussein captured near Tikrit, eight months after going into hiding | |
| 2004.01.24 | chief arms inspector David Kay resigned amid growing evidence that Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction since 1991, negating the main US rationale for the war | |
| 2004.01.28 | Hutton commission cleared Blair government of exaggerating case for war | |
| 2004.02.01 | in one of worst terror incidents since the end of the war, suicide bombers attacked the KPD and PUK party headquarters in Erbil, killing about 105 and injuring 200 | |
| 2004.02.06 | Bush appointed a commission to investigate intelligence failures that were the principal reasons for going to war | |
| 2004.02.13 | UN envoy Lakhdar Brahimi warned that planned elections for Iraq sovereignty on 30 June were unworkable and that Iraq was drifting into civil war | |
| 2004.03.02 | in the worst yet terrorist incident since the end of the war, close to 200 were killed in suicide bombing attacks on Shiite mosques in Baghdad and Karbala during the Ashura holiday | |
| 2004.04.04 | dissaffected by the US occupation, militias of Iraq's majority Shi'ites, who had welcomed the liberation from Saddam Hussein, began a revolt with attacks on American soldiers in four cities | |
| 2004.05 | revelations of widespread American abuse of Iraqi prisoners further undermined remaining Iraqi and global support for the American agenda | |
| 2004.05.17 | suicide bomber killed Ezzedine Salim, president of the rotating interim Governing Council | |
| 2004.07.09 | the US Senate Intelligence Committee charged that the CIA's justification for war was "exaggerated" | |
| 2004.07.11 | British MI6 "retracted" the intelligence that had been the pretext for war; in the US CIA director George Tenet stepped down | |
| 2004.07.22 | echoing similar inquiries in UK and US, the Australian Flood commission concluded that Australia went to war in Iraq based on "thin, ambiguous and incomplete" intelligence, but the politicians were not to blame | |
| 2004.09.07 | US combat deaths since the Mar. 2003 invasion passed the 1,000 mark | |
| 2004.09.14 | UN Secretary General Kofi Annan declared the unilateral US war against Iraq "illegal" | |
| 2004.10.06 | final report of the US Iraq Survey Group found no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and less capability for development than in 1991 | |
| 2004.10.22 | despite much Parliamentary and popular opposition, the British Cabinet approved deployment of one battalion (1st Black Watch) from British zone (Basra) to American zone (Baghdad) to cover US assault on Fallujah | |
| 2004.11.08 | US forces began long-expected full-scale assault on Fallujah, a hotbed of resistance to the occupation | |
| 2004.11.14 | US forces crushed rebel resistance in Fallujah, destroying much of the city, but the violence spread elsewhere, and the governor of Mosul, losing faith in the Americans, called on Kurdish peshmerga for assistance | |
| 2005.01.12 | intelligence officials admitted that the Iraq Survey Group had ended its fruitless search for weapons of mass destruction | |
| 2005.01.30 | despite worst fears, and due in part to very tight security, Iraq's first elections in half a century proceeded in relative peace | |
| 2005.03.16 | a deeply divided parliament met for the first time, and failed to elect a president | |
| 2006.05.31 | Iraq declared a state of emergency in Basra after worst month of violence since 2003, a sign that British control had unraveled | |
| Results |
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| Forces and Casualties |
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peak forces
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total forces
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total dead
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KIA
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NCD
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civilian dead
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WIA
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PW-MIA
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Britain |
40,906
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40,906
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36
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14
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22
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17
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United States |
423,998
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423,998
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151
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97
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54
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399
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Australia |
2,050
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2,050
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0
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Canada |
31
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31
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0
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Czech/Slovak |
400
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400
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0
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Poland |
200
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200
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0
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Free Iraqi | 77 | 77 | ||||||
| subtotal |
466,985
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466,985
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187
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Kurdistan |
80,000
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80,000
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| subtotal | |||||||||
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Iraq |
380,000
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380,000
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10,000a
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Ansar al-Islam |
700
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700
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| TOTAL | |||||||||
| Note: casualty figures are approximate
as of 1 May 2003 when President Bush declared an end of the military
phase of Operation Iraqi Freedom. Casualties include naval and air
forces. a. Associated Press investigation: 3,240 civilian dead |
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| Commanders |
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| United Kingdom & Allies: | |||
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Gen. Tommy Franks | Commander-in-Chief, Army Central Command & coalition forces | June 2000-7 July 2003 |
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Lt. Gen. John Abizaid | Deputy Commander, CENTCOM; Commander-in-Chief, Army Central Command & coalition forces |
-7 July 2003
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| 7 July 2003- | |||
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Lt. Gen. Michael P. DeLong | Deputy Commander, CENTCOM | |
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Lt. Gen. David D. McKiernan | Commander, 3rd U.S. Army, CENTCOM Army Forces, and all coalition land forces | |
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Lt. Gen. T. Michael Moseley | commander, US Ninth Air Force, and CENTCOM Air Forces | |
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Vice Adm. Timothy J. Keating | Commander, US Fifth Fleet and US Naval Forces Central Command | |
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Lt. Gen. Earl Hailston | commander USMC Forces Central Command | |
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Lt. Gen. William Wallace | Commander, V Corps | |
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Brig. Gen. Gary Harrell | Commander, Special Operations Command Central | |
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Lt. Gen. Jay Garner (Retd.) | governor, occupied Iraq (Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance) |
14 Apr. 2003-12 May 2003 (appointed Jan. 2003) |
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Air Marshal Brian Burridge | GOC, British Forces in Gulf | |
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Rear Admiral David Snelson | commander, British Naval Forces | |
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Maj-Gen. Robin Brims | GOC, British Land Forces in Gulf | |
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Air Vice-Marshal Glenn Torpy | commander, British Air Forces | |
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Commodore Jamie Miller | Commander, Amphibious Task Group | |
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Brig. Maurie McNarn | GOC, Australian National HQ Middle East Area of Operations | |
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Hamid Hussain Mala (Hamid Afandi) | KRG Minister of Peshmerga Affairs | |
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Gen. Azad Miran | KDP chief of military operations | |
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Gen. Wajih Barzani | KDP Pershmerga commander | critically wounded 6.4.2003 by friendly fire |
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Gen. Simko Dizayee | head, PUK Peshmerga general staff | |
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Gen. Mustafa Said Qadir | PUK Peshmerga commander | |
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Gen. Babakir Zebari | Peshmerga commander, Dohuk region | |
| Iraq: | |||
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Saddam Hussein | Supreme Commander in Chief | captured 14.12.2003 |
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Gen. Sultan Hashim Ahmad al Jabburi Tai | Minister of Defence | surrendered 19.9.2003 |
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Gen. Ibrahim Ahmad Abd al-Sattar Muhammad al-Tikriti | Armed Forces Chief of Staff | captured 12.5.2003 |
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Qusay Hussein | commander, Republican Guard and central region | killed 22.7.2003 |
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Kamal Mustafa Sultan al-Tikriti | commander, Special Republican Guard | |
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Uday Hussein | commander, Saddam Fedayeen | killed 22.7.2003 |
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Gen. Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri | commander, north region; deputy commander armed forces | d. 11.11.2005 |
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Mazban Khader Hadi | commander, Baghdad | |
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Gen. Muhammad Hamza al-Zubaydi | commander, central Euphrates region | captured 21.04.2003 |
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Lt-Gen. Ali Hassan al-Majid (aka: "Chemical Ali") |
commander, Basra region | captured 20.8.2003 |
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Gen. Amir al-Saadi | ||
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Mullah Krekar | leader, Ansar al-Islam | |
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Abu Musab al-Zarqawi | leader, Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia | to Mar. 2006 |
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Abdullah al-Baghdadi | leader, Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia | Mar. 2006- |
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| Battles & Battle Honours |
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| Date | Battles (Battle Honours are shown in bold face) |
Regiments (regiments awarded Battle Honours are shown in bold face) |
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| 2003 Mar. 19-26 | Faw Peninsula |
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| 2003 Mar. 20-25 | Umm Qasr |
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| 2003
Mar. 21- 2003 Apr. 9 |
Al Basrah |
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| 2003 | as-Zubayr |
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| 2003 | Rumaylah Oil Fields |
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| 2003 | Western Iraq 2003 |
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| 2003
Mar. 20- 2003 May 1 |
Iraq 2003 (UK: Op Telic) |
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| 2003
June- |
Iraq (UK: Op Telic 2-5) |
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| Order of Battle (Regiments & Formations) |
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| Medals | Index of Campaign Medals |
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| Societies, Forums & Re-Enactors |
| Museums & Memorials |
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| Bibliography |
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| Links: | ||
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| External Links |
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