Iraq War Timeline

Coalition forces led by the United States and United Kingdom launched Operation Iraqi Freedom with airstrikes on Baghdad targeting Saddam Hussein and senior leadership, followed by a massive ground invasion from Kuwait by US, British, Australian, and Polish forces.

Image source: 2003 invasion of Iraq

British and US Marines captured the strategic port city of Umm Qasr after several days of fighting, opening a vital supply route for humanitarian aid and military logistics during the invasion.

Image source: Battle of Umm Qasr

US Marines fought fierce battles around Nasiriyah, encountering determined resistance from Iraqi forces and Fedayeen Saddam. The fighting included the ambush of the 507th Maintenance Company and secured crossings over the Euphrates River.

Image source: Battle of Nasiriyah

US forces entered central Baghdad, and crowds aided by American troops pulled down a statue of Saddam Hussein in Firdos Square. The iconic images symbolized the fall of the regime, though widespread looting followed across the capital.

Image source: Saddam Hussein statue destruction

Kurdish Peshmerga fighters supported by US special forces seized Kirkuk, a major oil-producing city in northern Iraq, accelerating the collapse of Iraqi government control in the north.

Image source: Kirkuk

US Marines captured Tikrit, Saddam Hussein's hometown and one of the last strongholds of organized resistance, effectively concluding major combat operations of the invasion phase.

Image source: First Battle of Tikrit

President Bush declared the end of major combat operations aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln beneath a 'Mission Accomplished' banner. In retrospect, the speech marked the start of a prolonged and deadly occupation rather than the war's conclusion.

Image source: Mission Accomplished speech

Ambassador L. Paul Bremer III became head of the Coalition Provisional Authority, which governed occupied Iraq. His decisions, including de-Ba'athification and dissolving the Iraqi army, left hundreds of thousands armed men unemployed and fueled the insurgency.

Image source: Coalition Provisional Authority

US forces killed Saddam Hussein's sons Uday and Qusay during a firefight in Mosul, removing two of the most feared figures of the former regime from the equation.

Image source: Killing of Qusay and Uday Hussein

A suicide truck bomb destroyed part of the Canal Hotel housing UN headquarters in Baghdad, killing 22 people including envoy Sérgio Vieira de Mello. The attack drove most international organizations out of Iraq and marked the insurgency's escalation.

Image source: Canal Hotel bombing

Operation Red Dawn culminated in the capture of Saddam Hussein, found hiding in a spider hole near Tikrit. His capture was a major symbolic victory for the coalition, though violence continued to intensify afterward.

Image source: Capture of Saddam Hussein

Throughout 2004, insurgent groups including al-Qaeda in Iraq, led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, waged increasingly lethal campaigns of bombings, beheadings, and ambushes against coalition forces, Iraqi security personnel, and civilians.

Image source: Iraqi insurgency (2003–2011)

Following the murder of four American contractors in Fallujah, US Marines launched Operation Vigilant Resolve to retake the city. Facing political pressure and heavy resistance, the assault was halted and security handed to an Iraqi force that failed to control the city.

Image source: First Battle of Fallujah

Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr launched an uprising with his Mahdi Army militia, fighting US and coalition forces in Baghdad, Najaf, Karbala, and other cities. The revolt revealed a second front beyond the Sunni insurgency before ceasefires ended major clashes.

Image source: Iraqi conflict

Operation Phantom Fury, the bloodiest battle of the Iraq War, saw US and Iraqi forces retake Fallujah from insurgents in intense urban combat. The victory came at high cost and displaced much of the city's civilian population.

Image source: Second Battle of Fallujah

Despite insurgent threats, millions of Iraqis voted in the country's first free multiparty elections in decades. A Shia-led coalition won a majority, beginning a new political order that deepened sectarian divisions among Sunnis who largely boycotted the vote.

Image source: January 2005 Iraqi parliamentary election

The bombing of the golden-domed al-Askari Shrine in Samarra, revered by Shia Muslims, ignited waves of sectarian retaliation. Death squads and militias plunged Iraq into full-scale civil war, with thousands killed monthly at the height of the bloodshed.

Image source: 2006 al-Askari mosque bombing

After trial by the Iraqi High Tribunal for crimes against humanity stemming from the Dujail massacre, Saddam Hussein was hanged in Baghdad. The execution closed a chapter on the former dictator amid ongoing sectarian violence.

Image source: Execution of Saddam Hussein

Sunni tribes in Anbar province, alienated by al-Qaeda in Iraq's brutality, allied with US forces through the Awakening movement. Combined with the surge, this shift dramatically reduced violence across western Iraq by late 2007.

Image source: Sons of Iraq

President Bush announced a surge of more than 20,000 additional US troops to secure Baghdad and Anbar province under General David Petraeus's counterinsurgency doctrine, aiming to reverse the deteriorating security situation.

Image source: Iraq War troop surge of 2007

By 2008, civilian and military casualties had fallen dramatically from their 2006–2007 peaks due to the surge, the Awakening councils, ceasefires by militias including the Mahdi Army, and improved Iraqi security forces.

Iraq and the United States signed an agreement requiring all American combat troops to withdraw from Iraqi cities by June 2009 and to leave Iraq entirely by the end of 2011, establishing a timetable for the war's conclusion.

President Barack Obama announced that US combat operations in Iraq would end by August 31, 2010, reaffirming the commitment to remove all American troops by the end of 2011 as negotiations with Iraq proceeded.

Image source: Withdrawal of United States troops from Iraq (2007–2011)

Under the Status of Forces Agreement, American combat units withdrew from all Iraqi cities, transferring security responsibilities to Iraqi forces in what the US called Operation New Dawn's precursor milestone.

President Obama formally declared the end of US combat operations in Iraq, renaming the mission Operation New Dawn. Remaining American troops shifted to advising and assisting Iraqi security forces.

The final American soldiers crossed into Kuwait, ending nearly nine years of US military presence in Iraq. Negotiations over a residual force failed over immunity issues, leaving Iraq to manage its own security.