There have been 4,279 coalition deaths -- 3,973 Americans, two Australians, 
174 Britons, 13 Bulgarians, one Czech, seven Danes, two Dutch, two 
Estonians, one Fijian, one Hungarian, 33 Italians, one Kazakh, one Korean, 
three Latvian, 22 Poles, three Romanians, five Salvadoran, four Slovaks, 11 
Spaniards, two Thai and 18 Ukrainians -- in the war in Iraq as of March 3, 2008

The Iraq War, also known as the Second Gulf War, Operation Iraqi Freedom, 
or the occupation of Iraq,is an ongoing conflict which began on March 20, 2003 
with the United States-led invasion of Iraq by a multinational coalition composed 
of U.S. and U.K. troops supported by smaller contingents from Australia, 
Poland, and other nations.

The rationale for the invasion offered by U.S. President George W. Bush and 
coalition supporters included the allegation that Iraq possessed and was actively 
developing weapons of mass destruction (WMD) in violation of a 1991 agreement. 
U.S. officials argued that Iraq posed an imminent, urgent, and immediate 
threat to the United States, its people, allies, and interests. The supporting 
intelligence was widely criticized,and weapons inspectors found no evidence 
of WMD. After the invasion, the Iraq Survey Group concluded that 
Iraq had ended its WMD programs in 1991 and had none at the time of the 
invasion, but that they intended to resume production if and when the Iraq 
sanctions were lifted. Although some earlier degraded remnants of 
misplaced or abandoned WMD were found, they were not the weapons for 
which the coalition invaded. Some U.S. officials claimed Saddam Hussein and 
al-Qaeda were cooperating, but no evidence of any collaborative relationship has 
been found. Other reasons for the invasion stated by officials included concerns 
about Iraq's financial support for the families of Palestinian suicide bombers, 
Iraqi government human rights abuses, spreading democracy, and Iraq's oil 
reserves.

The invasion led to the quick defeat of the Iraqi army and flight of President 
Saddam Hussein, his capture in December, 2003, and his execution in 
December, 2006. The U.S.-led coalition occupied Iraq and attempted 
to establish a new democratic government. But shortly after the initial invasion, 
violence against coalition forces and among various sectarian groups led to 
asymmetric warfare with the Iraqi insurgency, civil war between many Sunni 
and Shia Iraqis, and al-Qaeda operations in Iraq. Estimates of the number of 
people killed range from over 150,000 to more than 1 million. The financial cost 
of the war has been more than $491 billion to the U.S., and over £4.5 billion 
to the UK. Coalition nations have begun to withdraw troops as public 
opinion favoring troop withdrawal increases and Iraqi forces begin to take 
responsibility for security.


1991–2003: U.N. inspectors and the no-fly zones

Following the 1991 Gulf War, the United Nations Security Council Resolution 
687 mandated that Iraqi chemical, biological, nuclear, and long range missile 
programs be halted and all such weapons destroyed under a United Nations 
Special Commission control. U.N. weapons inspectors inside Iraq were able to 
verify the destruction of a large amount of WMD-material, but substantial issues 
remained unresolved after they left Iraq in 1998 due to current UNSCOM head 
Richard Butler's belief that U.S. and U.K. military action was imminent. Shortly 
after the inspectors withdrew, the U.S. and U.K. launched a four-day bombing 
campaign .

In addition to the inspection regimen, the United States and the United Kingdom 
(along with France until 1998) engaged in a low-level conflict with Iraq by enforcing 
northern and southern Iraqi no-fly zones. These zones were created following the 
Persian Gulf War to protect Iraqi Kurdistan in the north and the southern Shia areas, 
and were seen by the Iraqi government as an infringement of Iraq's sovereignty. 
Iraqi air-defense installations and American and British air patrols regularly 
exchanged fire during this period.

In April 2001, Bush's Cabinet agreed to use military intervention in Iraq, because 
it was considered a destabilizing influence to the flow of oil to international 
markets from the Middle East. Neoconservatives in the U.S. called for the sell-off 
of all of Iraq's oil fields and planned for a coup d'etat in long before the September 
11th attacks, hoping a new government would use, "Iraq's oil to destroy the OPEC 
cartel through massive increases in production above OPEC quotas." Those plans 
were abandoned shortly after the invasion because former Shell Oil Company 
CEO Philip Carroll, who had been charged with their implementation, refused to be 
involved with Iraqi oil industry privatization because it could have led to the exclusion 
of U.S. firms, unlike the state-run oil ministry. U.S. oil industry consultant Falah 
Aljibury alleges that soon after Bush took office in 2001, he took part in secret 
meetings in Washington, the Middle East, and California involving an overthrow 
of the Iraq regime. Aljibury told BBC's Newsnight that he, "interviewed potential 
successors to Saddam Hussein on behalf of the Bush administration."

Approximately a year before Operation Iraqi Freedom, the United States initiated 
Operation Southern Focus as a change to its response strategy, by increasing 
the overall number of missions and selecting targets throughout the no-fly zones 
to disrupt the military command structure in Iraq. The weight of bombs dropped 
increased from none in March 2002 and 0.3 in April 2002 to between 8 and 14 
tons per month in May-August, reaching a pre-war peak of 54.6 tons in September 
2002.

2001–2003: Iraq disarmament crisis and pre-war intelligence

U.N. weapons inspections resume

The issue of Iraq's disarmament reached a crisis in 2002-2003, when President 
George W. Bush demanded a complete end to alleged Iraqi production of weapons 
of mass destruction and full compliance with UN Resolutions requiring UN 
weapons inspectors unfettered access to suspected weapons production facilities. 
Previously, the UN had prohibited Iraq from developing or possessing such 
weapons since the 1991 Gulf War and required Iraq to permit inspections 
confirming Iraqi compliance.

During 2002, Bush repeatedly backed demands for unfettered inspection and 
disarmament with threats of military force. In accordance with UN Security 
Council Resolution 1441 Iraq reluctantly agreed to new inspections in late 
2002. The results of these inspections were mixed with no discovery of WMDs 
and skepticism of Iraqi WMD program declarations.

Alleged weapons of mass destruction

In the initial stages of the war on terror, the Central Intelligence Agency, under 
George Tenet, was rising to prominence as the lead agency in the Afghanistan 
war. But when Tenet insisted in his personal meetings with President Bush that 
there was no connection between Al Qaeda and Iraq, V.P. Dick Cheney and 
Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld initiated a secret program to re-examine 
the evidence and marginalize the CIA and Tenet. The questionable intelligence 
acquired by this secret program was "stovepiped" to the Vice President and 
presented to the public. In some cases, Cheney’s office would leak the 
intelligence to reporters, where it would be reported by outlets such as The 
New York Times. Cheney would subsequently appear on the Sunday political 
television talk shows to discuss the intelligence, referencing The New York 
Times as the source to give it credence.

 
Ambassador Joseph C. WilsonIn late February 2002, the CIA sent former 
Ambassador Joseph Wilson to investigate dubious claims about Iraq's attempted 
purchase of yellowcake uranium from Niger. Wilson returned and informed the 
CIA that reports of yellowcake sales to Iraq were "unequivocally wrong." However, 
the Bush administration continued to allege attempts to obtain yellowcake as 
justification for military action - most prominently in the January, 2003, State 
of the Union when President Bush said that Iraq had sought uranium, citing 
British intelligence sources. In response, Wilson wrote a critical The New York 
Times op-ed in June 2003 saying that he had personally investigated claims of 
yellowcake purchases and believed them to be fraudulent. Wilson's report did 
not clarify the matter for analysts, but they found it interesting that the 
former Nigerien Prime Minister said an Iraqi delegation had visited Niger for what 
he believed was to discuss uranium sales. Shortly after Wilson's op-ed, the 
identity of Wilson's wife, undercover CIA analyst Valerie Plame, was revealed in a 
column by Robert Novak. Since it is a felony to reveal the identity of a CIA agent 
Novak's column launched an investigation by the Justice Department into the 
source of the leak. In March, 2007, Dick Cheney’s Chief of Staff I. Lewis 
'Scooter' Libby was convicted of perjury in the Plame leak 
investigation. The source of the leak was found to be Richard Armitage. He was 
never charged.

A British government memo was published in The Sunday Times on May 1, 2005. 
Known as the "Downing Street memo," it contains an overview of a secret July 
23, 2002 meeting among United Kingdom Labour government, defense and 
intelligence figures, discussing the build-up to the Iraq war—including direct 
reference to classified U.S. policy of the time. The memo states, "Bush 
wanted to remove Saddam, through military action, justified by the conjunction 
of terrorism and WMD. But the intelligence and facts were being fixed around 
the policy."

On September 18, 2002, George Tenet briefed Bush that Saddam Hussein 
did not have weapons of mass destruction. Bush dismissed this top-secret 
intelligence from Saddam's inner circle which was approved by two senior 
CIA officers, but it turned out to be completely accurate. The information 
was never shared with Congress or even CIA agents examining whether 
Saddam had such weapons. The CIA had contacted Saddam Hussein's 
foreign minister, Naji Sabri, who was being paid by France as a spy. He 
informed them that Saddam had ambitions for a nuclear program but that 
it was not active, and that no biological weapons were being produced or 
stockpiled, although research was underway. The U.S. obtained three 
subsequent human intelligence reports indicating that Saddam had 
authorized the use of chemical weapons in the event of war.

In September 2002, the Bush administration said attempts by Iraq to acquire 
thousands of high-strength aluminum tubes pointed to a clandestine program 
to make enriched uranium for nuclear bombs. Iraq was not permitted to import 
such tubes under the U.N. monitoring plan. This view was supported by the CIA 
and DIA but opposed by the Department of Energy (DOE) and INR which was 
significant because the DOE was the only department in the United States 
government that had expertise in gas centrifuges and nuclear weapons programs. 
All agencies believed the tubes could be used in a centrifuge program but the 
latter two argued that they were poorly suited to do so.  An effort by the DOE to 
change Powell's comments before his UN appearance was rebuffed by the 
administration. Indeed, Colin Powell, in his address to the U.N. Security Council 
just prior to the war, made reference to the aluminum tubes. But a report released by 
the Institute for Science and International Security in 2002 reported that it was 
highly unlikely that the tubes could be used to enrich uranium. Powell later 
admitted he had presented an inaccurate case to the United Nations on Iraqi 
weapons, and the intelligence he was relying on was, in some cases, "deliberately 
misleading."

Between September, 2002 and June, 2003, Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul 
Wolfowitz created a Pentagon unit known as the Office of Special Plans (OSP), 
headed by Douglas Feith. It was created to supply senior Bush administration 
officials with raw intelligence pertaining to Iraq, unvetted by intelligence analysts, 
and circumventing traditional intelligence gathering operations by the CIA. One 
former CIA officer described the OSP as dangerous for U.S. national security 
and a threat to world peace, and that it lied and manipulated intelligence to 
further its agenda of removing Saddam Hussein. He described it as a group of 
ideologues with pre-determined notions of truth and reality, taking bits of intelligence 
to support their agenda and ignoring anything contrary. Subsequently, in 2008, 
the nonpartisan Center for Public Integrity has enumerated a total of 935 false 
statements made by George Bush and six other top members of his 
administration in a carefully launched campaign of misinformation, during the 
two year period following 9-11, in order to rally support for the invasion of Iraq.

Authorization for the use of force
 
Colin Powell holding a model vial of anthrax while giving a presentation to 
the United Nations Security Council In October, 2002, a few days before the 
U.S. Senate vote on the Joint Resolution to Authorize the Use of United 
States Armed Forces Against Iraq, about 75 senators were told in closed 
session that Saddam Hussein had the means of attacking the U.S. eastern 
seaboard with biological or chemical weapons delivered by unmanned aerial 
vehicles (UAVs). On February 5, 2003, Colin Powell presented 
further evidence in his Iraqi WMD program presentation to the Security Council 
that UAVs were ready to be launched against the U.S. At the time, there was a 
vigorous dispute within the intelligence community as to whether CIA 
conclusions about Iraqi UAVs were accurate. The U.S. Air Force agency most 
familiar with UAVs, the State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research, 
and the Defense Intelligence Agency denied that Iraq possessed any offensive 
UAV capability, saying the few they had were designed and intended for 
surveillance. A majority of the U.S. intelligence committee agreed that the Iraqi 
UAVs were used only for reconnaissance. In fact, Iraq's UAV fleet was never 
deployed and consisted of a handful of outdated 24.5-foot (7.5 m) wingspan 
drones with no room for more than a camera and video recorder, and no 
offensive capability. Despite this controversy, the Senate voted to approve the 
Joint Resolution on 11 October 2002 providing the Bush Administration with the 
legal basis for the U.S. invasion.

U.N. weapons inspector chief Hans Blix remarked in January 2003 that "Iraq 
appears not to have come to a genuine acceptance – not even today – of the 
disarmament, which was demanded of it and which it needs to carry out to win 
the confidence of the world and to live in peace." Among other things he 
noted that 1,000 tons of chemical agent were unaccounted for, information on 
Iraq's VX nerve agent program was missing, and that "no convincing evidence" 
was presented for the destruction of 8,500 liters of anthrax that had been 
declared. But in March, Blix said no evidence of WMDs had been found, and 
progress had been made in inspections.

In early 2003, the United States, United Kingdom, and Spain proposed the 
so-called "eighteenth resolution" to give Iraq a deadline for compliance with 
previous resolutions enforced by the threat of military action. 
This proposed resolution was subsequently withdrawn for lack of support on the 
U.N. Security Council. In particular, NATO members France and Germany, 
together with Russia, were opposed to military intervention in Iraq due to the high 
level of risk to the international community's security and defended 
disarmament through diplomacy.

Opposition to invasion

On January 20, 2003, French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin declared. 
"we believe that military intervention would be the worst solution". Meanwhile 
anti-war groups across the world organised public protests. According to the French 
academic Dominique Reynié between the 3rd of January and 12th of 
April 2003, 36 million people across the globe took part in almost 3,000 protests 
against war in Iraq, the demonstrations on February 15 2003 being the largest 
and most prolific.

In March 2003, UN weapons inspector Hans Blix reported that, "No evidence of 
proscribed activities have so far been found," in Iraq, saying that progress was made 
in inspections which would continue. But the U.S. government announced that 
"diplomacy has failed" and that it would proceed with a coalition of allied 
countries, named the "coalition of the willing", to rid Iraq of its alleged weapons of 
mass destruction. The U.S. government abruptly advised U.N. weapons inspectors 
to immediately pull out of Baghdad.

There are also serious legal questions surrounding the conduct of the war in 
Iraq and the Bush Doctrine of preemptive war. On September 16, 2004 Kofi Annan,
the Secretary General of the United Nations, said of the invasion, "I have indicated it 
was not in conformity with the UN charter. From our point of view, 
from the charter point of view, it was illegal."


2003: Invasion

The 2003 invasion of Iraq, led by General Tommy Franks, began on March 
20, under the U.S. codename "Operation Iraqi Freedom", the UK codename 
Operation Telic, and the Australian codename Operation Catalyst. Coalition 
forces also cooperated with Kurdish peshmerga forces in the north. 
Approximately forty other nations, the "coalition of the willing," participated by 
providing equipment, services, security, and special forces. The initial coalition 
military forces were roughly 300,000, of which 98% were U.S. and UK troops.

Map of major operations and battles of the Iraq War as of 2007 The Iraqi Army 
was quickly overwhelmed with only the elite Fedayeen Saddam putting up 
strong resistance before melting away into the civilian population. On April 9 
Baghdad fell, ending Saddam's 24-year rule. U.S. forces seized the deserted 
Baath Party ministries and helped tear down a huge iron statue of Saddam, 
photos and video of which became symbolic of the event. The abrupt fall of 
Baghdad was accompanied by massive civil disorder, including 
looting of government buildings and drastically increased crime. The invasion 
phase concluded when Tikrit, Saddam's home town, fell with little resistance 
to the Marines of Task Force Tripoli and on April 
15 the coalition declared the invasion effectively over.

In the invasion phase of the war (March 20-April 30), 9,200 Iraqi combatants 
were killed along with 7,299 civilians, primarily by US air and ground forces. 
Coalition forces reported the death in combat of 139 U.S. military personnel 
and 33 UK military personnel.

Coalition Provisional Authority and Iraq Survey Group

Shortly after the invasion, the multinational coalition created the Coalition 
Provisional Authority (CPA) ???? ???????? ???????, based in the Green Zone, 
as a transitional government of Iraq until the establishment of a democratic 
government. Citing United Nations Security Council Resolution 1483 
(22 May 2003) and the laws of war, the CPA vested itself with executive, 
legislative, and judicial authority over the Iraqi government from the period 
of the CPA's inception on April 21, 2003, until its dissolution on 
June 28, 2004.

The CPA was originally headed by Jay Garner, a former U.S. military officer, 
but his appointment lasted only until May 11, 2003. After Garner resigned, 
President Bush appointed L. Paul Bremer as the head the CPA and he served 
until the CPA's dissolution in July 2004. Another group created in the spring of 
2003 was the Iraq Survey Group (ISG; its final report is commonly called the 
Duelfer Report.). This was a fact-finding mission sent by the multinational force 
in Iraq after the 2003 Invasion of Iraq to find weapons of mass destruction (WMD) 
programmes developed by Iraq. It consisted of a 1,400-member international 
team organised by the Pentagon and CIA to hunt for suspected stockpiles of 
WMD, such as chemical and biological agents, and any supporting research 
programmes and infrastructure that could be used to develop WMD. In 2004 the 
ISG's Duelfer report stated that Iraq did not have a viable WMD program.

Post-invasion phase

On May 1, 2003, President Bush staged a dramatic visit to the aircraft carrier 
USS Abraham Lincoln operating a few miles west of San Diego, California on 
its way home from a long deployment which had included service in the Persian 
Gulf. The visit climaxed at sunset with Bush's now well-known "Mission 
Accomplished" speech. In this nationally-televised speech, delivered before the 
sailors and airmen on the flight deck, Bush effectively declared victory due to the 
defeat of Iraq's conventional forces. However, Saddam Hussein remained at large 
and significant pockets of resistance remained.

After President Bush's speech, coalition forces noticed a gradually increasing 
flurry of attacks on its troops in various regions, especially in the "Sunni Triangle".
In the initial chaos after the fall of the Iraqi government, there was massive looting 
of infrastructure, including government buildings, official residences, museums, 
banks, and military depots. According to The Pentagon, 250,000 tons (of 650,000 
tons total) of ordnance was looted, providing a significant source of ammunition for 
the Iraqi insurgency. The insurgents were further helped by hundreds of weapons 
caches created prior to the invasion by the conventional Iraqi army and Republican 
Guard.

 
May 18, 2004: Staff Sgt. Kevin Jessen checks the underside of two anti-tank 
mines found in a village outside Ad Dujayl, Iraq in the Sunni Triangle.Initially, 
Iraqi resistance (known to the coalition as "Anti-Iraqi Forces") largely stemmed 
from fedayeen and Saddam/Baath Party loyalists, but soon religious 
radicals and Iraqis angered by the occupation contributed to the insurgency. 
The three provinces with the highest number of attacks were Baghdad, Al Anbar, 
and Salah Ad Din. Those three provinces account for 35% of the population, 
but are responsible for 73% of U.S. military deaths (as of December 5, 2006), 
and an even higher percentage of recent U.S. military deaths (about 80%). 
Insurgents use guerrilla tactics including; mortars, missiles, suicide attacks, 
snipers, improvised explosive devices (IEDs), car bombs, small arms fire 
(usually with assault rifles), and RPGs (rocket propelled grenades), as well as 
sabotage against the oil, water, and electrical infrastructure.

Post-invasion Iraq coalition efforts commenced after the fall of the Hussein 
regime. The coalition nations, together with the United Nations, began to work to 
establish a stable democratic state capable of defending itself, holding itself 
together as well as overcoming insurgent attacks and internal divisions.

Meanwhile, coalition military forces launched several operations around the 
Tigris River peninsula and in the Sunni Triangle. A series of similar operations 
were launched throughout the summer in the Sunni Triangle. Toward the end of 
2003, the intensity and pace of insurgent attacks began to increase. A sharp 
surge in guerrilla attacks ushered in an insurgent effort that was termed the 
"Ramadan Offensive", as it coincided with the beginning of the Muslim holy month 
of Ramadan. To counter this offensive, coalition forces begin to use air power and 
artillery again for the first time since the end of the invasion by striking suspected 
ambush sites and mortar launching positions. Surveillance of major routes, patrols, 
and raids on suspected insurgents were stepped up. In addition, two villages, 
including Saddam’s birthplace of al-Auja and the small town of Abu Hishma were 
wrapped in barbed wire and carefully monitored.

However, the failure to restore basic services to pre-war levels, where over a 
decade of sanctions, bombing, corruption, and decaying infrastructure had left 
major cities barely functioning, contributed to local anger at the IPA government 
headed by an executive council. On July 2, 2003, President Bush declared that 
American troops would remain in Iraq in spite of the attacks, challenging the 
insurgents with "My answer is, bring 'em on," a widely criticized line which Bush 
later expressed misgivings about. In the summer of 2003, the multinational forces 
also focused on hunting down the remaining leaders of the former regime. 
On July 22, a raid by the U.S. 101st Airborne Division and soldiers from Task 
Force 20 killed Saddam Hussein's sons (Uday and Qusay) along with one of his 
grandsons. In all, over 300 top leaders of the former regime were killed or captured, 
as well as numerous lesser functionaries and military personnel.

Saddam Hussein captured

In the wave of intelligence information fueling the raids on remaining Baath 
Party members connected to insurgency, Saddam Hussein himself was captured 
on December 13, 2003 on a farm near Tikrit in Operation Red Dawn. The operation 
was conducted by the United States Army's 4th Infantry Division 
and members of Task Force 121.

 
Saddam Hussein shortly after captureWith the capture of Saddam and a drop in 
the number of insurgent attacks, some concluded the multinational forces were 
prevailing in the fight against the insurgency. The provisional government began 
training the New Iraqi Security forces intended to defend the country, and 
the United States promised over $20 billion in reconstruction money in the form 
of credit against Iraq's future oil revenues. Oil revenue was also used for rebuilding 
schools and for work on the electrical and refining infrastructure.

Shortly after the capture of Saddam, elements left out of the Coalition 
Provisional Authority began to agitate for elections and the formation of an 
Iraqi Interim Government. Most prominent among these was the Shia cleric 
Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani. The Coalition Provisional Authority opposed 
allowing democratic elections at this time, preferring instead to eventually 
hand-over power to the Interim Iraqi Government. Due to the internal fight for 
power in the new Iraqi government more insurgents stepped up their activities. 
The two most turbulent centers were the area around Fallujah and the poor 
Shia sections of cities from Baghdad (Sadr City) to Basra in the south.

2004: The insurgency expands

The start of 2004 was marked by a relative lull in violence. Insurgent forces 
reorganised during this time, studying the multinational forces' tactics and 
planning a renewed offensive. However, violence did increase during the Iraq 
Spring Fighting of 2004 with foreign fighters from around the Middle East as 
well as al-Qaeda in Iraq (an affiliated al-Qaeda group), led by Abu Musab 
al-Zarqawi helping to drive the insurgency.

As the insurgency grew there was a distinct change in targeting from the 
coalition forces towards the new Iraqi Security Forces, as hundreds of Iraqi 
civilians and police were killed over the next few months in a series of massive 
bombings. An organized Sunni insurgency, with deep roots and both nationalist 
and Islamist motivations, was becoming more powerful throughout Iraq. The 
Shia Mahdi Army also began launching attacks on coalition targets in an 
attempt to seize control from Iraqi security forces. The southern and central 
portions of Iraq were beginning to erupt in urban guerrilla combat as multinational 
forces attempted to keep control and prepared for a counteroffensive.

 
Coalition Provisional Authority director L. Paul Bremer signs over sovereignty 
to the appointed Iraqi Interim Government, June 28, 2004.The most serious 
fighting of the war so far began on March 31, 2004, when Iraqi insurgents in 
Fallujah ambushed a Blackwater USA convoy led by four American private military 
contractors who were providing security for food caterers Eurest Support Services. 
The four armed contractors, Scott Helvenston, Jerko Zovko, Wesley Batalona, 
and Michael Teague, were killed with grenades and small arms fire. Subsequently, 
their bodies were dragged from their vehicles, beaten, set ablaze, and their 
burned corpses hung over a bridge crossing the Euphrates. Photos of the event 
were released to news agencies worldwide, causing a great deal of indignation 
and moral outrage in the United States, and prompting an unsuccessful 
"pacification" of the city: the First Battle of Fallujah in April 2004.

The offensive was resumed in November, 2004 in the bloodiest battle of the war 
so far: the Second Battle of Fallujah, described by the U.S. military as "the 
heaviest urban combat (that they had been involved in) since the battle of Hue City 
in Vietnam." Intelligence briefings given prior to battle reported that Coalition 
forces would encounter Chechnyan, Filipino, Saudi, Iranian, Italian, and Syrian 
combatants, as well as native Iraqis. During the assault, U.S. forces used white 
phosphorus as an incendiary weapon against insurgent personnel, attracting 
controversy. The 10-day battle resulted in a victory for the coalition, with 
54 Americans killed and approximately 1000 insurgents. Fallujah was totally 
devastated during the fighting, though civilian casualties were low, as they had 
mostly been evacuated before the fight.

Another major event of this year was the revelation of prisoner abuse at Abu 
Ghraib which received international media attention in April 2004. First reports 
of the abuse, as well as graphic pictures showing American military personnel 
taunting and abusing Iraqi prisoners, came to public attention from a 60 Minutes 
II news report (April 28) and a Seymour M. Hersh article in the The New Yorker 
(posted online on April 30). Thomas Ricks, an author who has studied the war, 
claimed that these revelations dealt a blow to the moral justifications for the 
occupation in the eyes of some Iraqis and was a turning point in the 
war.

2005: Elections and transitional government

On January 31, Iraqis elected the Iraqi Transitional Government in order to draft 
a permanent constitution. Although some violence and widespread Sunni 
boycott marred the event, most of the eligible Kurd and Shia populace participated. 
On February 4, Paul Wolfowitz announced that 15,000 U.S. troops whose 
tours of duty had been extended in order to provide election security would be 
pulled out of Iraq by the next month. February to April proved to be relatively 
peaceful months compared to the carnage of November and January, with 
insurgent attacks averaging 30 a day from the prior average of 70.

 
Saddam Hussein at his appearance before the Iraqi Special Tribunal on July 1, 
2004; he went on trial in Baghdad for crimes against humanity on October 19, 2005 
Hopes for a quick end to an insurgency and a withdrawal of U.S. troops were dashed 
in May, Iraq's bloodiest month since the invasion. Suicide bombers, 
believed to be mainly disheartened Iraqi Sunni Arabs, Syrians and Saudis, tore 
through Iraq. Their targets were often Shia gatherings or civilian concentrations 
mainly of Shias. As a result, over 700 Iraqi civilians died in that month, as well 
as 79 U.S. soldiers.

The summer of 2005 saw fighting around Baghdad and at Tall Afar in 
northwestern Iraq as US forces tried to seal off the Syrian border. This led to 
fighting in the autumn in the small towns of the Euphrates valley 
between the capital and the that border.

A constitutional referendum was held in October and a national assembly 
was elected in December .

Insurgent attacks increased in 2005 with 34,131 recorded incidents, compared 
to a total 26,496 for the previous year.

2006: Civil war and permanent Iraqi government

The beginning of 2006 was marked by government creation talks, growing 
sectarian violence, and continuous anti-coalition attacks. Sectarian violence 
expanded to a new level of intensity following the al-Askari Mosque bombing 
in the Iraqi city of Samarra, on February 22, 2006. The explosion at the 
mosque, one of the holiest sites in Shi'a Islam, is believed to have been caused 
by a bomb planted by Al-Qaeda in Iraq. Although no injuries occurred in the blast, 
the mosque was severely damaged and the bombing resulted in violence over the 
following days. Over 100 dead bodies with bullet holes were found on February 23, 
and at least 165 people are thought to have been killed. In the aftermath of this 
attack the US military calculated that the average homicide rate in Baghdad 
tripled from 11 to 33 deaths per day. The United Nations has since described 
the environment in Iraq as a "civil war-like situation."A 2006 study 
by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health has estimated that 
more than 601,000 Iraqis have died in violence since the U.S. invasion and that 
fewer than one third of these deaths came at the hands of Coalition forces. The 
Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and the Iraqi 
government estimate that more than 365,000 Iraqis have been displaced since 
the bombing of the al-Askari Mosque, bringing the total number of Iraqi refugees 
to more than 1.6 million.

The current government of Iraq took office on May 20, 2006 following approval by 
the members of the Iraqi National Assembly. This followed the general election 
in December 2005. The government succeeded the Iraqi Transitional Government 
which had continued in office in a caretaker capacity until the formation of 
the permanent government.

Increased sectarian violence

In September 2006, The Washington Post reported that the commander of the 
Marine forces in Iraq filed "an unusual secret report" concluding that the prospects 
for securing the Anbar province are dim, and that there is almost nothing the 
U.S. military can do to improve the political and social situation there.

Iraq was listed fourth on the 2006 Failed States Index compiled by the American 
Foreign Policy magazine and the Fund for Peace think-tank. The list was topped 
by Sudan.

As of October 20 the U.S military announced that Operation Together Forward 
had failed to stem the tide of violence in Baghdad, and Shiite militants under 
al-Sadr seized several southern Iraq cities.

U.S. congressional elections and expanding violence

On November 7, 2006, United States midterm elections removed the 
Republican Party from control of both chambers of the United States 
Congress. The failings in the Iraq War were cited as one of the 
main causes of the Republicans' defeat, even though the Bush 
administration had attempted to distance 
itself from its earlier "stay the course" rhetoric.

On November 23, the deadliest attack since the beginning of the Iraq war 
occurred. Suspected Sunni-Arab militants used five suicide car bombs and
two mortar rounds on the capital's Shiite Sadr City slum to kill at least 215 
people and wound 257. Shiite mortar teams quickly retaliated, firing 10 shells 
at Sunni Islam's most important shrine in Baghdad, badly damaging the Abu 
Hanifa mosque and killing one person. Eight more rounds slammed down near 
the offices of the Association of Muslim Scholars, the top Sunni Muslim 
organisation in Iraq, setting nearby houses on fire. Two other mortar barrages 
on Sunni neighborhoods in west Baghdad killed nine and wounded 21, police said.

On November 28, another Marine Corps intelligence report was released 
confirming the previous report on Anbar stating that, "U.S. and Iraqi troops 
'are no longer capable of militarily defeating the insurgency in 
al-Anbar,' and 'nearly all government institutions from the village to provincial 
levels have disintegrated or have been thoroughly corrupted and infiltrated 
by Al Qaeda in Iraq.'"

Iraq Study Group report and Saddam’s execution

The Iraq Study Group Report was released on December 6, 2006. 
The bipartisan Iraq Study Group was led by former secretary of state 
James Baker and former Democratic congressman Lee Hamilton, and 
concludes that "the situation in Iraq is grave and deteriorating" and "U.S.
forces seem to be caught in a mission that has no foreseeable end." The 
report's 79 recommendations include increasing diplomatic measures 
with Iran and Syria and intensifying efforts to train Iraqi troops. On December 
18, a Pentagon report found that attacks on Americans and Iraqis were 
averaging about 960 a week, the highest since the reports had begun in 2005.

Coalition forces formally transferred control of a province to the Iraqi 
government, the first since the war. Military prosecutors charged 8 Marines 
with the deaths of 24 Iraqi civilians in Haditha in November 2005, 
10 of them women and children. Four officers were also charged with dereliction 
of duty in relation to the event.

Saddam Hussein was hanged on December 30, 2006 after being found guilty 
of crimes against humanity by an Iraqi court, after a year-long trial.

2007: U.S. troop surge

In a January 10, 2007 televised address to the American public, Bush 
proposed 21,500 more troops for Iraq, a job programme for Iraqis, more 
reconstruction proposals, and $1.2 billion for these programmes. Asked 
why he thought his plan would work this time, Bush said: "Because it has 
to." On January 23, 2007 in the 2007 State of the Union Address, Bush 
announced "deploying reinforcements of more than 20,000 additional 
soldiers and Marines to Iraq." On February 10, 2007 David Petraeus was 
made commander of Multi-National Force - Iraq (MNF-I), the four-star post 
that oversees all U.S. forces in the country, replacing General George Casey. 
In his new position, Petraeus has overseen all coalition forces 
in Iraq and employed them in the new "Surge" strategy outlined by the Bush 
administration. 2007 also saw a sharp increase in insurgent chlorine bombings.

 
However, maintaining higher troop levels in the face of higher casualties 
required two changes in the army. Tours of duty were increased and the 
exclusions of volunteers with a history of criminal acts were relaxed. 
A defense department sponsored report described increased length of tours 
leading to higher stress which increase manifestations of anger and disrespect 
for civilians. Statistics released in April indicated that more and more soldiers 
have been deserting their duty, a sharp rise from the years before.

 
Pressures on U.S. troops were compounded by the continuing withdrawal of 
British forces from the Basra Governorate. In early 2007, British Prime Minister 
Tony Blair announced that following Operation Sinbad UK troops would begin to 
withdraw from Basra, handing security over to the Iraqis. This announcement was 
confirmed in the Autumn by Prime Minister Gordon Brown, Blair's successor, 
who again outlined a withdrawal plan for the remaining UK forces with a complete 
withdrawal date sometime in late 2008. In July Danish Prime Minister Anders 
Fogh Rasmussen also announced the withdrawal of 441 Danish troops 
from Iraq, leaving only a unit of nine soldiers manning four observational helicopters.

Planned troop reduction

In a speech made to Congress on September 10, 2007, General David Petraeus 
"envisioned the withdrawal of roughly 30,000 U.S. troops by next summer, 
beginning with a Marine contingent [in September]."  On September 14, 
President Bush backed a limited withdrawal of troops from Iraq. Bush said 
5,700 personnel would be home by Christmas 2007, and expected thousands 
more to return by July 2008. The plan would take troop numbers back to their 
level before the surge at the beginning of 2007. Some controversy 
has arisen due to the fact that former secretary of state Colin Powell announced 
before the surge took place that there would have to be a draw down of troops 
by mid-2007.

Effects of the surge on security

By mid-March 2007, violence in Baghdad was reported by US sources close to 
the military as having been curtailed by 80%;however, independent reports have 
raised questions about such assessments. An Iraqi military spokesman claims 
that civilian deaths since the start of the troop surge plan were 265 in Baghdad, 
down from 1,440 in the four previous weeks. The New York Times has found more 
than 450 Iraqi civilians were killed during the same 28-day period, based on initial 
daily reports from Interior Ministry and hospital officials. Historically, the daily counts 
tallied by the NYT have underestimated the total death toll by 50% or more when 
compared to studies by the United Nations, which rely upon figures from the Iraqi 
Health Ministry and morgue figures.

Also, the rate of American combat deaths in Baghdad over the first seven weeks 
of the "surge" security escalation has nearly doubled from the previous period to 
a rate of 3.14/day.

Despite a massive security crackdown in Baghdad associated with 
the surge in coalition troop strength, the monthly death toll  in Iraq rose 
15% in March. 1,869 Iraqi civilians were killed and 2,719 were wounded 
in March, compared to 1,646 killed and 2,701 wounded in February. In 
March, 165 Iraqi policemen were killed against 131 the previous month, 
while 44 Iraqi soldiers died compared to 29 in February. US military deaths in 
March were nearly double those of the Iraqi army, despite US claims that Iraqi 
forces led the security crackdown in Baghdad. The death toll among insurgent 
militants fell to 481 in March, compared to 586 killed in February; however, the 
number of arrests jumped to 5,664 in March against 1,921 in February.

Three months after the start of the surge, troops controlled less than a third of 
the capital, far short of the initial goal, according to an internal military 
assessment completed in May 2007. Violence was especially 
chronic in mixed Shiite-Sunni neighborhoods in western Baghdad. Improvements 
had not yet been widespread or lasting across Baghdad.

On August 14, 2007 the deadliest single attack of the whole war occurred. 
Over 500 civilians were killed by a series of co-ordinated suicide bomb 
attacks on the northern Iraqi settlement of Qahtaniya. More than 
100 homes and shops were destroyed in the blasts. US officials blamed 
al-Qaeda in Iraq. The targeted villagers belong to the non-Muslim Yazidi ethnic 
minority. The attack may represent the latest spasm in a blood feud that 
erupted earlier this year when members of the Yazidi community stoned to 
death a teenage girl called Du’a Khalil Aswad accused of dating a Sunni Arab 
man and converting to Islam. The killing of the girl was recorded on camera-
mobiles and the video was downloaded onto the internet.

On September 13, Abdul Sattar Abu Risha was killed in a bomb attack in the 
city of Ramadi. He was an important US ally because he led the "Anbar Awakening", 
an alliance of Sunni Arab tribes that rose up against al-Qaeda in Iraq. The latter 
organisation claimed responsibility for the attack. A statement posted on the Internet 
by the shadowy Islamic State of Iraq called Abu Risha "one of the dogs of Bush" and 
described Thursday's killing as a "heroic operation that took over a month to prepare".

 
There has been a reported trend of decreasing US troop deaths since May 
of 2007, and violence against coalition troops has fallen to the "lowest levels 
since the first year of the American invasion". These, and several other positive 
developments, have been attributed to the surge by many analysts. However, 
there is anecdotal evidence that a trend by troops to conduct "search and avoid" 
missions in place of "search and destroy" may also be playing a small part. 
Data from the Pentagon and other US agencies such as the Government 
Accountability Office (GAO) found that daily attacks against civilians in Iraq have 
remained “about the same” since February. The GAO also stated that there was 
no discernible trend in sectarian violence. However, this report runs counter to the 
most recent report to Congress, which shows a general downward trend in civilian 
deaths and ethno-sectarian violence since December 2006. In late 2007, as the 
U.S. troop surge began to wind down, violence in Iraq had begun to decrease from 
its 2006 highs. However, political progress remained slow as the Shia-Kurd coalition 
government continued to stall on any significant progress on the host of issues 
facing Iraq.

In the Shia region near Basra, British forces turned over security for the region 
to Iraqi Security Forces as conditions there have stabilized over recent months. 
Basra is the ninth province of Iraq's 18 provinces to be returned to local security 
forces' control since the beginning of the war.


Political developments

More than half of the members of Iraq's parliament rejected the continuing 
occupation of their country for the first time. 144 of the 275 lawmakers signed 
onto a legislative petition that would require the Iraqi government 
to seek approval from parliament before it requests an extension of the U.N. 
mandate for foreign forces to be in Iraq expiring at the end of 2007. It also 
calls for a timetable for the troop withdrawal and a freeze on the 
size of the foreign forces. The U.N. Security Council mandate for U.S.-led 
forces in Iraq will terminate "if requested by the government of Iraq."Under Iraqi
law, the speaker must present a resolution called for by a majority of lawmakers. 
59% of those polled in the U.S. support a timetable for withdrawal.

In mid-2007, the Coalition began a controversial program to recruit Iraqi 
Sunnis for the formation of "Guardian" militias. These Guardian militias 
are intended to support and secure various Sunni neighborhoods unable to 
provide internal security themselves.

Tensions with Iran

During 2007, tensions increased greatly between Iran and Iraqi Kurdistan 
due to its sanctuary given to the militant anti-Iranian group Party for a Free 
Life in Kurdistan(PEJAK). According to reports, Iran has been shelling 
PEJAK positions in Iraqi Kurdistan since August 16th. These tensions 
further increased with an alleged border incursion on August 23rd by 
Iranian troops who attacked several Kurdish villages killing an 
unknown number of civilians and militants.

Coalition forces also began to target alleged Iranian Quds force operatives in 
Iraq, either arresting or killing suspected members. The Bush administration 
and coalition leaders began to publicly state that Iran was supplying weapons, 
particularly EFP devices, to Iraqi insurgents and militias. Further sanctions on 
Iranian organizations were also announced by the Bush administration in the 
Autumn of 2007. On November 21 2007 Lieutenant General James Dubik, who 
is in charge of training Iraqi security forces, praised Iran for it's "contribution to 
the reduction of violence" in Iraq by upholding it's pledge to stop the flow of 
weapons, explosives and training of extremists in Iraq.

Tensions with Turkey

Border incursions by PKK militants based in Iraqi Kurdistan have continued to 
harass Turkish forces, with casualties on both sides increasing tensions between 
Turkey, a NATO ally, and Iraqi Kurdistan.

 
In the fall of 2007, the Turkish military stated their right to cross the Iraqi 
Kurdistan border in "hot pursuit" of PKK militants and began shelling Kurdish 
villages in Iraq and attacking PKK bases in the Mount Cudi region with aircraft. 
The Turkish parliament approved a resolution permitting the military to pursue the 
PKK in Iraqi Kurdistan. In November, Turkish gunships attacked parts of northern 
Iraq in the first such attack by Turkish aircraft since the border tensions escalated. 
Another series of attacks in mid-December hit PKK targets in the Qandil, Zap, 
Avashin and Hakurk regions. The latest series of attacks involved at least 
50 aircraft and artillery and Kurdish officials reported one civilian killed and two 
wounded.

Additionally, weapons that were originally given to Iraqi security forces by the 
American military are being recovered by authorities in Turkey after being used in 
violent crimes in that country.

Private security firm controversy

On September 17, 2007, the Iraqi government announced that it was 
revoking the license of the American security firm Blackwater USA over the firm's 
involvement in the deaths of eight civilians, including a woman and an infant, in a 
firefight that followed a car bomb explosion near a State Department motorcade. 
Additional investigations of alleged arms smuggling involving the firm was also 
under way. Blackwater is currently one of the most high-profile firms operating in 
Iraq, with around 1,000 employees as well as a fleet of helicopters in the country. 
Whether the group may be legally prosecuted is still a matter of debate.

2008

In early January, the Maliki government began consideration of a new law to 
politically rehabilitate former Baath Party members.









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