26 Pictures From The Early Days Of The Iraq War – BuzzFeed News
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An Iraqi man holds a flag during a march in defiance of US threats to invade Iraq, on Feb. 4, 2003, in the city of Mosul. Thousands of men and women in military fatigues and carrying assault rifles chanted, No peace, no surrender.
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Joe Raedle / Getty Images
Lt. Col. Rickey Grabowski addresses the US Marines of Task Force Tarawa in the northern desert of Kuwait at Camp Shoup on March 19, 2003, the day before their move north to invade Iraq.
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Pool / Getty Images
President George W. Bush meets with US House leaders to brief them on his upcoming speech on Iraq, at the White House on March 17, 2003. From left to right: House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, US House Speaker Dennis Hastert, Bush, and National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice. Bush had given Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein 48 hours to flee the country or face invasion.
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Ramzi Haidar / AFP / Getty Images
Smoke covers the presidential palace compound in Baghdad on March 21, 2003, during a massive US-led air raid on the Iraqi capital. The invasion plunged the country into a deadly insurgency despite a sweeping political transformation.
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Marco Di Lauro / Getty Images
US missiles hit Baghdad on March 21, 2003.
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Patrick Baz / AFP / Getty Images
Iraqis carry an injured employee at the al-Salhiya telecommunications center after it was hit by a missile during a coalition air raid in Baghdad.
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Eric Feferberg / AFP / Getty Images
US Marines from the 2nd Battalion, 8th Regiment, wake up in a mud field after heavy sandstorms early in the morning of March 26, 2003, in Nasiriyah, about 300 kilometers south of Baghdad.
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Joe Raedle / Getty Images
A US Marine from Task Force Tarawa patrols a wheat field in search of enemy combatants or stockpiles of weapons on March 31, 2003, in the southern Iraqi city of Nasiriyah, site of one of the bloodiest battles so far of the war.
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Getty Images
A man is taken out of an ambulance at a hospital after a weapons cache exploded injuring dozens of people on April 14, 2003, in a part of Baghdad. While parts of the capital were still reeling from fighting and looting, other parts of the city began to show signs of normalcy as people rode buses, shopped in markets, and went on with everyday life.
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Ramzi Haidar / AFP / Getty Images
Fifteen-year-old Ali Isamil is comforted by his grandmother in a Baghdad hospital on April 3, 2003. Ismail suffered fourth-degree burns and had both arms amputated as a result of the coalition bombing of the Diala bridge area, which killed six members of his family.
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Scott Nelson / Getty Images
US Army 3rd Division 3-7 Infantry Lt. Mike Washburn (kneeling), from Yorktown, Virginia, orders an Iraqi woman to the ground so she can be searched during a search and destroy mission March 27, 2003, near the town of An Najaf, Iraq. The 3rd Infantry Division continued to push further north into Iraq but were hampered by pro-Saddam militiamen carrying out ambushes and attacks using small arms and rocket-propelled grenades.
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Odd Andersen / AFP / Getty Images
US soldiers arrest a suspected Iraqi soldier at a checkpoint in the southern Iraqi port of Umm Qasr on April 5, 2003.
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Cris Bouroncle / AFP / Getty Images
US Marines from the 2nd Battalion, 8th Regiment, emerge from a building on March 25, 2003, during the takeover of a hospital allegedly used for military purposes by Iraqi forces at the outskirts of the southern Iraqi city of Nasiriyah.
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Odd Andersen / AFP / Getty Images
British soldiers advance toward central Basra April 7, 2003.
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Sean Smith / Getty Images
A dead body is abandoned on a table outside a hospital in Baghdad on April 11, 2003. Lack of water and electricity and poor security left the Baghdad hospital system in a state of collapse after the US invasion.
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Alex Wong / Getty Images
Callie Gates (left) of Boston and Amelia Rutter of Minneapolis sing during an anti-war candlelight vigil at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC on March 16, 2003, the same day President George W. Bush met with British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar for a summit on Iraq.
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Photofusion / Getty Images
A vigil outside English Parliament during an Iraq debate and vote by MPs in London on March 18, 2003.
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Greg Wood / AFP / Getty Images
Workers begin to clean up a No War slogan painted on the Concert Hall sail of the Sydney Opera House on March 18, 2003. Two anti-war protesters were arrested after they scaled the building to paint the slogan, which remained clearly visible as Australian Prime Minister John Howard announced his countrys decision to commit to a US-led invasion of Iraq.
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Getty Images
Iraqi National Museum Deputy Director Mushin Hasan holds his head in his hands as he sits on destroyed artifacts in Baghdad on April 13, 2003, after the museum had been severely looted in recent days.
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Romeo Gacad / AFP / Getty Images
US Army Sgt. Craig Zentkovich photographs a pink bedroom at Saddam Husseins presidential palace on April 13, 2003.
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Patrick Baz / AFP / Getty Images
A US Army Ranger displays gold- and silver-plated Kalashnikov rifles belonging to Uday, the eldest late son of Saddam Hussein, found at his mothers residence in Baghdads main presidential place on April 16, 2003.
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Rick Loomis / Getty Images
A US Army solider attempts to pet a cheetah after it and several other animals were left behind when members of the Iraqi regime fled the Presidential Palace complex area during the US invasion. Most of the animals appeared to be undernourished and in poor health.
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Chris Hondros / Getty Images
A US Marine pulls down a poster of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein on March 21, 2003, in Safwan, Iraq. Chaos reigned in southern Iraq as coalition troops continued their offensive to remove Iraqs leader from power.
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Ramzi Haidar / AFP / Getty Images
A US Marine covers the face of Iraqi President Saddam Husseins statue with the US flag in Baghdads al-Fardous square on April 9, 2003. The toppling of the statue was immediately seized on as symbolizing the overthrow of one of the worlds most notorious despots.
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Getty Images
On April 7, 2003, US Marines carry the body of Marine Lance Cpl. Jose Gutierrez, one of the first Americans killed in the US-led Operation Iraqi Freedom on March 21. Gutierrez came to the U.S. as an undocumented immigrant from his native Guatemala and was posthumously made a citizen of the US.
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Stephen Jaffe / AFP / Getty Images
President George W. Bush addresses the nation aboard the nuclear aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, before a large Mission Accomplished banner, on May 1, 2003.
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26 Pictures From The Early Days Of The Iraq War
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26 Pictures From The Early Days Of The Iraq War - BuzzFeed News
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- Group warns Iraq could face dust on 300 days a year within a decade - 964media - September 20th, 2026 [September 20th, 2026]
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- French jihadists held in Iraq set to be tried from Sunday - Le Monde.fr - September 20th, 2026 [September 20th, 2026]
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- EBRD and EU boost trade finance in Iraq - EBRD - September 20th, 2026 [September 20th, 2026]
- The United States will withdraw its remaining troops from Iraq by September 30, but pro-Iranian groups are refusing to disarm - () - September 20th, 2026 [September 20th, 2026]
- From the archives: SHeDAISY honors amputee vets of Iraq, 2004 - stripes.com - September 20th, 2026 [September 20th, 2026]
- Shafaq News..ISIS attack brings security sweep in western Iraq - - September 20th, 2026 [September 20th, 2026]
- Iraq Says Coalition Missions End Will Mark New Phase of Sovereignty - The Diplomatic Insight - September 20th, 2026 [September 20th, 2026]
- Energy Crisis in Syria, Iraq, Kurdistan Region and Turkey - - September 20th, 2026 [September 20th, 2026]
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- People practice archery at Al-Zawraa Park in Baghdad, Iraq - Xinhua - September 15th, 2026 [September 15th, 2026]
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