The Indian Express | 1 week ago | 19-03-2023 | 01:45 pm
Iraq marks the 20th anniversary on Monday of the American-led invasion that toppled dictator Saddam Hussein, beginning a years-long conflict that resulted in the deaths of lakhs of people, including civilians and defence personnel.It was on March 20, 2003, that then United States President George W Bush announced that the US forces have begun a military operation in Iraq to “free the Iraqi people from Saddam Hussein, a dictator whose rule kept 20 million people in fear for a quarter-century”.20 years after the invasion, the ruins of the violent days are still very much visible in the west-Asian country. In a recent report, titled “20 years after US invasion, Iraq is a freer place, but not a hopeful one”, which it prepared after conversing with more than 50 Iraqis, The New York Times states that despite being an oil-rich nation that should be doing well, Iraqis neither feel secure nor see their government as anything but a corruption machine.Here’s a timeline of some key events from the invasion and the following developments:🔴 March 20, 2003: The invasion is launched, and Baghdad is attacked with missiles and bombs in an attempt to target Saddam Hussein and bring down the government. According to the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), an American think tank specialising in international relations, President George W Bush announced on that day: “These are opening stages of what will be a broad and concerted campaign.” However, the initial effort to “decapitate” Iraq’s leadership with air strikes fails, clearing the way for a ground invasion.🔴 April 9, 2003: American troops storm Baghdad, and the statue of Saddam is toppled in Firdous Square in a symbolic collapse of his government.🔴 May 1, 2003: US President George W Bush declares an end to major combat operations in Iraq.🔴 May 23, 2003: After two weeks on the job, L Paul Bremer III, head of the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq, signs an order disbanding the Iraqi army and intelligence services, sending hundreds of thousands of well-armed men into the streets.🔴 June 22, 2003: US troops kill Saddam’s sons, Uday and Qusay, during a raid in the northern city of Mosul.🔴 August 2003: Initial hopes for peace recede. An anti-coalition insurgency begins in earnest. Attacks include a car bombing of the Jordanian embassy; a truck bomb that demolishes the United Nations headquarters in Baghdad and kills top UN envoy Sergio Vieira de Mello; and the bombing of a Najaf shrine that kills more than 85 people, including Shiite leader Ayatollah Mohammed Baqir al-Hakim.🔴 December 14, 2003: Saddam is captured in an underground hideout near Tikrit.🔴 March 2004: Violent resistance to the US presence intensifies. Four security contractors are ambushed and killed in Fallujah, prompting a battle for the insurgent-dominated city west of Baghdad. Al-Qaeda in Iraq, a militant Sunni movement that attracts some of Saddam’s former Baathist security forces, leads the insurgency.🔴 April-August 2004: Clashes emerge between US-led coalition forces and followers of Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, who demands that foreign forces leave Iraq.🔴 September 8, 2004: With Iraq’s national elections approaching, fifteen thousand US and Iraqi service members assault the insurgent stronghold of Fallujah in central Iraq. The fighting is successful but costly. 38 US troops die, along with six Iraqi soldiers. The Pentagon estimates 1,200 insurgents are killed, and the Red Cross says eight hundred Iraqi civilians are also among the dead.🔴 October 2004: US arms inspector David Kay reports his team has found no evidence of stockpiled weapons of mass destruction.🔴 November 2004: Following the failure of the first US campaign for Fallujah, a second battle destroys much of the city but leaves the US in control.🔴 January 2005: Iraqis select a new parliament in the first elections since the fall of Saddam. Shiite and Kurdish parties take an overwhelming majority after Sunnis largely boycotted.🔴 December 2005: Fighting takes on the character of a sectarian civil war between Shiites and Sunnis, with ethnic cleansing, killings and terror attacks in mixed neighbourhoods. The death toll mounts around the country over the next two years among insurgents, coalition forces and Iraqi civilians.🔴 April 22, 2006: December 2005 elections bring the Shiite United Iraqi Alliance into power, and in April 2006, the party names Nouri al-Maliki prime minister.🔴 June 8, 2006: AQI leader Zarqawi is killed in a US-led air strike near Baquba.🔴 November 5, 2006: The trial of Iraq’s former dictator ends with a sentence of death by hanging.🔴 December 30, 2006: The Iraqi government releases an official video of Saddam Hussein’s execution, showing him being led to the gallows clutching a Quran.🔴 January 2007: After enlisting sympathetic Sunni tribal leaders to oppose the anti-coalition insurgency in the so-called Sunni Awakening, President Bush orders a surge of 30,000 US troops to contain the spreading violence.🔴 Late 2008: After a year of escalating chaos, coalition forces begin to root out both al-Qaida and Shiite militias opposing the elected government. Barack Obama is elected US President on a promise to withdraw US forces.🔴 December 2010: After much political turmoil, Shiite politician Nouri al-Maliki wins second term as prime minister, supported by al-Sadr.🔴 December 2011: The last US troops leave Iraq, turning responsibility for security over to the Iraqi army and police.🔴 2013-2018: From the remnants of Al-Qaeda in Iraq, a new terrorist force emerges. The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria breaks Sunni militants out of prisons and mounts a battle to establish a worldwide Islamic State caliphate based in Syria. In Iraq, the Islamic State group takes over Mosul, Fallujah, Tikrit and Ramadi with lightning speed, ultimately controlling about 40 per cent of the country. A US bombing campaign, special forces operations and Shiite militias allied with Iran turn back the tide. Islamic State group is evicted from strongholds in northern Iraq and in Syria, although skirmishes continue in remote areas.🔴 October 2019-January 2020: With the battle against the Islamic State group mostly ended, Iraqi public dissatisfaction boils over with anti-government protests against rampant corruption, poor services and unemployment erupting in Baghdad and the predominantly Shiite south. The demonstrations draw young men and women who camp out alongside each other, a rare occurrence in the conservative, majority-Muslim country.🔴 Jan. 3, 2020: The US assassinates top Iranian Gen. Qassim Soleimani, head of the Quds Force expeditionary forces, in a drone strike near the Baghdad airport. Iraqi militia commander Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis also is killed in the attack, bringing tensions between the US and Iraq to a fever pitch, and later fragmenting rival Shiite camps.🔴 October 2022: After a year of political stalemate following the 2021 elections, the Shiite-dominated parliament chooses Kurdish leader Abdul Latif Rashid as president. He nominates Shiite politician Mohammed Shia al-Sudani as prime minister. Al-Sudani forms a government, promising to fight corruption and improve living standards.(With inputs from The New York Times, Associated Press and the Council on Foreign Relations)
Share:
Tagged: |
