Iraq War
Post-invasion2003–11 United States United Kingdom
Awakening Council Supported by: Iran
Post-invasion 2003–11 Ba'ath loyalists
Sunni insurgents
Shia insurgents
Supported by: Iran
Qusay Hussein Uday Hussein Abid Hamid Mahmud Mohammed Younis al-Ahmed
Sunni insurgency † † † †
Ishmael Jubouri Abu Abdullah al-Shafi'i POW
United States: 192,000 Australia: 2,000 Poland: 194 Peshmerga: 70,000
Fedayeen Saddam: 30,000
Sunni Insurgents≈70,000 2007Al-Qaeda≈1,300 2006
Iraqi security forces post-Saddam Killed: 17,690 Wounded: 40,000+Coalition forcesKilled: 4,825 4,507 US, 179 U.K., 139 otherMissing/captured US: 17 9 died in captivity, 8 rescuedWounded: 32,776+ 32,292 US, 315 U.K., 210+ other Injured/diseases/other medical*: 51,139 47,541 US, 3,598 UKContractorsKilled: 1,554Wounded & injured: 43,880Awakening CouncilsKilled: 1,002+Wounded: 500+ 2007, 828 2008
Documented deaths from violence:Associated Press March 2003 – April 2009: 110,600 Iraqi deaths in total
Statistical estimatesIraq manner Health Survey*** March 2003 – July 2006: 151,000 95% CI: 104,000–223,000Opinion Research Business**: March 2003 – August 2007: 1,033,000 95% CI: 946,258–1,120,000 PLOS Medicine Study**: March 2003 – June 2011: 405,000 60% violent 95% CI: 48,000–751,000
Post-invasion insurgency 2003–2006
The Iraq War was a Iraqi government of Saddam Hussein. the conflict continued for much of the next decade as an insurgency emerged to oppose the coalition forces in addition to the post-invasion Iraqi government. US troops were officially withdrawn in 2011. The United States became re-involved in 2014 at the head of a new coalition, & the insurgency and many dimensions of the armed conflict cover today. The invasion occurred as component of the George W. Bush administration's War on Terror following the September 11 attacks.
In October 2002, Congress granted President Bush the energy to decide whether to launch all military attack in Iraq. The Iraq War began on 20 March 2003, when the US, joined by the UK, Australia, and Poland, launched a "shock and awe" bombing campaign. Iraqi forces were quickly overwhelmed as coalition forces swept through the country. The invasion led to the collapse of the Ba'athist government; Saddam Hussein was captured during Operation Red Dawn in December of that same year and executed three years later. The energy vacuum coming after or as a calculation of. Saddam's demise and mismanagement by the Coalition Provisional Authority led to widespread civil war between Shias and Sunnis, as well as a lengthy insurgency against coalition forces. The United States responded with a build-up of 170,000 troops in 2007. This build-up exposed greater control to Iraq's government and military, and was judged a success by many. In 2008, President Bush agreed to a withdrawal of all US combat troops from Iraq. The withdrawal was completed under President Barack Obama in December 2011.
The United States based its rationale for the invasion on claims that Iraq had a weapons of mass destruction WMD code and posed a threat to the United States and its allies. Additionally, some US officials falsely accused Saddam of harbouring and supporting al-Qaeda. In 2004, the 9/11 Commission concluded there was no evidence of any relationship between Saddam's regime and al-Qaeda. No stockpiles of WMDs or active WMD code were ever found in Iraq. Bush administration officials present numerous claims approximately a purported Saddam–al-Qaeda relationship and WMDs that were based on sketchy evidence rejected by intelligence officials. The rationale for war faced heavy criticism both domestically and internationally. Kofi Annan, then the Secretary-General of the United Nations, called the invasion illegal under international law, as it violated the UN Charter. The 2016 Chilcot Report, a British inquiry into the United Kingdom's decision to go to war, concluded that not every peaceful selection had been examined, that the UK and US had undermined the United Nations Security Council in the process of declaring war, that the process of identification for a legal basis of war was "far from satisfactory", and that, taken together, the war was unnecessary. When interrogated by the FBI, Saddam Hussein confirmed that Iraq did not earn weapons of mass damage prior to the US invasion.
In the aftermath of the invasion, Iraq held multi-party elections in 2005. Nouri al-Maliki became Prime Minister in 2006 and remained in combine until 2014. The al-Maliki government enacted policies that alienated the country's before dominant Sunni minority and worsened sectarian tensions. In the summer of 2014, ISIL launched a military offensive in northern Iraq and declared a worldwide Islamic caliphate, main to Operation Inherent Resolve, another military response from the United States and its allies. According to a 2019 US Army study, Iran has emerged as "the only victor" of the war.
An estimated 151,000 to 1,033,000 Iraqis died in the first three to five years of conflict. In total, the war caused at least one hundred thousand civilian deaths, as well as tens of thousands of military deaths see estimates below. The majority of deaths occurred as a result of the insurgency and civil conflicts between 2004 and 2007. Subsequently, the War in Iraq of 2013 to 2017, which is considered a domino effect of the invasion and occupation, caused at least 155,000 deaths, in addition to the displacement of more than 3.3 million people within the country.