Seven years of war in Iraq (39 photos) Bashny.Net

March 20, 2010 passed exactly seven years to the day when the war started in Iraq. On this day in 2003 the US Air Force planes dropped the first bombs on Baghdad. The reason for the start of military operations in Iraq, there was speculation that Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction, but it later turned out that Iraq had no such weapons. Recall that the first bombs fell in the center of Baghdad, where the government buildings and palaces of Saddam Hussein. But the dictator had to flee the city. Three weeks later, US tanks rolled into Baghdad and was appointed interim administration. And on May 1, 2003, President Bush announced the end of hostilities ...



1. 20-year-old Corporal 8 companies of the 1st Marine Division, James Blake Miller of Kentucky, smoking a cigarette. Miller became known as the "Marlboro Man" because of its dispersed on the media photos from the Iraq war. (Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times)



2. Smoke covers the presidential palace in Baghdad on March 21, 2003 after a massive US air raid on the Iraqi capital. (AFP PHOTO / Ramzi HAIDAR)



3. The Iraqi girl crying as he watched the British Challenger tank crushes the headquarters of the Baath Party (Baath) (Odd Anderson / AFP / Getty Images)



4. On 21 March 2003, the south of Iraq. US Marines from the 15th Expeditionary Unit otpaivat Iraqi soldier with water from his canteen. About 200 Iraqi soldiers surrendered to the division within an hour after it came to Iraq from northern Kuwait. (AP Photo / Itsuo Inouye)



5. March 24, 2003. Somewhere in Iraq. Marines from the 3rd Brigade of the 3rd Infantry Corps, jump from the conveyor Bradley and surround the unknown, who behaved suspiciously. In the car, he had found an AK-47 and ammunition. (AP Photo / The Dallas Morning News, David Leeson)



6. Iraqi prisoners of war. According to US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld (Donald H. Rumsfeld), for the first 6 days of the war with Iraq, the American and British armies captured more than 3,500 Iraqis. It is unclear where the prisoners were held - in makeshift camps set up the advancing allied forces, or, as claimed by the command, in a more centralized locations. In the photo, the Iraqi prisoners were associated sit in a pen of barbed wire in anticipation of interrogation, after a fight with a group of 1-64 of the 3rd Infantry Division, March 23, 2003 (Brant Sanderlin / Cox News Service)



7. Lance Corporal Steven Plumer of Arvada (Colo.) Is reading a letter from his mother. This is the first letter which he had received since his squad moved from Kuwait a week ago. With the letter his mother had sent him a box of sweets and a small American flag. (Joe Raedle / Getty Images)



8. April 4, 2003 Lieutenant Jeffrey Goodman and Lance Corporal Jorge Sanchez will drag a wounded civilian from his burning car during the advance of the 2nd Tank Battalion on Baghdad. Civilians were injured, accidentally fell into the thick of battle. (AP Photo, Cheryl Diaz Meyer, Dallas Morning News)



9. April 4th, 2003 When approaching a checkpoint Karbala resident lifts his shirt to show that he was not hiding a weapon. (AP Photo, Dallas Morning News, David Leeson)



10. Soldiers ekspeditsonnyh 3-7 groups 3rd Division (USA) bow their heads in prayer during the service. The compounds of the US Army captured and held near the Baghdad International Airport, while the Allied troops stormed the capital.



11. British paratrooper talks with the Iraqi girl, standing at his post on the main street in Basra. At that time, coalition forces took control of most of this second largest city in the country. (Hyoung Chang / The Denver Post)



12. US Marines burn a portrait of Saddam Hussein. (Chris Hondros / Getty Images)



13. US Army Sergeant Chad Tachett of the 7th infantry company of the 3rd Battalion, center, relax in the company of fellow soldiers after a search in one of the palaces of Saddam Hussein, partially destroyed by bombing. (AP Photo / John Moore)



14. On 7 April 2003 Marines from the 3rd Battalion, urging hurry infantry, which boosts under fire destroyed bridge leading from the southeastern outskirts of Baghdad. (AP Photo / Boston Herald, Kuni Takahashi)



15. Baghdad, April 8, 2003. A wounded Iraqi asks for mercy. For him and his companions opened fire after they did not stop the car at the request of the approach to the tank of the coalition forces. He and his companion in the background received several bullets but survived and received medical treatment; two other men in the car were killed. (Brant Sanderlin / The Atlanta Journal-Consitution via Cox News Service)



16. Corporal Edward Chin of New York City, 4th Company Marines 3rd Battalion, touches the Stars and Stripes at the head of the statue of Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein in central Baghdad, before the overthrow of the monument, April 9, 2003. (AP Photo / Laurent Rebours)



17. April 10, 2003, Baghdad. Relatives mourns the death of three family members. The three men - a father, his teenage son and another relative - were shot by American soldiers on April 9 in the evening, presumably after the car in which they were traveling, did not stop in front of the on-demand, employed by the US military. Relatives of the victims continue to wait for their return, and did not know what had happened until the next day the other members of the family car towed away with their bodies directly to their home. (AP Photo / Carolyn Cole, Los Angeles Times)



18. US Marines of the 24th Expeditionary Unit are on combat duty during the operation. (Chris Hondros / Getty Images)



19. Three Iraqi soldiers are sitting associated with bags over their heads in anticipation of interrogation. (Chris Hondros / Getty Images)



20. Marines arrested an Iraqi prisoner after a brawl in the main square of Tikrit. The city lies 175 km north of Baghdad, the Americans occupied it almost unopposed. (Photo by Marco Di Lauro / Getty Images)



21. Welcome home, neighbor! Jerry Churchill runs with an American flag to greet your neighbor, Lieutenant Colonel Pete Bern, who had just returned home to Parker, with the Iraq war, where he was a pilot on the F-16. Before the war, Byrne was the pilot of American Airlines (American Airlines), but was mobilized in early February of 2003. Now he, along with other 15 pilots returned home to an air base in Buckley (Buckley). Children Jerry are friends and often play together with his two sons Bern. DENVER POST PHOTO BY CYRUS MCCRIMMON



22. A woman cries for missing son, while American soldiers looking for his remains in a mass grave. (Mario Tama / Getty Images)



23. Lieutenant Andrew Karrigen from Boston (Mass.), Corporal Dervik Song of Vauso (Wis.), And Sergeant Steven Paine of Jolo (Rec. Virginia) from the 101st air regiment, do not give yourself bored on Halloween staged a race on donkeys (Joe Raedle / Getty Images)



24. An Iraqi boy Ayad Alim Karim Brissot shows your photo before it happened. US helicopters fired missiles on the field, where he played at the moment, as a result he lost his eyesight and suffered burns (Mauricio Lima / AFP / Getty Images)



25. 31 March 2004. The Iraqi teenager shows a leaflet in broken English that reads: "Fallujah, the graveyard of Americans," standing near the burning car in the rebellious city of Fallujah (Fallujah), 50 km west of Baghdad. Enraged local, armed with shovels, mutilated two charred corpses - presumably invaders caught a hint of the rebels. Residents of the city announced that it will become the graveyard of American occupation troops. AFP PHOTO / Karim SAHIB



26. In this photo, has fallen to the editor "Washington Post" and published on May 6, 2004, US Army Sergeant Linndi England, from the 372nd Military Police Company, mocking prisoners at Abu Ghraib (Abu Ghraib) in Baghdad. (AP Photo / The Washington Post)



27. November 2, 2004 Marines of the 1st Division made a raid on the house of the chairman of the city council in Baghdad's Abu Ghraib prison. During the raid, the soldiers arrested the chairman Nazar-Ba-Sulaana, Rachid Taha and other members of the board. US forces are preparing for a major offensive on Felludzhu, intending to restore the lost control over a number of Sunni villages north-west of Baghdad on the eve of the General People's elections to be held on 31 January. (AP Photo / Anja Niedringhaus)



28. November 14, 2004. Marine from the 1st Division carries his lucky mascot in a backpack behind. His detachment is moving farther and farther to the west side Felludzhi. (AP Photo / Anja Niedringhaus)



29. Five-year Samar Hassan cries of parents killed by the Americans of the 25th Infantry Division. Soldiers patrolled the streets and opened fire on the car in which the family was traveling Samar when she suddenly and unintentionally jumped on them at dusk. (Chris Hondros / Getty Images)



30. David Stibbs, stepfather fallen Lance Corporal Evenor C. Herrera, crying over the helmet stepson. Herrera was killed in Iraq last week during a bomb attack. (Preston Utley / Vail Daily)



31. 30 December 2006. On this video shown by the Iraqi state television, Saddam Hussein's guards with masks on their faces put on a noose around his neck the deposed dictator. After a few seconds Hussein will be executed. Before his execution, he refused to wear a bag on his head and clutching the Koran until until ascended the scaffold in the hour before dawn. So fellow tyrant avenged a quarter century of cruel reign, costing the lives of thousands of people, and Iraq has drawn devastating war with Iran and the United States. (AP Photo / IRAQI TV, HO)



32. Baghdad, February 2007. American soldiers from the 10th Mountain Division winces in pain as medics treated his gunshot wound in his leg. (Chris Hondros / Getty Images)



33. An American soldier and an Iraqi translator buy cheese at a local store. (Joe Raedle / Getty Images)



34. While patrolling Marines are trying to catch the calf untethered. (Joe Raedle / Getty Images)



35. Mary McHugh mourns murdered his fiance, Sergeant James Regan. Regan Marine killed in Iraq by an improvised explosive device in February this year. Sector 60 - a new area of ​​a large cemetery in Washington - was the final resting place of hundreds of US soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan. (John Moore / Getty Images)



36. Adre Castillo hugs his father, Sergeant Guillermo Castillo. Guillermo crippled an improvised explosive device. Twenty US troops were awarded the medal "Purple Heart» (Purple Heart) for the wounded during the war against terrorism (Brendan Smialowski / Getty Images)



37. The Iraqi woman shouts, "Do not shoot!" American soldiers zaderzhavschim her son and husband, who are suspected of having wanted to blow up their colonies. (Alexander Nemenov / AFP / Getty Images)



38. On 11 November 2008, President-elect Obama hugs war veteran Tammy Duckworth in Iraq during the ceremony of laying wreaths to the soldiers' memorial in Chicago. (AP Photo / Pablo Martinez Monsivais)