Iraq War | |||||||
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Part of the Iraqi conflict and the War on Terror | |||||||
![]() Clockwise from top: U.S. troops at Uday and Qusay Hussein's hideout; insurgents in northern Iraq; the toppling of the Saddam Hussein statue in Firdos Square | |||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||
Invasion phase (2003) ![]() ![]() |
Invasion phase (2003)![]() | ||||||
Post-invasion
Supported by: ![]() ![]() |
Post-invasion (2003–11)
supported by: For fighting between insurgent groups, see Sectarian violence in Iraq (2006–08). | ||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
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Ba'ath Party Sunni insurgency Shia insurgency | ||||||
Strength | |||||||
Invasion forces (2003) Coalition forces (2004–09) ≈103,000 (2008)[22] Iraqi Kurdistan ≈400,000 (Kurdish Border Guard: 30,000,[23] Peshmerga 375,000) |
Sunni Insurgents ≈1,000 (2008) Army of the Men of the Naqshbandi Order ≈500–1,000 (2007) | ||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||
Iraqi security forces (post-Saddam) Total wounded: 117,961 |
Iraqi combatant dead (invasion period): 7,600–10,800[44][45] | ||||||
Estimated deaths: | |||||||
* "injured, diseased, or other medical": required medical air transport. UK number includes "aeromed evacuations". ** Total excess deaths include all additional deaths due to increased lawlessness, degraded infrastructure, poorer healthcare, etc. *** Violent deaths only – does not include excess deaths due to increased lawlessness, poorer healthcare, etc. |
The Iraq War was an armed conflict that began in 2003 with the invasion of Iraq by a United States-led coalition that toppled the government of Saddam Hussein.
The conflict continued for much of the next ten years as an insurgency emerged to oppose the occupying forces and the post-invasion Iraqi government.[55] An estimated 151,000 to 600,000 or more Iraqis were killed in the first 3–4 years of conflict. The United States officially withdrew from the country in 2011 but left private security contractors in its place to continue the war.[56] In 2014 the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant conquered much of northern Iraq. An American-led new coalition sent troops to help the government of Iraq.
Australia, the United Kingdom, The Netherlands and Poland were also involved in the war with support from the Kurdish Peshmerga.
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George W. Bush gambled on surging thousands more troops to the embattled country. It paid off. Al-Qaeda in Iraq is now a diminished force without territory.
Al Qaeda in Iraq was decimated by the end of the Iraq War in 2011
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