In Pictures

Gallery|The Iraq War: 20 years on

Photos: Iconic images from the Iraq War

The war, and the occupation that followed, changed the course of history in Iraq and the wider region.

Iraq Anniversary
An Iraqi girl holds her sister as she waits for her mother to bring over food she is buying, in Basra on March 29, 2003. [Jerry Lampen/Reuters]
Published On 20 Mar 2023

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Twenty years ago on this day, a US-led ground invasion of Iraq began.

Death and destruction quickly became a common sight in the country.

The war caused the deaths of more than 200,000 Iraqi civilians and 4,500 US soldiers and cost trillions of dollars.

Chaos and instability gripped the whole region as a result of the invasion.

Here are some of the most iconic images from the war and the occupation that followed.

Iraq Anniversary
An Iraqi prisoner of war comforts his four-year-old son at a camp for prisoners of war captured by US soldiers near Najaf, Iraq on March 31, 2003. The man was seized in Najaf with his son. [Jean-Marc Bouju/AP Photo]
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A statue of Iraq's President Saddam Hussein falls as it is pulled down in central Baghdad
A statue of Iraq's President Saddam Hussein falls as it is pulled down in central Baghdad April 9, 2003. [Goran Tomasevic/Reuters]
Iraq Anniversary
A looter rests on a fountain in the lobby of a smoke-filled Sheraton hotel in Basra, Iraq on April 7, 2003. People ransacked the burning hotel after rocket-propelled grenades struck it, according to British forces. [David Guttenfelder/AP Photo]
Iraq Anniversary
Piles of torn and burned Iraqi currency bearing the portrait of Saddam Hussein lie in ashes on the floor of the burned Baghdad Central Bank on Friday, April 18, 2003. [David Guttenfelder/AP Photo]
Iraq Anniversary
A US soldier aims his weapon at a man who a soldier had just shot in the neck as he attempted to flee down a narrow alley in a van, in Mosul, Iraq on July 23, 2003. [Wally Santana/AP Photo]
Iraq Anniversary
A US soldier and Iraqi policeman search a room as an Iraqi child lies sleeping on the bed during a joint raid by the US army and Iraqi police in Tikrit, about 180km (110 miles) northwest of Baghdad on September 29, 2003, while searching for Saddam Hussein loyalists. [Arko Datta/Reuters]
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Iraq Anniversary
A detained Iraqi man with a plastic bag covering his head sits in the garden of a house being searched by US soldiers during a night raid in Tikrit, October 30, 2003. [Damir Sagolj/Reuters]
Iraq Anniversary
Demonstrators chant anti-American slogans as charred and mutilated bodies of US contractors hang from a bridge over the Euphrates River in Falluja, west of Baghdad, on March 31, 2004. [Khalid Mohammed/AP Photo]
Iraq Anniversary
An Iraqi man celebrates on top of a burning US Army Humvee in northern Baghdad on April 26, 2004. [Muhammed Muheisen/AP Photo]
Iraq Anniversary
A detainee in an outdoor solitary confinement cell talks to a military policeman at the Abu Ghraib prison on the outskirts of Baghdad, Iraq on June 22, 2004. [John Moore/AP Photo]
Iraq Anniversary
A woman cries in the stairwell of her home as US soldiers carry out house-to-house searches near Martyrs' Square in Baghdad, Iraq on July 7, 2004. [David Guttenfelder/AP Photo]
Iraq Anniversary
Mays, a young Iraqi girl, cries after a mortar shell that landed outside the family's home in a Najaf residential area injured her uncle, on August 18, 2004. [Ali Jasim/Reuters]
Iraq Anniversary
US army nurse supervisor Patrick McAndrew gives an American soldier CPR on a stretcher as he arrived at a military hospital in Baghdad on November 9, 2004. The soldier was fatally wounded in a firefight. [John Moore/AP Photo]
Iraq Anniversary
A man looks at his wife and baby as he is searched by US soldiers at a traffic checkpoint in Baghdad, March 15, 2005. [Bob Strong/Reuters]
Iraq Anniversary
A British soldier jumps from a burning tank which was set ablaze after a shooting incident in the southern Iraqi city of Basra, September 19, 2005. Angry crowds attacked a British tank with petrol bombs and rocks after Iraqi authorities said they had detained two British undercover soldiers in the southern city for firing on police. [Atef Hassan/Reuters]
Iraq Anniversary
An Iraqi man suspected of having explosives in his car is held after being arrested by the US army near Baquba on October 15, 2005. [Jorge Silva/Reuters]
Iraq Anniversary
Former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein argues with prosecutors while testifying during cross-examination at his trial in Baghdad's Green Zone, April 5, 2006. [David Furst/Pool/Reuters]
Iraq Anniversary
A man runs down a street, warning people to flee shortly after a twin car bomb attack at Shorja market in Baghdad, February 12, 2007. [Ceerwan Aziz/Reuters]
Iraq Anniversary
US soldiers blindfold an Iraqi man after arresting him during a night patrol at the Zafraniya neighbourhood, southeast of Baghdad on September 4, 2007. [Carlos Barria/Reuters]
Iraq Anniversary
An Iraqi man unbuttons his shirt as US soldiers point their laser sights on him during an operation near Baiji oil refinery, December 24, 2007. [Bob Strong/Reuters]
Iraq Anniversary
An Iraqi baby lies in a cradle while a woman argues with US soldiers searching for weapons, explosives and information about militants in the area during a foot patrol in neighbourhoods of Mosul, June 26, 2008. [Eduardo Munoz/Reuters]
Iraq Anniversary
An Iraqi woman reacts as men are taken out of a house and detained by US and Iraqi soldiers during a joint military operation in Baghdad's Sadr City, July 12, 2008. [Damir Sagolj/Reuters]
Iraq Anniversary
An Iraqi man holds his hands up as US soldiers and Iraqi special police search his house for weapons in Baquba, in Diyala province about an hour northeast of Baghdad, October 26, 2008. [Goran Tomasevic/Reuters]