From Saddam’s execution to the rise and fall of ISIS: Stunning images illustrate America’s two decades in Iraq as final US troops leave today

DAILYMAIL • 52m ago

By PERKIN AMALARAJ, FOREIGN NEWS REPORTER 10:01 30 Sep 2026, updated 10:05 30 Sep 2026

At precisely 5.34am on March 20 2003, US-led coalition forces launched the surprise military invasion of Iraq with no fanfare or warning.

That fateful day saw the first wave of hundreds of thousands of soldiers, including 45,000 British troops, flood into the nation, then run by notorious dictator Saddam Hussein.

The war, which ran for nearly nine years, resulted in the death of nearly 5,000 members of the coalition, including 179 British troops. The total number of people, civilian and military, killed during the war is unknown, but many believe it to be in the hundreds of thousands.

Then-US president George W. Bush, aided by British PM Sir Tony Blair, falsely claimed on the world stage that the dictator not only had weapons of mass destruction, but that he had been supporting al-Qaeda in the lead-up to the September 11 attacks.

The US and UK convinced their allies that these were reason enough to depose the autocrat and liberate the people of Iraq.

Following Saddam Hussein’s defeat and subsequent execution, the US went on to occupy the country, install a Shi’ite-led government and fight a years-long counterinsurgency before formally withdrawing at the end of 2011.

They returned less than three years later to help Iraqi forces defeat the Islamic State in a major war from 2014 to 2017.

Now, more than two decades on, the last American troops are pulling out from their last bases in the country.

But many fear this withdrawal will be a boon to neighbouring Iran and its allies, who have cultivated deep influence in the country.

Iraqi security experts say the withdrawal – agreed in 2024 under President Joe Biden and carried out by Donald Trump’s administration even as it wages war against Iran – could give Tehran and its powerful allies free rein, while also allowing other US enemies to stage a comeback, including Islamic State.

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