Battle of Baghdad (2003)

2003 Battle of Baghdad
Part of the 2003 invasion of Iraq
U.S. Marine Corps M1 Abrams tank destroyed by Iraqi infantry on April 5, 2003.
Date April 3, 2003 – April 12, 2003 Location Baghdad, Iraq Result Decisive American victory, Fall of Ba'ath Party
Belligerents
Iraqi Army Republican Guard Special Republican Guard Fedayeen Saddam	United States Army United States Marine Corps United States Air Force
Strength
45,000	30,000
Casualties and losses
2,320 killed	34 killed

The Battle of Baghdad was a military invasion of Baghdad that took place in early April 2003, as part of the invasion of Iraq.

Three weeks into the invasion of Iraq, Coalition Forces Land Component Command elements, led by the U.S. Army 3rd Infantry Division moved into Baghdad. The United States declared victory on April 14, and President George W. Bush gave a Mission Accomplished Speech on May 1.

Baghdad suffered serious damage to its civilian infrastructure, economy, and cultural inheritance from its bombing and invasion, as well as looting and arson. During the invasion, the Al-Yarmouk Hospital in south Baghdad saw a steady rate of about 100 new patients an hour.

Several thousand Iraqi soldiers were killed in the battle, and a very small number of coalition forces. After the fall of Baghdad, Coalition forces entered the city of Kirkuk on April 10 and Tikrit on April 15, 2003.

Preparation

Main article: 2003 invasion of Iraq

NASA Landsat 7 image of Baghdad, April 2, 2003. The dark streaks are smoke from oil well fires set in an attempt to hinder attacking air forces.

Limited bombing began on March 19, 2003 as United States forces unsuccessfully attempted to kill Saddam Hussein. Attacks continued against a small number of targets until March 21, 2003, when, at 1700 UTC, the main bombing campaign of the US and their allies began. Its forces launched approximately 1700 air sorties (504 using cruise missiles). The invasion of the city commenced three days after Allied forces had secured the Baghdad airport.

U.S. officials said that their forces fought skirmishes there with Iraq's Special Republican Guard, with two task forces going up to the Tigris river from the southern outskirts of the city before moving west towards the airport. Major General Victor Renuart said the intention was to indicate to the Iraqi leader that coalition forces could move in and out of Baghdad whenever they wished. The Guardian reported that U.S. forces occupied two "presidential palaces". The Army also surrounded the Information Ministry and other key government installations for a while.

On March 24, retired US Army general Barry McCaffrey, told BBC Newsnight : "If [the Iraqis] actually fight, clearly it's going to be brutal, dangerous work and we could take, bluntly, a couple to 3,000 casualties"

Forces

The invasion of Baghdad of was led by the United States Army's 3rd Infantry Division and the United States Marine Corps' 1st Marine Division, equipped with M1 Abrams tanks, Bradley Fighting Vehicles and M113 armored personnel carriers. These forces along with American and British aircraft, including B-52s, Harrier GR7 attack jets and A10 Warthogs, went against the Iraqi Special Republican Guard, of 36,000 soldiers protected in sprawling bunkers 30 miles outside Baghdad, using Russian-built T-72 tanks and heavy artillery.

Non-Iraqi volunteer fighters were involved in combat in streets in the Aadhamiya district, the nearby Waziriya district, and the Mansur district west of the Tigris river, close to the Iraqi intelligence service headquarters.

Aerial bombing

At the time of invasion, Allied aircraft are making bombing runs on Baghdad at the rate of 1,000 sorties a day, most of them aimed at the Republican Guard and Special Republican Guard. U.S. planes also dropped about 200,000 leaflets warning civilians to stay in their homes. An American Black Hawk helicopter was shot down near Karbala, and a United States Navy F/A-18C Hornet was shot down near Baghdad.

Baghdad airport

Further information: Muhammad Saeed al-Sahhaf

The entrance when the airport was called Saddam International Airport

On April 5 Task Force 1-64 Armor of the U.S. Army's 3rd Infantry Division executed a raid, later called the "Thunder Run", to test remaining Iraqi defenses, with 29 tanks and 14 Bradley Armored Fighting Vehicles advancing to the Baghdad airport. They met heavy resistance, but were successful in reaching the airport. Soldiers of the task force faced heavy fighting in the airport, and were even temporarily pushed out, but eventually took control of the airport.

On April 4, U.S. Army soldiers seized the city's airport on the southwestern edge of the city. The day after, the U.S. sent limited tank raids into the heart of Baghdad. Here American soldiers battled Iraqi forces in heavy street fighting.

Tharthar Palace

On April 7, U.S. troops took control of a major presidential palace along the Tigris river. It had been hoped that leaders of the regime would be found in the complex, located near Saddam Hussein's home town of Tikrit. American commanders on the ground said that they would remain in the city center rather than retreat to the outskirts as they had done previously.

Within hours of a palace seizure and with television coverage of this spreading through Iraq, U.S. forces ordered Iraqi forces within Baghdad to surrender, or the city would face a full-scale assault. Iraqi government officials had either disappeared or had conceded defeat.

Looting

As the American forces secured control of the capital, Iraqi civilians immediately began looting the palaces, as well as government offices. At the Yarmuk Hospital, not only all beds, but all medical equipment was stolen. One other hospital managed to keep on functioning in a manner by organizing local civilians as armed guards.

Serious looting was described at National Museum of Iraq, and the Saddam Arts Center, the University of Baghdad, three five-star hotels: the Al-Rashid, the Al-Mansour and Babel Hotel, state-owned supermarkets, many embassies, and state-owned factories.

At the National Museum of Iraq, which had been a virtual repository of treasures from the ancient Mesopotamian cultures as well as early Islamic culture, many of the 170,000 irreplaceable artifacts were either stolen or broken (partially found safe and well later). On April 14, the Iraq National Library and National Archives were burned down, destroying thousands of manuscripts from civilizations dating back as far as 7,000 years.

Within eight days following the 2003 invasion, only 35 of the 700 animals in the Baghdad Zoo survived. This was a result of theft of some animals for human food, and starvation of caged animals that had no food or water. Survivors included larger animals like lions, tigers, and bears. Notwithstanding the chaos brought by the invasion, South African Lawrence Anthony and some of the zoo keepers cared for the animals and fed the carnivores with donkeys they had bought locally.

Political control

File:SaddamBaghdadwalkabout-1-.jpg

Saddam Hussein, walking in an area of Baghdad on the same day of the fall of the statue

As the U.S. forces were occupying the Republican Palace and other central landmarks and ministries on April 9, Saddam Hussein had emerged from his command bunker beneath the Al A'Zamiyah district of northern Baghdad, and greeted excited members of the local public. This impromptu walkabout was probably his last and his reasons for doing so are still unclear. It is possible that he wished to take what he thought might be his last opportunity to greet his people as their president. The walkabout was captured on film and broadcast several days after the event on Al-Arabia Television and was also witnessed by ordinary people who corroborated the date afterwards. He was accompanied by bodyguards and other loyal supporters including at least one of his sons and his personal secretary. After the walkabout Hussein returned to his bunker and made preparations for his family.

On April 9, 2003, Baghdad was formally occupied by Coalition forces. Much of Baghdad remained unsecured however, and fighting continued within the city and its outskirts well into the period of occupation. Saddam had vanished, and his whereabouts were unknown.

Many Iraqis celebrated the downfall of Saddam by vandalizing the many portraits and statues of him together with other pieces of his cult of personality. One widely publicized event was the dramatic toppling of a large statue of Saddam in Baghdad's Fardus Square. This attracted considerable media coverage at the time.

Firdos Square statue destruction

Main article: Firdos Square statue destruction

Before a conglomerate of international press (and small crowd of around 100 U.S.-supported Iraqi militia ), a 20-foot tall statue of Saddam in Firdus Square was toppled by an U.S. Marine Corps M88 armored recovery vehicle. Initially, a Marine corporal named Edward Chin of the 3rd Battalion, 4th Marines Regiment placed a United States flag on the statue's head, though it was replaced with an Iraqi flag. Various other symbols of the president's personality cult were defaced.

Search for Hussein

The Americans had meanwhile started receiving rumors that Saddam was in Al A'Zamiyah and at dawn on April 10, they dispatched three companies of U.S. Marines to capture him. The marines fought a fierce four-hour battle at a Baghdad mosque where senior Iraqi leaders had been thought to be holed up, as American warplanes attacked areas of the city under the control of Iraqi fighters. "We had information that a group of regime leadership was attempting to organize...a meeting. The fighting in and around the mosque complex could not be avoided as enemy forces were firing from the area of the mosque." said Navy captain Frank Thorp. Marines came under fire from rocket-propelled grenades, mortars and assault rifles. One marine was killed and more than 20 were wounded, but neither Saddam nor any of his aides were found.

Reporting

Black Hawk helicopters from the 2nd Brigade, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) move into an Iraqi city during an operation to occupy the city, April 5.

Iraq, which had no free press, initially issued a statement contradicting western reporters' accounts of the invasion. Muhammed Saeed al-Sahaf, head of the Information Ministry, told a press conference on April 7 that there were no U.S. troops in Baghdad, saying: "Their infidels are committing suicide by the hundreds on the gates of Baghdad. Be assured, Baghdad is safe, protected. Iraqis are heroes."

On April 8, two American air to surface missiles hit Al Jazeera's office in Baghdad and kill a reporter and wound a cameraman. The nearby office of Arab satellite channel Abu Dhabi was also hit by air strikes. Al Jazeera accused the U.S. of attacking Arab media to hide facts. On the same day a U.S. Army tank fired into the 15th floor of the Palestine Hotel in Baghdad, where almost all foreign journalists reside, and kills two cameramen and wounds three. In the Abu Dhabi case the station airs the picture of Iraqi fire from beneath of the camera. In the hotel case, however, other journalists on the scene deny any fire from or around the hotel.,

External links

• U.S. Forces Enter the Heart of Baghdad
• US Forces Occupy Palaces - The Guardian
• Washington Post Daybook - Tuesday, April 8, 2003; Page A25
• Iraqi museum of antiquities looted; 8000 year old treasures lost forever
• Iraqi Perspectives Report, Joint Center for Operational Analysis at United States Department of Defense, March 2006