March 20, 2003: A British soldier watches fires on oil fields in southern Iraq on the first day of the invasion. The Iraqi military set several oil fields on fire to create vast clouds of smokes in an effort to hamper air strikes.
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April 4, 2003: A member of the Iraqi republican guard with a hole in his helmet stands guard in the outskirts of Bagdad. The former elite military unit fell into disrepair after the 1991 Gulf War.
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April 9, 2003: US troops wrap a chain about the head of a giant statue of Saddam Hussein before pulling it down in Baghdad’s al-Fardous square. The iconic image came to symbolise the fall of the Iraqi capital, only 19 days after coalition forces launched their invasion.
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May 1, 2003: US President George W. Bush meets crew members of the ‘Abraham Lincoln’ aircraft carrier. The US leader paraded in a pilot uniform before addressing soldiers under a giant banner reading “Mission Accomplished”.
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December 13, 2003: Saddam Hussein is being dragged by US troops out of the hole where he had hidden after the fall of Baghdad. His capture and the killing of his sons spelt the definitive end of the former Iraqi dictator’s regime.
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April 2004: Photos of sadistic abuse perpetrated by US soldiers on Iraqi prisoners were made public in early 2004. In this picture, a hounded and bound prisoner is being attacked by a dog in Bagdad’s infamous Abu Ghraib prison.
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May 9, 2004: US tanks move into Baghdad’s Sadr city, a Shiite neighbourhood, after deadly clashes erupted between US forces and militiamen loyal to radical cleric Moqtada Sadr.
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December 2004: A US soldier is hit by insurgent fire while trying to drag a fatally wounded comrade in Fallujah, a rebel stronghold West of Baghdad.
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January 25, 2005: British soldiers patrol the southern city of Basra against a backdrop of posters promoting the first free elections in the country’s history.
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December 6, 2005: Former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein gestures during his trial, held under tight security in Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone. The former Iraqi president was hanged in 2006 after being found guilty of crimes against humanity
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September 6, 2007: A former Sunni insurgent holds a knife to the neck of an Iraqi man detained by fighters for alleged links to al Qaeda. The former rebels helped turn the tide of the insurgency by joining forces with US and Iraqi troops against Al-Qaeda in Iraq.
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March 19, 2013: People look at the remains of a car bomb explosion in Bagdad after a wave of attacks killed dozens of people on the eve of the 10th anniversary of the US-led invasion
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