A joint patrol with the British army and the Iraq police force in Basra.
The Iraq War (also known as the Occupation of Iraq,[40] the Second Gulf War,[41] Operation Iraqi Freedom,[42], the third Gulf War[43] and Operation New Dawn) is an ongoing[44] military campaign that began on March 20, 2003,[45][46] with the invasion of Iraq by a multinational force led by troops from the United States and the United Kingdom.[47] Before the war, the governments of the United States and the United Kingdom claimed that Iraq's alleged possession of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) posed a threat to their security and that of their coalition/regional allies.[48][49][50] In 2002, the United Nations Security Council passed Resolution 1441 which called for Iraq to completely cooperate with UN weapon inspectors to verify that Iraq was not in possession of WMD and cruise missiles. The United Nations Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC) found no evidence of WMD, but could not verify the accuracy of Iraq's weapon declarations.[51][52][53][54] Lead weapons inspector Hans Blix advised the UN Security Council that while Iraq was cooperating in terms of access, Iraq's declarations with regards to WMD could not be verified.[51][55] After investigation following the invasion, the Iraq Survey Group concluded that Iraq had ended its nuclear, chemical, and biological programs in 1991 and had no active programs at the time of the invasion, but that they intended to resume production if the Iraq sanctions were lifted.[56] Although some degraded remnants of misplaced or abandoned chemical weapons from before 1991 were found, they were not the weapons which had been the main argument to justify the invasion.[57] Some US officials also accused Iraqi President Saddam Hussein of harboring and supporting al-Qaeda,[58] but no evidence of a meaningful connection was ever found.[59][60] Other proclaimed reasons for the invasion included Iraq's financial support for the families of Palestinian suicide bombers,[61] Iraqi government human rights
Size: 3506px × 2479px
Location: Iraq
Photo credit: © andrew chittock / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
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