HSC-Axmun
III
Invasion
of Iraq
Since the 1991 Gulf War, the U.S. and UK had been engaged in low-level attacks on
Iraqi air defenses which targeted them while enforcing Iraqi no-fly zones.[35][36]These zones, and the attacks to enforce them, were described
as illegal by the former UN Secretary General, Boutros
Boutros-Ghali,
and the French foreign minister Hubert Vedrine. Other countries, notably Russia and China, also condemned
the zones as a violation of Iraqi sovereignty.[123][124][125] In mid-2002, the U.S. began more carefully selecting targets
in the southern part of the country to disrupt the military command structure
in Iraq. A change in enforcement tactics was acknowledged at the time, but it
was not made public that this was part of a plan known as Operation Southern
Focus.
The amount of ordnance dropped on Iraqi positions by Coalition aircraft in 2001 and
2002 was less than in 1999 and 2000 which was during the Clinton
administration.[126] This information has been used to attempt to refute the
theory that the Bush administration had already decided to go to war against
Iraq before coming to office and that the bombing during 2001 and 2002 was
laying the groundwork for the eventual invasion in 2003. However, information
obtained by the UK Liberal Democrats showed that the UK dropped twice as many bombs on Iraq in
the second half of 2002 as they did during the whole of 2001. The tonnage of UK
bombs dropped increased from 0 in March 2002 and 0.3 in April 2002 to between 7
and 14 tons per month in May–August, reaching a pre-war peak of
54.6 tons in September – before Congress' 11 October authorization of the invasion.
The 5 September attacks included a 100+ aircraft attack on
the main air defense site in western Iraq. According to an editorial in New Statesman this was "Located at the furthest extreme of the
southern no-fly zone, far away from the areas that needed to be patrolled to prevent
attacks on the Shias, it was destroyed not because it was a threat to the
patrols, but to allow allied special forces operating from Jordan to enter Iraq
undetected."[127]
Tommy Franks, who commanded the invasion of Iraq, has since
admitted that the bombing was designed to "degrade" Iraqi air
defences in the same way as the air attacks that began the 1991 Gulf War. These
"spikes of activity" were, in the words of then British Defence
Secretary, Geoff Hoon, designed to 'put pressure on the Iraqi regime' or, as The Times reported, to "provoke Saddam Hussein into giving the
allies an excuse for war". In this respect, as provocations designed to
start a war, leaked British Foreign Office legal advice concluded that such
attacks were illegal under international law.[128][129]
Another attempt at provoking the war was mentioned in a
leaked memo from a meeting between George W. Bush and Tony Blair on 31 January
2003 at which Bush allegedly told Blair that "The US was thinking of
flying U2 reconnaissance aircraft with fighter cover over Iraq, painted
in UN colours. If Saddam fired on them, he would be in breach."[130] On 17 March 2003, U.S. President George W. Bushgave Saddam Hussein 48 hours to leave the country, along
with his sons Uday and Qusay, or face war.
Opening
salvo: the Dora Farms strike[edit]
On the early morning of 19 March 2003, U.S. forces abandoned
the plan for initial, non-nuclear decapitation strikes against 55 top Iraqi officials, in light of reports that
Saddam Hussein was visiting his sons,Uday and Qusay, at Dora Farms, within the al-Dora farming community on the outskirts of Baghdad.[131] At approximately 05:30 UTC two F-117 Nighthawks from the 8th Expeditionary
Fighter Squadron[132] dropped four enhanced, satellite-guided 2,000-pound GBU-27 'Bunker Busters' on the compound. Complementing the aerial bombardment were
nearly 40Tomahawk cruise
missiles fired from at least four ships, including the Ticonderoga-class cruiser USS Cowpens (CG-63), credited with the first to strike,[133] Arleigh
Burke-class destroyer USS Donald
Cook (DDG-75),
and two submarines in theRed Sea and Persian Gulf.[134]
One bomb missed the compound entirely and the other three
missed their target, landing on the other side of the wall of the palace
compound.[135] Saddam Hussein was not present nor were any members of the
Iraqi leadership.[131][136] The attack killed one civilian and injured fourteen others,
including four men, nine women and one child.[137][138] Later investigation revealed that Saddam Hussein had not
visited the farm since 1995.[134]
Opening
attack[edit]
On 20 March 2003 at approximately 02:30 UTC or about 90 minutes after the lapse of the 48-hour
deadline, at 05:33 local time, explosions were heard in Baghdad. Special
operations commandos from the CIA's Special Activities
Division from the Northern Iraq Liaison Element infiltrated
throughout Iraq and called in the early air strikes.[55] At 03:15 UTC, or 10:15 pm EST, George W. Bush announced
that he had ordered an "attack of opportunity" against targets in
Iraq.[139] When this word was given, the troops on standby crossed the
border into Iraq.
Wingtip vortices are visible trailing from an F-15E as it disengages from midair refueling with a KC-10 during Operation Iraqi Freedom
Before the invasion, many observers had expected a lengthy
campaign of aerial bombing before any ground action, taking as examples the
1991 Persian Gulf War or the 2001
invasion of Afghanistan.
In practice, U.S. plans envisioned simultaneous air and ground assaults to
decapitate the Iraqi forces quickly (see Shock and Awe), attempting to bypass Iraqi military units and cities in
most cases. The assumption was that superior mobility and coordination of
Coalition forces would allow them to attack the heart of the Iraqi command
structure and destroy it in a short time, and that this would minimize civilian
deaths and damage to infrastructure. It was expected that the elimination of
the leadership would lead to the collapse of the Iraqi Forces and the
government, and that much of the population would support the invaders once the
government had been weakened. Occupation of cities and attacks on peripheral
military units were viewed as undesirable distractions.
Following Turkey's decision to deny any official use of its territory, the
Coalition was forced to modify the planned simultaneous attack from north and
south.[140] Special Operations forces from the CIA and US Army managed
to build and lead the Kurdish Peshmerga into an effective force and assault for
the North. The primary bases for the invasion were inKuwait and other Persian Gulf nations. One result of this was that one of the divisions
intended for the invasion was forced to relocate and was unable to take part in
the invasion until well into the war. Many observers felt that the Coalition
devoted sufficient numbers of troops to the invasion, but too many were
withdrawn after it ended, and that the failure to occupy cities put them at a
major disadvantage in achieving security and order throughout the country when
local support failed to meet expectations.
The invasion was swift, leading to the collapse of the Iraqi
government and the military of Iraq in about three weeks. The oil infrastructure of Iraq was
rapidly seized and secured with limited damage in that time. Securing the oil
infrastructure was considered of great importance. In the Gulf War, while
retreating from Kuwait, the Iraqi army had set many oil wells on fire in an attempt to disguise troop movements and to distract
Coalition forces. Before the 2003 invasion, Iraqi forces had mined some 400 oil
wells around Basra and theAl-Faw peninsula with explosives. Coalition troops launched an air and amphibious assaulton the Al-Faw peninsula during the closing hours of 19 March to secure the oil
fields there; the amphibious assault was supported by warships of the Royal Navy, Polish Navy, andRoyal Australian
Navy.
In the meantime, Royal Air Force Tornados from 9 and 617
Squadrons attacked the radar defence systems protecting Baghdad, but lost a
Tornado on 22 March along with the pilot and navigator (Flight Lieutenant Kevin
Main and Flight Lieutenant Dave Williams), shot down by an American Patriot
missile as they returned to their airbase in Kuwait.[141] On 1 April, an F-14 from USS Kitty Hawk crashed in southern
Iraq reportedly due to engine failure,[142] and a S-3B Viking plunged off the deck of the USS
Constellation after a malfunction and an AV-8B Harrier jump jet went into the
Gulf while it was trying to land on the USS Nassau.[143]
British 3 Commando Brigade, with the United States Marine
Corps' 15th
Marine Expeditionary Unit and
the Polish Special Forces unit GROM attached, attacked the port of Umm Qasr. There they met with heavy resistance by Iraqi troops. A
total of 14 Coalition troops and 30–40 Iraqi troops were killed, and 450 Iraqis
taken prisoner. The British Army's 16 Air Assault
Brigade also secured the oil fields in southern Iraq in places like Rumaila while the Polish commandos captured offshore oil platforms
near the port, preventing their destruction. Despite the rapid advance of the
invasion forces, some 44 oil wells were destroyed and set ablaze by Iraqi
explosives or by incidental fire. However, the wells were quickly capped and
the fires put out, preventing the ecological damage and loss of oil production
capacity that had occurred at the end of the Gulf War.
In keeping with the rapid advance plan, the U.S. 3rd Infantry
Division moved westward and then northward through the western desert
toward Baghdad, while the 1st
Marine Expeditionary Force moved
along Highway 1 through the center of the country, and 1 (UK) Armoured
Division moved northward through the eastern marshland.
During the first week of the war, Iraqi forces fired a Scud missile at the American Battlefield Update Assessment center
inCamp Doha, Kuwait. The missile was intercepted and shot down by a Patriot missile seconds before hitting the complex. Subsequently, two A-10 Warthogs bombed the missile launcher.
Battle
of Nasiriyah[edit]
Main article: Battle of Nasiriyah
Initially, the U.S. 1st Marine Division fought through the Rumaila oil fields, and moved north to Nasiriyah—a moderate-sized, Shi'ite-dominated city with important
strategic significance as a major road junction and its proximity to nearby Talil Airfield. It was also situated near a number of strategically
important bridges over the Euphrates River. The city was defended by a mix of regular Iraqi army
units, Ba'ath loyalists, and Fedayeen from both Iraq and abroad. The United
States Army 3rd Infantry Division defeated Iraqi forces entrenched in and
around the airfield and bypassed the city to the west.
On 23 March, a convoy from the 3rd Infantry Division,
including the female American soldiers Jessica Lynch and Lori Piestewa, was ambushed after taking a wrong turn into the city.
Eleven U.S. soldiers were killed, and seven, including Lynch and Piestewa, were
captured.[144] Piestewa died of wounds shortly after capture, while the
remaining five prisoners of war were later rescued. Piestewa, who was from Tuba City, Arizona, and an enrolled member of the Hopi Tribe, was believed to have been the first Native
American woman killed in combat in a foreign war.[145] On the same day, U.S Marines from the Second Marine Division
entered Nasiriyah in force, facing heavy resistance as they moved to secure two
major bridges in the city. Several Marines were killed during a firefight with Fedayeen in the urban fighting. At the Saddam Canal, another 18
Marines were killed in heavy fighting with Iraqi soldiers. An Air Force A-10 was involved in a case of friendly fire that resulted in the death of six Marines when it
accidentally attacked an American amphibious vehicle. Two other vehicles were
destroyed when a barrage of RPG and small arms fire killed most of the Marines
inside.[146] A Marine from Marine Air Control
Group 28 was killed by enemy fire, and two Marine engineers drowned
in the Saddam Canal. The bridges were secured
On the evening of 24 March, a battalion of the 1st
Marine Regiment pushed
through Nasiriyah and established a perimeter 15 kilometers
(9.3 miles) north of the city. Iraqi reinforcements from Kut launched several counterattacks. The Marines managed to
repel them using indirect fire and close air support. The last Iraqi attack was
beaten off at dawn. The battalion estimated that 200–300 Iraqi soldiers were
killed, without a single U.S. casualty. Nasiriyah was declared secure, but
attacks by Iraqi Fedayeen continued. These attacks were uncoordinated, and
resulted in firefights in which large numbers of Fedayeen were killed. Because
of Nasiriyah's strategic position as a road junction, a significant gridlock
occurred as U.S. forces moving north converged on the city's surrounding
highways.
With the Nasiriyah and Talil Airfields secured, Coalition
forces gained an important logistical center in southern Iraq and established
FOB/EAF Jalibah, some 10 miles (16 km) outside of Nasiriyah. Additional
troops and supplies were soon brought through this forward operating base. The 101st Airborne
Division continued its attack north in support of the 3rd Infantry
Division.
By 28 March, a severe sand storm slowed the Coalition
advance as the 3rd Infantry Division halted its northward drive half way
between Najaf and Karbala. As a result of heavy rains that occurred along with
the sand storm, orange-colored mud fell on some parts of the invasion force in
the area. Air operations by helicopters, poised to bring reinforcements from
the 101st Airborne, were blocked for three days. There was particularly heavy
fighting in and around the bridge near the town of Kufl.
Saddam Hussein and his regime
Saddam Hussein Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti (Arabic: صدام حسين عبد المجيد التكريتيṢaddām
Ḥusayn ʿAbd al-Maǧīd al-Tikrītī;[3] 28 April 1937[4] – 30
December 2006) was the fifth President
of Iraq, serving in this capacity from 16 July 1979 until 9
April 2003.[5][6] A leading member of
the revolutionary Arab
Socialist Ba'ath Party, and later, the Baghdad-based Ba'ath Party and its regional
organisation Ba'ath Party – Iraq Region—which
espoused ba'athism, a mix ofArab
nationalism and Arab socialism—Saddam
played a key role in the 1968 coup (later referred to as the 17
July Revolution) that brought the party to power in Iraq.
As vice president under the ailing
General Ahmed
Hassan al-Bakr, and at a time when many groups were
considered capable of overthrowing the government, Saddam created security
forces through which he tightly controlled conflict between the government and
the armed forces. In the early 1970s, Saddam nationalized oil and other industries.
The state-owned banks were put under his control, leaving the system eventually
insolvent mostly due to the Iran–Iraq
War,
the Gulf War, and UN sanctions.[7] Through the 1970s,
Saddam cemented his authority over the apparatuses of government as oil money
helped Iraq's economy to grow at a rapid pace. Positions of power in the
country were mostly filled with Sunnis, a
minority that made up only a fifth of the population.
Saddam formally rose to power in 1979,
although he had been the de
factohead of Iraq for several years prior. He suppressed several movements,
particularly Shi'a and Kurdish movements, seeking to
overthrow the government or gain independence,[8] and maintained power
during the Iran–Iraq
War and the Gulf War. Whereas
some[9] venerated Saddam for
his opposition to Israel—which
included the use of military force[10]—he was
widely condemned in the west for the brutality of his dictatorship.
In 2003, a coalition led by the U.S.
and U.K. invaded
Iraq to depose
Saddam, in which U.S. President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blairaccused
him of possessing weapons of mass destruction and having ties to al-Qaeda. Saddam's
Ba'ath party was disbanded and elections were held. Following his
capture on 13
December 2003, the trial
of Saddam took place
under the Iraqi interim government. On 5
November 2006, Saddam was convicted of charges related to the 1982 killing of 148
Iraqi Shi'ites and was
sentenced to death by hanging. His execution was carried out on 30
December 2006
UN and the iraq
From 1990 to 2002 16 res. Hav been passed to disarm iraq from
its mass destruction but sadam hussein and his regime didn’t give up its WMDs.
In the resolution 1441 passed unanimously to give sadam hussein one last chance
to give up the WMDs. But he still refused to do so. Hundreds of UN agents were
sent to Iraq to investigate its nuclear programme. But they were cunningly
defied, electronically bugged and systemetically decieved. 6 months after the
9/11 USA is now eager to invade Iraq and enforce its safety but this will lead
to violation the very principle of UN and being a permanent member US Is
reluctant to do so.
Now here we are in 20th
March 2013 after 1 day of the invasion. The UN called upon the all the
delegations of the Security Council. Is
this invasion justified ? Did Un rise up to its responsibilities and if US is
who gave them the authority to become the peacekeeper of the world?
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