U.S. invasion of Iraq - 20 years on
In the early hours of March 20, 2003, U.S. and coalition forces began the invasion of Iraq on the grounds of the country's supposed possession of weapons of mass destruction and alleged connection of Saddam Hussein's government to the 9/11 attacks.
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The U.S.-Iraq war in pictures
In 2003, the United States led an invasion of Iraq with the intention of removing a dictator who had caused great harm to his people through wars and economic mismanagement. The goal was to establish a successful democracy, but instead, Iraq experienced a prolonged period of disorder and instabil...
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Why did the U.S. invade Iraq?
It was perhaps Washington’s biggest strategic mistake since the Vietnam war. 20 years ago this week the US invaded Iraq.
20 years later some US troops are still there as are the grim statistics written in lost Iraqi lives, those of US troops, hundreds of billion of dollars and not to mention the...
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How did the U.S.-Iraq war unfold?
In the early hours of March 20, 2003, U.S. and coalition forces began the invasion of Iraq on the grounds of the country's supposed possession of weapons of mass destruction and alleged connection of Saddam Hussein's government to the 9/11 attacks. The main U.S. military pullout from Iraq was ult...
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A mother's trauma
A mother from Basra in southern Iraq, speaking of her sick children, says: "One's like this. Another's the same. I'm at my wits' end." Depleted Uranium (DU) is classified by the International Agency for Research on Cancer as a Group I carcinogen. During the 2003 Iraq War, the U.S. military used l...
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What is the legacy of war in Iraq?
On March 20, 2003, U.S. and coalition forces began the invasion of Iraq. Twenty years later, have the Iraqi people got the democracy and freedom the U.S. promised them? As a record of what the Iraqi people have experienced in the past 20 years, and of their life today, CGTN presents 3-episode doc...
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A U.S. soldier and an Iraqi boy
On July 12, 2007, four years after the start of the Iraq War, U.S. Apache helicopters attacked the Al-Amin al-Thaniyah neighborhood of New Baghdad. 12-year-old Sajad and his 4-year-old sister Duah were seriously injured. They were rescued by a U.S. soldier. However, their father was killed. For t...
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A story of disabled fighters
Ammar Ali is the captain of Iraq's national wheelchair fencing team. Most of the team members' disabilities are the result of injuries sustained either in the Iraq War or in terrorist attacks.
In 2007, a bomb explosion near his home left Ammar unable to walk. It took him a long time to convince ...
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Will there ever be hope?
Mohammed Mahmood is a Mosul-based musician. Amid the turmoil following the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003, he was robbed of the chance to perform. Today, though, Mohammed and his orchestra hold regular rehearsals amid the rubble of the Old town of Mosul. People come from cities many kilometers awa...
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Clearing mines in Mosul
The Old Town of Mosul lies on the west bank of the Tigris, opposite the ruins of the ancient Assyrian city of Nineveh. It's on the Tigris' upper stream. Mosul used to be one of the most culturally-rich and economically-prosperous cities in Iraq. However, the situation there deteriorated rapidly a...
