After 45 minutes, the U.S. president said that he had issued orders to direct “opportunity strike," that was shown later that it was a strike on a house believed that Saddam Hussein was in it .
" Green light " for the war was launched at that moment by the coalition forces in which U.S. military and British forces formed 98 per cent of it. An operation that caused the most casualties among civilians in the history of Iraq , and gave them what was said as an opportunity for democracy and get rid of dictatorial rule .
Why war?
U.S. administration has tried to avoid the pressure to provide a range of justifications to prove the legitimacy of the war , as Saddam Hussein's government continuation in the non-application of United Nations resolutions relating to allow the inspection committees to engage in its work to look for weapons in Iraq .
Among Washington’s justifications, the Iraqi government continued manufacture and possession of weapons of mass destruction and lack of cooperation by the Iraqi leadership in the application of 19 resolutions of the United Nations on giving complete data on its arsenal of weapons of mass destruction. Till now, such weapons had been found in Iraq .
Washington had accused the government of Iraq also of establishing relationships with "Al Qaeda" and "terrorist" organizations that pose a threat to worlds’ security and stability.
In the end, It said that the other purpose of the invasion lies in the dissemination of " democracy ideas " in the Middle East .
After nearly three weeks of fighting, the Iraqi government fell. Fearing a repeat of what happened in the Second Gulf War of igniting the fire in the oil fields , British forces tightened their control over Rumaila, Umm Qasr and Fao oil fields with the help of Australian troops . Basra became under control in 27 of March after the destruction of 14 Iraqi tanks , while Iraqi forces collapsed in Amarah city in Maysan province in the south of the country on April 9 .
In the meantime, in Kurdistan region in the north of the country , a group of U.S. Special Forces landed parachute because the Turkish parliament did not allow to use Turkish territory to enter Iraq and these special forces with support from the U.S. Air Force , stormed the strongholds of "Party of Ansar al-Islam organization."
Fall of Baghdad
On 5 of April 2003, a series of U.S. armored launched an attack on Baghdad International Airport and was met with such a stiff resistance force from the Iraqi army units that were defending the airport by a number of suicide attacks , including two operations conducted by the two women who announced their intention to do an operation of the Iraqi television screen.
On 9 April, 2003, U.S. forces announced the extension of its control over most areas of the capital. The foreign television broadcasted scenes of overthrowing a statue of Saddam Hussein in Firdos Square in Baghdad .
Then he took the U.S. military commander Tommy Franks, the leadership of Iraq as the commanding general of U.S. forces . In May 2003, resigned Franks declared in one of the interviews that he has already been paid sums of the leaders of the Iraqi army during the U.S. campaign and the siege of Baghdad to give up their positions of leadership in the military.
After the fall of Baghdad , U.S. troops entered Kirkuk city on 10 April and Tikrit in 15 April, 2003 and tightened its control fully over Iraq.
" New Iraq."
After Washington tightened the military control on Mesopotamia , it has appointed U.S. administration diplomat , Paul Bremer as a civilian governor to form after that the ruling council that approved a transitional constitution for the country and then Iyad Allawi received prime ministry and Ghazi Ajil al-Yawar assumed the presidency for an interim period .
The first “electoral democratic process " had been conducted in the country's modern history in Iraq in 2005, in which 275 deputies had been chosen in parliament by a participation rate of nearly 60 percent , then Ibrahim al-Jaafari had been chosen as prime minister and Jalal Talabani, as President of the Republic and Mahmoud al-Mashhadani as parliament speaker .
This political process in Iraq led to fragile sharing of power as the dominant foreign power country exploited the sectarian composition to distribute positions on that basis.
Despite the changing scene of the political process in Iraq today as a result of the referred events, but the Iraqi state knew a kind of fragmentation over a decade.
Iraqis hope in the current period from the political process to lead the state to come out of the troubled reality amid high rates of violence , the legitimate question remains , after 11 years of the American-led war , did Iraq and Iraqis endured nearly a decade of violence for nothing ?
Some of the most prominent events
19 August, 2003: A suicide bombing destroyed the headquarters of the United Nations Mission and killed UN envoy ,Sergio Vieira de Mello .
29 August: The death of Mohammed Baqir al-Hakim in a bombing in Najaf .
13 December : The arrest of Iraqi President , Saddam Hussein in a hole in Tikrit .
Beginning of 2004: Abu Ghraib scandal erupted after the publication of U.S. media photographs showing widespread abuse of prisoners.
30 April: U.S. wide attack on Fallujah.
30 January, 2005 : The start of the legislative elections.
22 February, 2006 : bombing caused damage to the shrine of Imam al -Askari in Samarra .
7th of June: The announcement of the death of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in Diyala.
31 December : The execution by hanging of Saddam Hussein.
16 September 2007 : Killing of 17 Iraqi civilians , including a family by Blackwater U.S. security firm in Baghdad , and the U.S. investigation later concludes that the shooting was not justified.
7th of October, 2008: Iraq and the United States reached security agreement project marks at the end of 2011 as the deadline for the withdrawal of the U.S. military.
31 of January, 2009: Local elections to create provincial councils passes without violence.
7th of March: Iraqis voted in the second parliamentary elections .
19 of April: The Iraqi government announced killing Al-Qaeda leader in Iraq, Abu Ayyub al-Masri and the commander of the , " Islamic State of Iraq ," Abu Omar al-Baghdadi .
30 of June: U.S. troops ends their withdrawal from Iraqi cities , including Baghdad .
31 of August, 2010: U.S. President, Barack Obama announces the end of U.S. combat missions in Iraq .
21 of December: Iraqi parliament ratify the new government of Prime Minister , Nuri al-Maliki.
29 of March 2012 : Arab summit in Baghdad .
15 of January: Iraqi President Jalal Talabani suffered from a stroke and moved to Germany .
27 of July, 2013 : Iraq exit from Chapter VII of the UN Charter .
10th of November: cancellation of arms deal between Iraq and Russia due to corruption files .
21 of January: Wide military attack of the Iraqi army on al-Qaeda in Anbar after killing a military commander as Iraq is awaiting for many events in 2014, most notably the third legislative elections .