Operation Iraqi Freedom Day – March 19, 2025

History of Operation Iraqi Freedom Day

In March 2003 the United States initiated war on Iraq. Hostilities began when Saddam Hussein refused to leave Iraq. U.S. aircraft dropped several bombs on a bunker complex in which the Iraqi president was believed to be hosting meetings with his senior staff. This was followed by a series of airstrikes and within days U.S. forces invaded Iraq.

This war was a result of the George W. Bush administration’s War on Terror which followed the September 11 attacks. Hussein went into hiding soon after the American invasion, speaking to his people only through audiotape. It took the coalition forces only three weeks to topple his regime and capture Iraq’s major cities. President Bush declared the end of major combat operations in May of that year.

This was the first of a two-phase war. The second was longer in which a U.S.-led occupation of Iraq was opposed by an insurgency. This war caused at least 155,000 deaths, in addition to the displacement of more than 3.3 million people within the country. Two years later in 2005, after an intense manhunt, U.S. soldiers found Saddam Hussein hiding in Tikrit. He was arrested and the trial began.

In June 2004 power was transferred to the Iraqi Interim Government and the next year in January 2005, the Iraqi people elected a 275-member Iraqi National Assembly. In October a new constitution for the country was ratified. There were no weapons of mass destruction found and the U.S. declared an end to the war in 2011, nearly 10 years after the fighting began.