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Shock and awe: the toppling of Saddam Hussein 20 years ago
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In this file photo dated on April 10, 2003 US marines take position near a portrait of late Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein in a stadium in Baghdad. (AFP/Christophe Simon)
I
t took just three weeks for the decades-old regime of Iraq's feared dictator Saddam Hussein to fall in one of the most controversial foreign military interventions of modern times.
Then-US president George W. Bush began major air strikes on Iraq on March 20, 2003, claiming that Saddam's regime illegally possessed weapons of mass destruction, though none were ever found.
The coalition spearheaded by US and British forces then launched the major ground invasion, which climaxed with the fall of Baghdad on April 9, symbolised by the toppling of a towering statue of Saddam.
Over coming years, the war would bring many horrors -- from the gruelling urban battles of Fallujah to years of sectarian fighting and daily carnage to the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal.
AFP looks back at the dramatic opening weeks of "Operation Iraqi Freedom", which started a war that lasted nearly nine years, until the withdrawal of the last US occupation troops in December 2011.
Cruise missiles at dawn
Towards 5:35 am on March 20, the first US cruise missiles slam into the outskirts of Baghdad. It is less than two hours after Saddam spurned a deadline from Bush to go into exile or face war.
