Aftermath of the Invasion

The war achieved its immediate goal of removing Saddam Hussein from power. In the months following the war, United States forces captured or killed most of the top military and political leaders of the former Iraqi regime. Saddam Hussein's sons, Uday and Qusay, were killed on July 22, 2003 in a fierce firefight in Mosul. On December 13, United States troops captured Saddam Hussein near his hometown of Tikrit. Hussein stood trial before an Iraqi court and was executed by Iraqi authorities on Dec. 30, 2006.

Many Iraqis celebrated the fall of Hussein's government. However, many also opposed the presence of coalition forces in Iraq. Guerilla attacks on coalition forces were carried out by a diverse array of suspected pro-Hussein loyalists, Iraqi patriots opposed to occupation, and anti-Western Islamic fundamentalists from neighboring Arab countries. The attacks targeted coalition troops, Iraqi security forces, and Iraqi and foreign civilians. Other targets included police and civil defense stations, government buildings, military facilities, oil pipelines, mosques, and churches.

Weapons inspectors failed to find any weapons of mass destruction in Iraq after the fall of the Hussein regime. As a result, many people came to believe that the United States and British government had exaggerated the Iraqi threat prior to the war. Investigators found that intelligence agencies in both countries had provided incorrect estimates of Iraqs weapons capabilities.

At the same time, leaders in the U.S. Congress raised concerns about the human and economic costs of the continuing Iraqi occupation. Gulf War II appeared to have turned political opinion in many countries against the United States, eclipsing the outpouring of international sympathy it had received in the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks.

Since May 1, 2003, when President Bush declared an end to major combat operations, more than 4,000 coalition soldiers, mostly Americans, have died in Iraq. There are no official estimates of how many Iraqis died as a result of the war. Numerous foreign civilians, including journalists, business people, and aid workers, also have been killed.