The Battle of Baghdad, also known as the Fall of Baghdad, was a military engagement that took place in Baghdad in early April 2003, as part of the invasion of Iraq.
Three weeks into the invasion of Iraq, Coalition Forces Land Component Command elements, led by the U.S. Army 3rd Infantry Division, captured Baghdad. Over 2,000 Iraqi soldiers as well as 34 coalition troops were killed in the battle. After the fall of Baghdad, Coalition forces entered the city of Kirkuk on April 10 and Tikrit on April 15, 2003. The United States officially declared victory against the Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein on April 14, and President George W. Bush gave his Mission Accomplished Speech on May 1.
Baghdad suffered serious damage to its civilian infrastructure, economy, and cultural inheritance from the battle and following unrest, including looting and arson. During the invasion, the Al-Yarmouk Hospital in south Baghdad saw a steady rate of about 100 new patients an hour.
Preparation
Limited bombing began on March 19, 2003 as United States forces unsuccessfully attempted to kill Saddam Hussein. Attacks continued against a small number of targets until March 21, 2003, when, at 17:00 UTC, the main bombing campaign of the US and their allies began. Its forces launched approximately 1700 air sorties (504 using cruise missiles). The invasion of the city commenced three days after Allied forces led by Major General Buford Blount and the 3rd Infantry Division had secured the Baghdad airport.
US officials said that their forces fought skirmishes there with Iraq's Special Republican Guard, with two task forces going up to the Tigris river from the southern outskirts of the city before moving west towards the airport. Major General Victor Renuart said the intention was to indicate to the Iraqi leader that coalition forces could move in and out of Baghdad whenever they wished. The Guardian reported that US forces occupied two "presidential palaces". The Army also surrounded the Information Ministry and other key government installations for a while.
On March 24, retired US Army general Barry McCaffrey, told BBC Newsnight: "If [the Iraqis] actually fight, clearly it's going to be brutal, dangerous work and we could take, bluntly, a couple to 3,000 casualties". In order to avoid the disastrous effects of house to house urban combat, US military planners agreed that seizing western Baghdad (now known as the Green Zone) was one of the main military objectives for securing Baghdad. By seizing only critical nodes and infrastructure in a rapid manner, it was believed such targeted assaults would weaken the regime of Saddam Hussein and hasten its collapse, all the while avoiding the deployment of troops to clear every single block of Baghdad. In preparation for the impending attack, Iraqi military planners organised hybrid groups of paramilitary and regular army units, deployed improvised barriers and destroyed the eastern Diyala River bridges to block US army mechanised units.
Forces
The invasion of Baghdad was led by the United States Army's 3rd Infantry Division and the United States Marine Corps' 1st Marine Division, equipped with M1 Abrams tanks, Bradley Fighting Vehicles and M113 armored personnel carriers, LAV 25s, and Amphibious Assault Vehicles. These forces, supported by American and British aircraft including B-52s, Harrier GR7 attack jets and A10 Warthogs, confronted 36,000 soldiers of the Iraqi Special Republican Guard protected in sprawling bunkers outside Baghdad, armed with Asad Babil tanks and heavy artillery.
Aerial bombing
At the time of invasion, coalition aircraft were making bombing runs on Baghdad at the rate of 1,000 sorties a day, most of them aimed at the Republican Guard and Special Republican Guard. U.S. planes also dropped about 200,000 leaflets warning civilians to stay in their homes. Royal Air Force Tornados from 9 and 617 Squadrons attacked the radar defense systems protecting Baghdad, but lost a Tornado on March 22 along with the pilot and navigator (Flight Lieutenant Kevin Main and Flight Lieutenant Dave Williams) in a friendly fire incident, shot down by an American Patriot missile as they returned to their airbase in Kuwait. On April 2, a US Army Black Hawk helicopter and a United States Navy F/A-18C Hornet were shot down near Karbala. On 8 April, an A-10 Warthog attack plane was shot down in the fighting around Jumhuriya Bridge by an Iraqi surface-to-air missile.