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these zones and the attacks to enforce them were described as illegal by the former un secretary general boutros boutros ghali and the french foreign minister hubert vedrine other countries notably russia and china also condemned the zones as a violation of iraqi sovereignty 144 145 146 in mid 2002 the u s began more carefully selecting targets in the southern part of the country to disrupt the military command structure in iraq a change in enforcement tactics was acknowledged at the time but it was not made public that this was part of a plan known as operation southern focus the amount of ordnance dropped on iraqi positions by coalition aircraft in 2001 and 2002 was less than in 1999 and 2000 which was during the clinton administration 147 however information obtained by the uk liberal democrats showed that the uk dropped twice as many bombs on iraq in the second half of 2002 as they did during the whole of 2001 the tonnage of uk bombs dropped increased from 0 in march 2002 and 0 3 in april 2002 to between 7 and 14 tons per month in may august reaching a pre war peak of 54 6 tons in september before the u s congress 11 october authorization of the invasion the 5 september attacks included a 100 aircraft attack on the main air defense site in western iraq according to an editorial in new statesman this was located at the furthest extreme of the southern no fly zone far away from the areas that needed to be patrolled to prevent attacks on the shias it was destroyed not because it was a threat to the patrols but to allow allied special forces operating from jordan to enter iraq undetected 148 u s president george w bush meets with his top advisors on 19 march 2003 just before the invasion tommy franks who commanded the invasion has since admitted that the bombing was designed to degrade iraqi air defences in the same way as the air attacks that began the gulf war these spikes of activity were in the words of then british defence secretary geoff hoon designed to put pressure on the iraqi regime or as the times reported to provoke saddam hussein into giving the allies an excuse for war in this respect as provocations designed to start a war leaked british foreign office legal advice concluded that such attacks were illegal under international law 149 150 another attempt at provoking the war was mentioned in a leaked memo from a meeting between bush and blair on 31 january 2003 in which bush allegedly told blair that the u s was thinking of flying u2 reconnaissance aircraft with fighter cover over iraq painted in un colours if saddam fired on them he would be in breach 151 on 17 march bush gave saddam 48 hours to leave the country along with his sons uday and qusay or face war 152 invasion edit see also 2003 invasion of iraq order of battle coalition movement from 20 to 28 march 2003 coalition movements from 29 march to 7 april routes and major battles fought by the coalition carrier air wing two cvw 2 mission briefing aboard constellation cv 64 21 march 2003 preceding special forces mission in al qa im edit on the night of 17 march 2003 the majority of b and d squadron british 22nd sas regiment designated as task force 14 crossed the border from jordan to conduct a ground assault on a suspected chemical munitions site at a water treatment plant in the city of al qa im it had been reported that the site might have been a scud missile launch site or a depot an sas officer was quoted by author mark nicol as saying it was a location where missiles had been fired at israel in the past and a site of strategic importance for wmd material the 60 members of d squadron along with their pinkie desert patrol vehicles the last time the vehicles were used before their retirement were flown 120 km 75 miles into iraq in 6 mh 47ds in 3 waves following their insertion d squadron established a patrol laager at a remote location outside al qa im and awaited the arrival of b squadron who had driven overland from jordan their approach to the plant was compromised and a firefight developed which ended in one pinkie having to be abandoned and destroyed repeated attempts to assault the plant were halted leading the sas to call in an air strike which silenced the opposition 153 opening salvo the dora farms strike edit in the early morning of 19 march u s forces abandoned the plan for initial non nuclear decapitation strikes against 55 top iraqi officials in light of reports that saddam was visiting uday and qusay at dora farms in the dora farming community in southern baghdad 154 at approximately 04 42 baghdad time 155 two f 117 nighthawk stealth fighters from the 8th expeditionary fighter squadron 156 dropped four enhanced satellite guided 2 000 pound gbu 27 bunker busters on the compound complementing the aerial bombardment were nearly 40 tomahawk cruise missiles fired from several ships including the ticonderoga class cruiser uss cowpens credited with the first to strike 157 arleigh burke class destroyers uss donald cook and uss porter as well as two submarines in the red sea and persian gulf 158 one bomb missed the compound entirely while the other three impacted the site on the other side of an electrified wall surrounding the main palace building damaging it and destroying every other structure in the compound 159 saddam was not present nor were any members of the iraqi leadership 154 160 baghdad area hospitals reported that the attack killed one civilian and injured fourteen others including four men nine women and one child 161 later sources indicated that saddam had not visited the farm since 1995 158 while others claimed that saddam had been at the compound that morning but had left before the strike which bush had ordered delayed until the 48 hour deadline had expired 155 opening attack edit on 19 march at 21 00 the first strike of the operation was carried out by members of the 160th soar a flight of mh 60l daps direct action penetrators and four black swarm flights each consisting of a pair of ah 6m little birds and a flir equipped mh 6m to identify targets for the ah 6s each black swarm flight was assigned a pair of a 10as engaged iraqi visual observation posts along the southern and western borders of iraq within seven hours more than 70 sites were destroyed effectively depriving the iraqi military of any early warning of the coming invasion as the sites were eliminated the first heliborne sof teams launched from h 5 air base in jordan including vehicle mounted patrols from the british and australian components transported by the mh 47ds of the 160th soar ground elements of task force dagger task force 20 task force 14 and task force 64 breached the sand berms along the iraqi border with jordan saudi arabia and kuwait in the early morning hours and drove into iraq unofficially the british australians and task force 20 had been in iraq weeks prior 162 163 on 20 march at approximately 02 30 utc at 05 34 local time explosions were heard in baghdad special operations commandos from the cia s special activities division from the northern iraq liaison element infiltrated throughout iraq and called in the early air strikes 137 at 03 16 utc or 10 16 pm est bush announced that he had ordered an attack against selected targets of military importance in iraq 164 165 when this word was given the troops on standby crossed the border into iraq wingtip vortices are visible trailing from an f 15e as it disengages from midair refueling with a kc 10 during operation iraqi freedom before the invasion many observers had expected a longer campaign of aerial bombing before any ground action taking as examples the gulf war or the 2001 invasion of afghanistan in practice u s plans envisioned simultaneous air and ground assaults to incapacitate the iraqi forces quickly which resulted in the shock and awe military campaign attempting to bypass iraqi military units and cities in most cases the assumption was that superior mobility and coordination of coalition forces would allow them to attack the heart of the iraqi command structure and destroy it in a short time and that this would minimize civilian deaths and damage to infrastructure it was expected that the elimination of the leadership would lead to the collapse of iraq s military and government and that much of the population would support the invaders once the government had been weakened occupation of cities and attacks on peripheral military units were viewed as undesirable distractions following turkey s decision to deny any official use of its territory the coalition was forced to modify the planned simultaneous attack from north and south 166 special operations forces from the cia and u s army managed to build and lead the kurdish peshmerga into an effective force and assault for the north the primary bases for the invasion were in kuwait and other persian gulf states one result of this was that one of the divisions intended for the invasion was forced to relocate and was unable to take part in the invasion until well into the war the iraqis immediately adapted to the invasion and began using unconventional tactics on 22 march american troops first encountered the insurgency tactics that would later define the war sgt 1st class anthony broadhead a platoon sergeant in the crazy horse troop of the 3rd infantry division s cavalry unit was in a tank heading towards a bridge in samawah on the invasion route he waved at a group of iraqis but instead of waving back they began attacking the american tanks with ak 47 rifles rocket propelled grenades and mortars because these types of paramilitary forces were well armed but indistinguishable from civilians they would come to pose a significant challenge for u s forces throughout iraq war 167 nasa landsat 7 image of baghdad 2 april 2003 the dark streaks are smoke from oil well fires set in an attempt to hinder attacking air forces the invasion itself was swift leading to the collapse of the iraqi government and the military of iraq in about three weeks the oil infrastructure of iraq was rapidly seized and secured with limited damage in that time securing the oil infrastructure was considered of great importance before the invasion iraqi forces had mined some 400 oil wells around basra and the al faw peninsula with explosives 168 169 170 coalition troops launched an air and amphibious assault on the al faw peninsula during the closing hours of 19 march to secure the oil fields there the amphibious assault was supported by warships of the royal navy polish navy and royal australian navy in the meantime british royal air force raf tornados from 9 and 617 squadrons attacked the radar defence systems protecting baghdad but lost a tornado on 22 march along with the pilot and navigator flight lieutenant kevin main and flight lieutenant dave williams shot down by an american patriot missile as they returned to their air base in kuwait 171 on 1 april an f 14 from uss kitty hawk crashed in southern iraq reportedly due to engine failure 172 and a s 3b viking plunged off the deck of the uss constellation after a malfunction and an av 8b harrier jump jet went into the gulf while it was trying to land on the uss nassau 173 the british 3 commando brigade with the u s navy s special boat team 22 task unit two 174 as well as the u s marine corps 15th marine expeditionary unit and the polish special forces unit grom attached attacked the port of umm qasr there they met with heavy resistance by iraqi troops a total of 14 coalition troops and 30 40 iraqi troops were killed and 450 iraqis taken prisoner the british army s 16 air assault brigade alongside elements of the raf regiment also secured the oil fields in southern iraq in places like rumaila while the polish commandos captured offshore oil platforms near the port preventing their destruction despite the rapid advance of the invasion forces some 44 oil wells were destroyed and set ablaze by iraqi explosives or by incidental fire however the wells were quickly capped and the fires put out preventing the ecological damage and loss of oil production capacity that had occurred at the end of the gulf war in keeping with the rapid advance plan the u s 3rd infantry division moved westward and then northward through the western desert toward baghdad while the 1st marine expeditionary force moved along highway 1 through the center of the country and 1 uk armoured division moved northward through the eastern marshland during the first week of the war iraqi forces fired a scud missile at the american battlefield update assessment center in camp doha kuwait the missile was intercepted and shot down by a patriot missile seconds before hitting the complex subsequently two a 10 warthogs attacked the missile launcher battle of nasiriyah edit main article battle of nasiriyah initially the u s 1st marine division fought through the rumaila oil fields and moved north to nasiriyah a moderate sized shi ite dominated city with important strategic significance as a major road junction and its proximity to nearby tallil airfield it was also situated near a number of strategically important bridges over the euphrates river the city was defended by a mix of regular iraqi army units ba ath loyalists and fedayeen from both iraq and abroad the u s army 3rd infantry division defeated iraqi forces entrenched in and around the airfield and bypassed the city to the west a u s amphibious fighting vehicle destroyed near nasiriyah on 23 march a convoy from the 3rd infantry division including the female american soldiers jessica lynch shoshana johnson and lori piestewa was ambushed after taking a wrong turn into the city eleven u s soldiers were killed and seven including lynch and johnson were captured 175 piestewa died of wounds shortly after capture while the remaining five prisoners of war were later rescued piestewa who was from tuba city arizona and an enrolled member of the hopi tribe was believed to have been the first native american woman killed in combat in a foreign war 176 on the same day u s marines from the 2nd marine division entered nasiriyah in force facing heavy resistance as they moved to secure two major bridges in the city several marines were killed during a firefight with fedayeen in the urban fighting at the saddam canal another 18 marines were killed in heavy fighting with iraqi soldiers an air force a 10 was involved in a case of friendly fire that resulted in the death of six marines when it accidentally attacked an american amphibious vehicle two other vehicles were destroyed when a barrage of rpg and small arms fire killed most of the marines inside 177 a marine from marine air control group 28 was killed by enemy fire and two marine engineers drowned in the saddam canal the bridges were secured and the second marine division set up a perimeter around the city a u s soldier stands guard duty near a burning oil well in the rumaila oil field 2 april 2003 on the evening of 24 march the 2nd light armored reconnaissance batta...
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