On March 20, 2003, as part of Operation Iraqi Freedom, 150,000 American soldiers and 40,000 British are deployed at dawn for a lightning intervention.
This invasion marks the beginning of one of the periods the bloodiest in the history of Iraq, the scene first of a terrible civil war (2006-2008), then of the occupation of part of its territory by Daesh.
From 2003 to 2011, the year of the withdrawal of the American army, more than 100,000 Iraqi civilians have been killed, according to the organization Iraq Body Count. The United States mourned nearly 4,500 deaths, mainly soldiers.