2003 Invasion
The 2003 invasion of Iraq was a United States-led invasion of the Republic of Iraq and the first stage of the Iraq War. The invasion phase began on 19 March 2003 (air) and 20 March 2003 (ground) and lasted just over one month, including 26 days of major combat operations, in which a combined force of troops from the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, and Poland invaded Iraq. Twenty-two days after the first day of the invasion, the capital city of Baghdad was captured by Coalition forces on 9 April 2003 after the six-day-long Battle of Baghdad. This early stage of the war formally ended on 1 May 2003 when U.S. President George W. Bush declared the "end of major combat operations" in his Mission Accomplished speech, after which the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) was established as the first of several successive transitional governments leading up to the first Iraqi parliamentary election in January 2005. U.S. military forces later remained in Iraq until the ...
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Iraqi National Congress
The Iraqi National Congress (INC; Arabic language, Arabic: المؤتمر الوطني العراقي ''Al-Moutammar Al-Watani Al-'Iraqi'') is an Iraqi political party that was led by Ahmed Chalabi who died in 2015. It was formed as an umbrella Iraqi opposition (pre-2003), opposition group with the aid and direction of the United States' government following the Gulf War, Persian Gulf War, for the purpose of fomenting the overthrow of longtime President of Iraq, Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. History INC was set up following the Gulf War, Persian Gulf War to coordinate the activities of various anti-Saddam groups. Then President of the United States, President George H. W. Bush signed a presidential finding directing the CIA, Central Intelligence Agency to create conditions for Saddam's removal in May 1991. Coordinating anti-Saddam groups was an important element of this strategy. The name INC was reportedly coined by public relations expert John Rendon (of the Rendon Group age ...
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