The Iraq war: 5 years on

American and British bombers begin their attack on Iraq in the early hours of 20 March 2003. Baghdad – the capital and President Saddam Hussein’s seat of power – is lit up by fires and smoke billows from the planning ministry building Photograph: Ramzi Haidar/EPA

The much publicised ‘rescue’ of the American POW Private Jessica Lynch from her bed in Nassiriya hospital on 1 April 2003 was first used to bolster public backing for the war, but later caused outrage when it was learnt that the rescue and the facts surrounding her capture had been manipulated by the United States military Photograph: AP

The fall of Saddam Hussein’s statue became one of the enduring images of the war in Iraq, although there has been some speculation that it was staged by US forces. A little before the statue came down, an American soldier climbed up and draped the face with a US flag. The crowd did not welcome the move, seeing it as a step too far towards American triumphalism, and the flag was quickly removed to be replaced by the old Iraqi one. Photograph: Jerome Delay/AP

April 9 2003, Baghdad, Iraq: U S Marines tie a cable around the neck of a statue of Saddam Hussein Photograph: APTN/AP

Photographs of the bodies of Saddam’s sons Uday and Qusay, both notorious henchmen for the dictator, are released by American forces on 24 July 2003 to prove to the Iraqi people that the two siblings had been killed earlier in a fierce gun battle Photograph: U S government/AP

‘Ladies and gentlemen, we got him,’ says Lieutenant Paul Bremer, the US administrator, annoucing that Saddam had been found hiding in a hole in a farmyard near Tikrit. The video of Saddam undergoing medical checks showed him bedraggled Photograph: video grab

This image of a hooded and wired Iraqi prisoner being tortured at Abu Ghraib prison, Baghdad, is one of a series of notorious photographs that were released on 1 May 2004. The pictures reveal the abuse meted out by US forces on their captives Photograph: The New Yorker/AP

March 31 2004, Falluja, Iraq: Iraqis chant anti-American slogans as charred bodies hang from a bridge over the Euphrates river Photograph: Khalid Mohammed/AP

June 13 2004, Baghdad, Iraq: The mother of Samah Hussein cries over his body after he was killed when a suicide attacker detonated a car bomb outside the U S military camp Cuervo Photograph: Samir Mizban/AP

Lance Cpl James Blake Miller, a country boy from Kentucky, during the Marines’ assault on the Iraqi insurgents’ stronghold of Falluja on 9 November 2004. The picture showed a soldier at breaking point and was used around the world Photograph: Luis Sinco/AP

April 7 2006, Baghdad, Iraq: Iraqi soldiers secure the scene of a suicide attack on the Buratha mosque Photograph: Khalid Mohammed/AP

Pictures from Iraqi state television show the deposed dictator Saddam Hussein moments before he is hanged in Baghdad on 30 December 2006. Mobile phone videos taken by prison guards who taunted him on the gallows caused outrage Photograph: DSK/AFP

July 29 2007, Jakarta, Indonesia: An young Iraqi supporter shouts slogans as he waits for the final match of AFC Asian Cup 2007 between Iraq and Saudi Arabia Photograph: Mast Irham/EPA

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the President of neighbouring Iran – one of Iraq’s deadliest rivals and a country with which it fought a very costly war from 1980-88 – turns up in Baghdad on 3 March and urges foreign forces, led by the US, to leave the country. Here, he visits the Shia shrine of imams Musa al-Kadhim and Mohammed al-Jawad Photograph: Hossein Salmanzadeh/AFP