On a dusty morning nearly 20 years ago, US troops marched on the streets of Ziyouna, a district in the east of Iraq's capital, Baghdad.
That day, April 9, 2003, made headlines around the world as a 12-metre bronze statue of dictator Saddam Hussein was destroyed by Iraqi civilians and American soldiers.
One man who saw it all happen at Baghdad's Firdos Square was Karim Sahib, 61, a photographer for the international news agency Agence France-Presse.
He now lives in Dubai and Mr Sahib relives those memories by looking at the photos he took during the invasion.
The city was full of American soldiers, their military vehicles, tanks and snipers, he says.
photographer, Agence France-Presse
Mr Sahib says he was with a group of journalists who were happy to shake hands with the US soldiers but he was scared. He was Iraqi, they were foreigners and that made all the difference.
“The group contacted the US troops to provide security after Saddam Hussein was toppled, leaving the country without police or army,” he tells The National.
“I was born and brought up in Iraq and was taught Americans are the enemy. It was the first time to see them closely.
“The soldiers were suspicious of me because I wasn’t friendly. They pulled out their guns, took my cameras and knocked me to the ground.
“That was the first insult I faced after the regime change.”
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The Iraq War: a timeline of events — in pictures
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January 29, 2002: US President George Bush identifies Iraq, Iran and North Korea as part of an 'axis of evil' in his State of the Union address. 'States like these, and their terrorist allies, constitute an axis of evil, arming to threaten the peace of the world. By seeking weapons of mass destruction, these regimes pose a grave and growing danger,' he says. Getty -
February 15, 2002: Thousands of people gather in Hyde Park in London after finishing a protest against war in Iraq. The march is believed to be the UK's biggest ever peace protest. Getty -
March 18, 2003: US and British forces move into position before a possible military strike near the Kuwait-Iraq border. A day prior, Mr Bush gave Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and his sons 48 hours to leave the country or face war. Getty -
March 21, 2003: Fires burn in and around Saddam's Council of Ministers during the first wave of US-led coalition airstrikes on Iraq in Baghdad. 'These are the opening stages of what will be a broad and concerted campaign,' he says in an address. The attack begins with a massive air strike campaign named 'shock and awe'. Getty -
March 29, 2003: A man and child walk on a road near the entrance of the besieged city of Basra as oil fires burn in the distance. Baath Party loyalists take up positions in Basra, Iraq's second largest city, making it a target of the US-led war on Iraq. Getty -
April 9, 2003: Iraq’s capital, Baghdad, falls to US forces. Saddam’s regime loses control as American troops enter the city centre. On May 1, US President George W Bush prematurely declares the end of major combat in Iraq. Reuters -
August 30, 2003: A burnt-out car is removed from outside Najaf’s Imam Ali Mosque, the holiest Shiite shrine in Iraq, a day after 87 people were killed in a car bomb attack. The attack raises sectarian tension as thousands of Iraqi Shiites, some of them backed by Iran, demand the right to form militias. Reuters -
December 13, 2003: Ousted president Saddam Hussein is found by US troops in a cellar south of Tikrit, near his hometown. 'Ladies and gentlemen, we got him,' says US ambassador Paul Bremer, who was appointed to lead the Coalition Provisional Authority. AFP -
March 31, 2004: A car burns in the aftermath of an insurgent attack on Fallujah, in which four Blackwater private security contractors were killed and their mutilated, burnt bodies were left hanging from a bridge. Reuters -
May 3, 2004: Coffins of US military personnel killed in Iraq are prepared to be offloaded at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware. Days later, Al Qaeda beheaded US businessman Nicholas Berg and recorded his killing. Reuters -
June 28, 2004: US administrator in Iraq Paul Bremer (R), Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi (C) and the country's most senior judge Midhat Mahmoud (L) smile as the US transfers sovereignty to Iraq in Baghdad. Mr Allawi calls the event 'a historic day' and says that Iraq was 'capable of controlling the security situation'. Reuters -
January 30, 2005: Iraqis vote in the first parliamentary elections of the post-Saddam era. Sunnis largely boycott the vote, while most Shiite parties coalesce into a sectarian bloc, cementing divisions within the country. Getty -
April 7, 2005: Veteran Kurdish leader Jalal Talabani raises his hands after being sworn in as Iraq's first democratically elected president. Later that month, Shiite Islamist Ibrahim Al Jaafari takes office as prime minister, hailing from the exiled Dawa Party. Getty -
July 24, 2005: Burnt-out vehicles at the scene of a lorry bombing outside a police station that killed 22 people in south-east Baghdad. The explosion also injured 25 people, destroyed 22 cars and 10 shops. AFP -
October 19, 2005: Saddam’s trial begins. Prosecutors focus on a massacre in the village of Dujail, 100 kilometres north of Baghdad, where about 150 people, including children, were killed following an assassination attempt against the former dictator. Many other charges relate to a genocidal campaign against Kurds during the 1980s, during which Saddam ordered a chemical attack on the town of Halabja, killing up to 5,000 people. Getty -
February 23, 2006: Iraqis clean up debris after an Al Qaeda bombing at Al Askariya holy Shiite shrine in Samarra, Iraq. Shiite police and militia members — in many cases indistinguishable — responded by rampaging through Sunni-majority areas, in an onslaught that coalition forces appeared powerless to halt. Getty -
June 8, 2006: Maj Gen Bill Caldwell speaks during a press conference as satellite images are shown of a US air strike that killed the leader of Al Qaeda in Iraq, Abu Musab Al Zarqawi, in a joint US-Iraqi raid. Getty -
December 30, 2006: Saddam is executed by hanging. The execution and taunting of Saddam before his death is secretly filmed by a witness, stirring further tension within Iraq. Getty -
January 11, 2007: US officers watch Mr Bush's speech announcing that another 20,000 soldiers will be sent to Iraq, at Camp Ramadi in Iraq's violent Anbar province. The approach becomes known as the 'Surge,' and envisages a closer partnership between US and Iraqi forces and tribes, as well as American forces being stationed closer to Iraqi communities. Getty -
July 12, 2007: Two Reuters photographers and five civilians are killed by a US Apache helicopter in Baghdad. US video footage of the incident would later be released by Wikileaks. EPA -
December 14, 2008: Mr Bush makes his final visit to Iraq to sign a co-operation agreement between Iraq and the US known as the Strategic Framework Agreement. At a press conference with Nouri Al Maliki, Munthadar Al Zaidi, a journalist, throws his shoes at Mr Bush. Mr Al Zaidi is severely beaten and jailed for six months. Reuters -
February 27, 2009: US President Barack Obama announces Washington’s decision to withdraw most American troops by August 31, 2010. Mr Obama says 50,000 troops will remain for smaller missions and to train Iraqi soldiers. EPA -
April 23: At least 80 people are killed in three suicide bombings in Baghdad, making it the biggest daily death toll since early 2008. A woman standing in a group of other women and children receiving aid reportedly set off one of the bombs. EPA -
December 21, 2010: Iraqi Prime Minister Mr Al Maliki (L) and members of his newly formed cabinet attend a voting session at the Iraqi Parliament in Baghdad, Iraq. The new government was unanimously approved, ending nine months of deadlock. Getty -
JANUARY 8, 2011: Populist Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr returns to Iraq after four years of self-imposed exile in Iran. In his first public statement, he urges his followers to resist the 'occupiers' of Iraq. EPA -
February 25, 2011: A 'day of rage' is declared as tens of thousands of Iraqis protest against Mr Al Maliki’s government. At least 23 people are killed and hundreds injured in a sign of Mr Al Maliki’s growing authoritarianism. Getty -
December 17, 2011: The last of the US Troop Brigade board a plane to depart Iraq at Camp Adder, now known as Imam Ali Base, near Nasiriyah, Iraq. Two days prior, the US military formally declared the end of the Iraq War in a ceremony in Baghdad. Getty -
December 23, 2012: Protests against harsh security crackdowns break out in Fallujah, Ramadi and Tikrit. Sunni protesters say men are being arbitrarily jailed without evidence while the government holds back pensions for former army officers. The demonstrations last until December 2013 when the Iraqi army tries to break up protest camps. EPA -
July 22, 2013: Mourners pray at the coffin of a victim killed during an attack on a prison in Taji, during a funeral at the Imam Ali shrine in Najaf. Reuters -
December 22, 2013: Funeral proceedings for a major general of the Iraqi army’s 7th division in Anbar. The division's leadership were killed when a house they are raiding explodes after being rigged with bombs. The mixed Sunni-Shiite group is seen as one of the last non-sectarian units in the Iraqi army. Reuters -
June 11, 2014: ISIS fighters stand guard at a checkpoint in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul. Days prior, the militants seized Iraq's second biggest city of Mosul as well as Tikrit, hometown of former dictator Saddam Hussein, and other towns and cities north of Baghdad. Reuters -
July 9, 2014: Al Nuri Mosque in Mosul before it was destroyed by ISIS militants during their retreat three years later. On June 29, Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi, leader of ISIS, appeared for the first time in public at the mosque to declare the caliphate. EPA -
October 18, 2014: Smoke rises over Syrian town of Kobani after an air strike. Three days prior, Washington launched a campaign called Operation Inherent Resolve. Over the next year, the US military conducts more than 8,000 air strikes in Iraq and Syria. Reuters -
November 13, 2015: Kurdish forces seized Sinjar from ISIS after a prolonged siege, in the largest urban battle undertaken by the Kurdish Peshmerga. Getty -
October 16, 2006: Iraq launches US-backed campaign to liberate Mosul from ISIS. EPA -
October 21, 2016: Fire at an oil field that was set on fire by retreating ISIS fighters before the Mosul offensive in Qayyarah, Iraq. Getty -
July 2, 2017: While retreating from Mosul, ISIS destroys Al Nuri mosque. Iraqi forces encounter stiff resistance from ISIS with improvised explosive devices, car bombs, suicide bombers, heavy mortar fire and snipers hampering their advance. Getty -
July 9, 2017: Iraqi Prime Minister Haider Al Abadi declares victory over ISIS in Mosul. In December, he declares full victory over ISIS. AFP
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Mr Sahib saw the US soldiers pulling down Saddam's statue. He took photos of a group of Iraqis striking the head of the statue with their shoes.
“I laughed when I saw the pictures I took. Just four days before I'd taken photos of the same people kissing the hand of Saddam's statue.
“How can nations change their opinion and mood in just days?”
He says Saddam’s regime was toppled in a few hours and everybody was in hiding as they feared the US troops.
“One day, we had a country and a government; the second day there was nothing. It was surreal,” he says.
The 2003 war was followed by years of conflict and turmoil in which at least 210,000 civilians were killed and millions of Iraqis were forced to leave the country.
“Our life became a nightmare. With the US troops, insurgents and militias, Baghdad became a front line,” he says.
In 2004, Mr Sahib went to Fallujah city and saw empty checkpoints.
He saw a group of men and children killing four US contractors. Their burnt bodies were dragged through the city's streets and hung from a bridge across the Euphrates River.
“I didn’t know who they are. They carried a signboard saying ‘Fallujah is the cemetery for Americans’. I took pictures and returned,” he says.
“The US announced war on Fallujah after my pictures went viral.”
Mr Sahib says he was abducted by the Al Qaeda group in Fallujah for 45 minutes in 2005 as his family were leaving for Syria.
“I had to tell the truth through my pictures despite it being hard,” he says.
He walked to dangerous areas, recorded incidences of car bombs, took pictures of bodies and people grieving their loved ones. This haunted and traumatised him.
“The civil war was devastating to us. I was in the middle of battles between the militias and the Americans on a daily basis. Nightmares still haunt me even today,” he says
AFP moved Mr Sahib, his wife, four daughters and son to Paris. He went to Dubai with his family in 2006.
“I like being in the UAE as it is a safe country. But after so many years I need to return to Iraq and settle down,” he says.
“I think the region has become quiet now and conflicts are coming to an end.
“Iraq went through sectarian violence, but people have learnt lessons and the violence has subsided.”
He believes Iraq has the potential to become a great country and have a better future.
“We have the natural and human resources. Despite wars and conflicts, Iraq will rise again with the help of the younger generation and the Iraqis who lived and studied outside Iraq after 2003,” he says.
'I hope to open a nursery in Iraq someday'
Sally Al Shakarchi had graduated from Baghdad University when her family decided to go to Egypt three months before the invasion. She says her father knew that war was imminent.
On March 19, 2003, her father asked her to turn on the TV as the Iraq war had started.
“I was sitting all day in front of the TV watching the news. Sometimes we would stay up late to see how the war was progressing. The tension and anxiety can’t be described as I watched my city bombed,” Ms Al Shakarchi tells The National.
“The fall of Saddam’s statue at the end of the war will forever stay in my mind. We had feelings of joy and fear. Iraqis wanted to remove Saddam but someone else [US troops] did it.”
The family returned to Baghdad in June 2003 as her younger brother wanted to finish his college exams. Her father was hopeful that normality would return soon and that Iraq would be a modern country in five years.
“Unfortunately, things turned upside down and the country went into chaos after 2003. I remember my father would not allow us to step outside our house because of the fear and tension,” says Ms Al Shakarchi, who is now 43 and has two children.
“We decided to travel to Jordan in late 2003 and when I crossed the border I didn’t know that it would be the last time I was seeing my country.”
She married in 2006 and moved to Dubai.
“What hurts me is I barely remember Baghdad now. I don’t remember the streets or people's faces,” she says.
She opened a nursery in Sharjah and then later another branch in Dubai's City Walk. She also owns a cafe at Dubai University.
“The UAE is a great country to live in and helped me to develop my skills and become a businesswoman despite all odds and challenges,” she says.
After 20 years of the war, Ms Al Shakarchi dreams of opening a nursery in Iraq one day.
But sadly, she believes Iraq has no clear plan to develop even 20 years after the fall of Saddam’s regime.
“I don’t know where Iraq is going. They should let well-educated Iraqis return and rebuild the country,” she says.
'I saw my country being destroyed'
Yasir Waleed, 51, an Iraqi engineer, moved to the UAE in 1999.
He was safe in the Emirates when the war broke out but he says he saw everything on TV.
“I can’t forget these days. There was no communication with my family in Iraq and the media coverage of the war was confusing. I was shocked when Baghdad fell. My father called to say they were safe,” he says.
The war haunted him daily and he was so preoccupied with his grief that he cut the tip of his finger while using a machine on April 18, 2003.
“I was staring at the wall when the packing machine pulled my finger. It cut a piece of my finger. Whenever I look at my finger, I remember these horrible days,” he says.
Mr Waleed says he went to Iraq in January 2003, two months before March 19, 2003 — the day war was declared.
“There were no flights between the UAE and Iraq at that time so I travelled on a ship. I saw US Navy ships everywhere in the sea near Basra. I returned to the UAE in February and there were more ships.
“It was a scary scene and I knew my country was going to war.”
He says that he settled in the UAE to have a good life but wants to return to Iraq and start a business.
“My two children don’t want to return to Iraq, but I want to go back. I want to be with my family back home. In the end, I want to die and be buried in my country,” says Mr Waleed.
Mr Sahib, Ms Al Shakarchi and Mr Waleed are among the thousands of Iraqis who witnessed violence and were forced to leave their country. Twenty years on, they live in the hope to return home one day.
