Iraq invasion: 10 years later

When the last U.S. troops left Iraq in Dec. 2011, the "Operation Iraqi Freedom" combat mission came to an end. On March 19, a decade after U.S. troops were first deployed to Iraq, we look back at the soldiers, civilians and communities affected by the prolonged conflict.

In this photograph, Iraqi families leave Basra in southern Iraq, across one of the town's bridges manned by British soldiers. Iraq warned it would use all means, including suicide attacks, to stop the coalition's advance on Baghdad, as U.S. and British war planes pounded the capital and the southern city of Basra, March 30, 2003.

Credit: Dan Chung/AFP/Getty Images