A British soldier watches black smoke rising from the southern port city of Basra. The burning building on the right, a technical college, was repeatedly shelled by British forces in response to Iraqi sniper attacks. 

An Iraqi woman walks through a plume of smoke rising from a massive fire at a liquie gas factory as she searches for her husband. The fire was allegedly started by looters picking through the factory, and residents in the vicinity feared the explosion of the four liquid gas tanks on the premises. 

Suspected insurgents are detained inside a Bradley Fighting Vehicle to be transported to a detention facility during an early morning raid. Soldiers from the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment and Iraqi soldiers moved into Tal Afar with Bradleys, tanks, and Humvees. Helicopters provided air support as the soldiers searched houses and detained suspects. 

An Iraqi child jumps over the remains of victims found in a mass grave south of Baghdad.  The bodies had been brought to this school for identification by family members who searched for identity cards and other clues among the skeletons to identify missing family members.  The victims were killed by Saddam Hussein’s government during a Shi’ite uprising here following the 1991 Gulf War.

In Saddam Hussein’s hometown, a US Marine slides down a marble handrail in one of the dictator’s extravagant palaces. The residence contained carpets worth hundreds of thousands of dollars and at least one golden toilet. Tikrit was the last major city to fall to Allied forces during the invasion and, despite fighting that continued throughout Iraq, Marines celebrated victory. 

Samar Hassan, five, screams moments after her parents were killed by US soldiers from the 25th Infantry Division. The troops fired on the Hassan family car when it unwittingly approached during a dusk patrol in the tense northern town. Her brother, Racan, eleven, was wounded in the shooting. Later, after being treated in the US and returning to Iraq, Racan was killed when insurgents bombed the family home in retaliation for the boy’s trip to the US. 

US Marines remove their dead and wounded after an artillery shell scored a direct hit on a US armored vehicle during an attack on Diwaniya Bridge.

An Iraqi suspect in an early morning roadside attack on an American convoy is "bagged and tied" by American soldiers. He lies waiting on the lawn of a neighbor's house while the soldiers discuss their next move. 

Six weeks before the start of the war, a man sits drinking tea at the Al Zahawi cafe on Rashid Street.  Cafes are a trademark of this ancient city, gathering places where men play dominos, blackjack and socialize.