Mannequin Display, Post 1945, Iraq War (2nd Gulf War), 2003 to 2013

The Iraq War had its origins in the First Gulf War of 1990 and 1991. During that conflict, Iraqi forces which had invaded Kuwait were driven out by an international coalition that included Australia. The coalition’s operation ended at Kuwait’s border with Iraq, and Hussein remained in power in Iraq. Ten years later, after the 2001 terrorist attacks in the US, senior politicians and military leaders seized the opportunity to intervene in Iraq.
At a meeting on 8 November 2002, the United Nations Security Council issued Resolution 1441 (2002). When Iraq failed to comply with its obligations by 17 March 2003, US senior political and military leaders and their allies took action. They planned to locate and destroy suspected weapons of mass destruction (WMDs), sever Iraq’s ties with terrorists and try to remove Saddam Hussein from power.
The US led a ‘coalition of the willing’ into Iraq under Multi-National Force–Iraq (MNF-I) on 20 March 2003. Within 3 weeks, Coalition forces had seized Baghdad and overthrown Hussein’s dictatorship. Operations in Iraq continued with a challenging campaign of nation-building and counterinsurgency to prevent Iraq from sliding into civil war.
The ADF deployed personnel from all 3 its services (Navy, Army and Air Force). Australians served in the Iraq War under:
• Operation Bastille (deployment and preparation phase)
• Operation Falconer (offensive operations phase) from 18 March 2003 to 15 July 2003
• Operation Catalyst (post-offensive phase) from 16 July 2003 to 31 July 2009.
When Australia had withdrawn almost all its troops, the ADF maintained a small presence in Iraq through:
• Operation Kruger from 1 January 2009 to 9 August 2011
• Operation Riverbank from 21 July 2008 to 14 December 2013.