Fallujah: Timeline of U.S. battles in Iraq

Invading Iraq

March 20, 2003

U.S. forces invade Iraq, vowing to destroy Iraqi weapons of mass destruction and end the rule of dictator Sadaam Hussein.

April 2003

U.S. and coalition forces overwhelm Iraqi Army. But loyalists to Sadaam Hussein form the core of the postwar insurgency. Three weeks after the invasion, Iraqi civilians and U.S. troops pull down a statue of Sadaam Hussein in Baghdad.

May 1, 2003

In a now-infamous speech aboard the U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln, President George W. Bush declares the mission accomplished.

Dec. 14, 2003

U.S. soldiers capture Sadaam Hussein, who is hiding in a six-to-eight-foot hole outside of his hometown of Tikrit.

Jan. 24, 2004

The Bush administration concedes it was wrong in its prewar claims that Sadaam was stockpiling extensive stores of weapons of mass destruction.

March 31, 2004

Four American contractors from the private military company Blackwater bypass a Marine checkpoint and drive into the city. They are met with a well-prepared, complex ambush from insurgents armed with small arms and rocket-propelled grenades. The four men are killed, dismembered, and set aflame, and two of the charred corpses are hung from the girders of a bridge over the Euphrates River in Fallujah while a large crowd cheers.

Sailors aboard USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN-72) man the rails as the ship pulls into NAS North Island in San Diego to a cheering crowd of family and friends during their port visit. It was on this ship that Bush gave his “mission accomplished” speech in May 2003. (Photo by U.S. Navy photographer Mate 3rd Class Juan E. Diaz)

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First Battle of Fallujah

Early April 2004

The first battle of Fallujah begins with US 1st Marine Division’s Regimental Combat Team-1 and a variety of Iraqi security forces engaging Sadaam loyalists and Sunni insurgents in Operation Vigilant Resolve. The mission aims to arrest the killers of the Blackwater contractors, clean out foreign fighters, remove heavy weapons from the city, and reopen Highway 10 for military traffic.

April 9, 2004

News accounts show a number of Iraqi civilians injured and dead, threatening the collapse of the Iraqi Governing Council and American plans for transition to Iraqi sovereignty. Marines temporarily halt operations, only to resume two days later.

May 1, 2004

Marines pull back from the city; the First Battle of Fallujah ends. In total, 39 Americans are killed and 90 wounded in the battle. About 200 insurgents are believed to have been killed. The number of civilian deaths are not fully known, but are estimated to be at least 600, half of those women and children.

U.S. Marines with Company A, 1st Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment fire against insurgents operating in Fallujah on April 7, 2004. (Photo by U.S. Marine Corps Cpl. Matthew J. Apprendi)

Second Battle of Fallujah

Summer/Fall 2004

After the First Battle of Fallujah, the U.S. turns the city over to a newly formed Iraqi security unit called the Fallujah Brigade. The brigade becomes incapable of controlling the city and many of its personnel desert or side with the opposition. Over the following months, the insurgency strengthens in Fallujah, attracting more fighters to its cause.

Nov. 7, 2004

Five days after President Bush is reelected, the Marines initiate Task Force Wolfpack. The assault consists of a company from the Marines’ 3rd Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion, a reinforced infantry company from 1st Battalion, 23d Marines, a reinforced mechanized infantry company from the U.S. Army’s 1st Battalion, 9th Infantry Regiment, and the Iraqi 36th Commando Battalion. They swiftly enter Fallujah’s west, at the bend of the Euphrates River, and secure the hospital and two bridges that span the waterway.

Nov. 8, 2004

Coalition forces conduct a 12-hour air bombardment focusing on the city’s south and southeast to mislead the insurgents about the direction of the attack.

After the airstrike, U.S. troops follow with artillery or mortars. Next, combined arms teams of armor, infantry, and engineers work together to advance across the city. Insurgents realize the U.S. has more firepower, so they fight from inside buildings using small arms, rocket-propelled grenades, and IEDs.

December 2004

Second Battle of Fallujah lasts until Dec. 23, 2004. Thirty-eight U.S. troops die, along with eight Iraqi soldiers. The Pentagon estimates 1,200 insurgents are killed, and the Red Cross says 800 Iraqi civilians are also dead.

A platoon from 1st Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment returns fire from a rooftop in Fallujah, Iraq, in November 2004. (Photo by USMC Cpl. Robert Day)

The Fight to Hold Fallujah

January 2005

The insurgents in Fallujah are largely destroyed, and civilians begin to return to the city.

2005-2006

Iraq holds an election and a Shiite coalition earns a plurality in parliament. This leads to a surge in sectarian violence. U.S. and civilian casualties continue to rise.

March 2007

Al-Qaeda fighters blow up a chlorine gas tanker in southern Fallujah, killing three U.S. soldiers and two other people and injuring hundreds.

Iraqi children encounter an Iraqi army soldier from 1st Tank Battalion, 2nd Brigade, 9th Iraqi Army division, during its patrol through an area known as Trash Village in the northern area of Baghdad, Iraq, in 2008. (Photo by Master Sgt. William Greer of the Defense Imagery Management Operations Center)

After Effects of Fallujah

May 2008

U.S. forces withdraw from Fallujah.

July 2010

A British scientist studying the health effects of radiation releases a study that shows a 12-fold increase in childhood cancer in Fallujah since 2004.

September 2012

One of the first studies is released showing a large increase in congenital birth defects in Iraqi cities heavily bombed by U.S. forces.

Late 2013

ISIS/ISIL take over Fallujah.

October 2016

Iraqi military drives out ISIS militants in a destructive battle.

August 2022

President Biden signs into law the PACT Act, which expands and extends VA health care and benefits to veterans who fought in the Gulf War and post-9/11 wars, including ones who fought in Fallujah. The law added more than 20 presumptive health conditions for burn pits, Agent Orange, and other toxic exposures and requires VA to provide a toxic exposure screening to every veteran enrolled in VA health care.

Fall 2024

The city of Fallujah is rebuilding, including a new promenade on the Euphrates River and businesses, according to NPR. But residents say memories of recent war, and ongoing conflict in the Middle East, leave them worried the current peace won’t last.

Twenty Years of Fallujah