Three years later, the Iraq war rages on

On March 20, 2003, Washington, supported by some 48 nations it described as the 'coalition of the willing', thumbed its nose at the UN and most of the rest of the world by launching Operation Iraqi Freedom.

The objective: to 'disarm Iraq of its weapons of mass destruction...(and) to liberate the Iraqi people from one of the worst tyrants and most brutal regimes on earth.'

On April 9, after three weeks of intense bombing and street battles, Baghdad was under American occupation, although looting and arson continued for weeks afterwards.

One by one, key associates of President Saddam Hussein were caught, killed or surrendered. Saddam's sons Uday and Qusay and one of his grandsons were shot in a raid in Mosul July 22, but Saddam remained elusive, despite reports of his being spotted by many Iraqis.

He was finally captured on December 13 from the bottom of a hole near his home town of Tikrit, nearly seven months after President Bush's May 1 declaration that 'major combat' in Iraq is over.

Image: Iraqi Shiite Muslim men beat a bust of ousted president Saddam Hussein following Friday noon prayers in Sadr City, a predominately Shiite suburb of Baghdad December 26, 2003.

Photograph : AHMAD AL-RUBAYE/AFP/Getty Images