An Iraqi soldier lies dead at the entrance to his bunker. He was killed by British troops as they cleared the Al-Faw Peninsula on March 22, 2003.

     An Iraqi soldier was killed by British forces who had captured the Al-Faw Peninsula on March 22, 2003, during the Iraq War, and his body lay collapsed at the entrance to a trench. In the Battle of Al-Faw, British forces quickly captured the Al-Faw Peninsula, which had been defended by Iraqi forces. They took away the oil revenue from the Iraqi government and defended against the scorched earth policy that the Iraqi army had carried out in Kuwait in 1991. The British military offensive began with an attack on Al-Faw on the night of March 20-21, 2003, and mobilized more than 2,000 troops. Fifteen British soldiers were killed in action, and four American soldiers were killed in action. Approximately 150 Iraqi soldiers were killed in action.

    The coalition forces launched a military invasion of Iraq on March 20th 2003. At the same time, they began air strikes and amphibious assaults on the Al-Faw Peninsula in order to secure the oil fields and important ports. The British Army secured the oil fields in southern Iraq. A total of 248,000 American soldiers, 45,000 British soldiers and 2,000 Australian soldiers were dispatched to invade Iraq.

     The Battle of Al-Faw began on March 20th 2003, at the same time as the invasion of Iraq, and lasted for four days.The coalition forces captured all the gas and oil platforms on the Al-Faw Peninsula before they were sabotaged and destroyed by the Iraqi army. Iraq defended the ecological disaster again, such as the Kuwait oil fire in 1991 and the Persian Gulf oil spill. By occupying the country's coast, the coalition forces could invade Iraq's oil production more quickly. At the same time, British forces occupied Iraq's only deep-water port at Umm Qasr, cleared the mines and brought in military supplies. All of Iraq's southern oil fields were concentrated on the Al-Faw peninsula, and 90% of Iraq's oil was exported from the Al-Faw coast.

    After just two weeks, British forces captured Iraq's second largest city, Basra, and occupied Saddam's palace there. In the land war in Iraq, many coalition forces encountered fierce opposition from the Iraqi army. By April 9, 2003, the US army had invaded Baghdad, and the Saddam Hussein regime had effectively come to an end. On May 1, US President George W. Bush gave a speech in which he declared the end of the Iraq War, saying, “The war in Iraq has been won, and the war on terror, which began on September 11, 2001, has been won.”