'Mission accomplished': Bush says Iraq war is over

The speech was given shortly after the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 and was intended to announce the end of major combat operations

On 1 May 2003, only six weeks into the US-led war on Iraq, US President George W. Bush delivered a victory speech aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier, announcing the end of major combat operations in Iraq and declaring victory in the war. The speech was delivered in front of a large banner that read ‘Mission Accomplished’. Saddam was captured later that year in December and subsequently hanged in 2006.

READ: US Defence Secretary makes unannounced visit to Iraq, 20 years after invasion

Unless otherwise stated in the article above, this work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. If the image(s) bear our credit, this license also applies to them. What does that mean? For other permissions, please contact us.