---
title: "Here’s What Mosul Looked Like When US Troops Invaded It The First Time"
date: "2017-03-17"
modified: "2017-03-17"
authors:
  - name: "Adam Linehan"
    link: "https://taskandpurpose.com/authors/adamlinehan.md"
url: "https://taskandpurpose.com/history/heres-mosul-looked-like-us-troops-invaded-first-time/"
categories:
  - "History"
  - "Iraq War"
  - "Past Conflicts"
---

# Here’s What Mosul Looked Like When US Troops Invaded It The First Time

![](<https://taskandpurpose.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/03/19039262-1.png>)

In 2003, as the American occupation of Iraq got underway, the 101st Airborne Division led by Maj. Gen. David H. Petraeus established its headquarters in Mosul — a vast metropolis in northern Iraq.

Over the course of the occupation, Mosul saw heavy clashes between coalition forces and insurgents. More than 150 American soldiers were killed in the city, [according to icasualties.org](<https://icasualties.org/Iraq/ByBase.aspx>).

Now, six years after President Obama oversaw the withdrawal of all U.S. combat troops from Iraq, Mosul is again the scene of heavy fighting — this time primarily between Iraqi and Kurdish forces and the army of the Islamic State.

There are American soldiers there, too. Some have [been wounded on the frontline](<https://www.cnn.com/2017/02/22/politics/us-troops-wounded-mosul-iraq-isis/>). Every day, they risk their lives fighting alongside their local counterparts to expunge the remnants of ISIS from Mosul.

Here's what that same battlefield looked like in 2003.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g2G5Fb03I9s

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