U.S. Marines help Iraqi people topple a statue of Saddam Hussein in Baghdad
Photographer: Patrick Baz (AFP)
Date: April 9, 2003
Location: Firdos Square, Baghdad, Iraq
This photograph documents the toppling of a large bronze statue of Saddam Hussein in Firdos Square in Baghdad on April 9, 2003, during the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. U.S. Marines helped Iraqi citizens and a vehicle crane pull down the 20-foot statue. The event was broadcast live worldwide on satellite television and presented as a symbolic moment in the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime. However, subsequent analysis — including examination of AP wire photographs that showed the wider square — revealed that the assembled crowd was small and mostly composed of journalists and a limited number of Iraqis, raising questions about whether the event was as spontaneous and representative as it appeared. The photograph became one of the defining images of the Iraq War and its early narrative of liberation. Alexandra Boulat was a French photojournalist who documented conflicts extensively; she died in 2007 of a brain aneurysm suffered while on assignment in Gaza.
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