Timeline of The 2003 Invasion of Iraq - March 22, 2003

March 22, 2003

• Airstrikes on Baghdad continued, with the attacks now concentrated on the city's outskirts.

• Around midnight UTC (early morning local time), reports said that 1,500 Turkish troops had moved into northern Iraq. The intervention of Turkish troops had been opposed by the U.S. German government has announced that it will call back the German AWACS personnel watching NATO airspace above Turkey if Turkish troops engage in fights in northern Iraq. Turkey later denied they’d moved troops into Iraq.

• At 1:15 UTC, a collision of two Royal Navy Westland Sea King helicopters based on HMS Ark Royal (R07) over the Persian Gulf kills six British personnel and one American.

• At 10:00 UTC, it was reported that U.S. forces were attempting to occupy the city of Basra, and were involved in a major tank battle on the western side of the city.

• Kurdish officials report a US missile attack on territory held by the Kurdish Islamist group Ansar al-Islam.

• According to Iraqi government reports, there were two civilians killed and 207 wounded, mostly women and children. There have been no defections or surrenders of Iraqi troops, and western footage to the contrary is showing kidnapped Iraqi civilians. Five US tanks and numerous vehicles have been destroyed by Iraqi fighters, and the coalition forces entered but been repelled from Umm Qasr. The Iraqi government put a bounty of 50 million dinars ($33,000) for capture, 25 million dinars for the killing of each "mercenary".

• Parts of the city of Basra are entered by the British.
• A hand grenade attack on a rear base of the 101st Airborne Division in Kuwait caused the death of Capt. Chris Seifert of the Army and Maj. Gregory Stone of the Air Force and injuries to 14 others. An American soldier, Sgt. Hasan Akbar was arrested for the attack.