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The American and British administrations invaded Iraq in a forceful military operation, culminating in the occupation of the country on 10 April 2003. Two decades later, Iraq continues to grapple with the economic, social, security and environmental repercussions of three ensuing conflicts stemming from this occupation. This article provides a preliminary assessment of the environmental impacts arising from the occupation forces’ use of excessive and indiscriminate firepower, the employment of tens of thousands of heavy tanks and artilleries and their traffic, over five hundred military bases and the 600 battles of the counter-insurgency war. The damaging effects of all of these destructive events on the semi-arid, fragile soil and ecosystem in Iraq have been profound. The contamination with radioactive, hazardous and toxic materials from explosives and war remnants, along with the collapse of the environmental protection system, have all resulted in serious degradation of quality-of-human-life parameters and the natural ecosystem.
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