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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
World
Maya Yang

How women played crucial roles in Iraq – and changed US military forever

A US marine patrols the central Iraqi city of Yusufiyah, south of Baghdad, in December 2004 as a group of schoolgirls make their way home.
A US marine patrols the central Iraqi city of Yusufiyah, south of Baghdad, in December 2004 as a group of schoolgirls make their way home. Photograph: Odd Andersen/AFP/Getty Images

At the time of the US-led invasion of Iraq, American military women were still officially banned from ground combat.

Yet the nature of that war with its ill-defined frontlines and insurgent attacks meant that female troops quickly found themselves under enemy fire – and they began firing back. Twenty years on, what started on that chaotic battlefield in Iraq ended up changing the US armed forces forever.

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