For more than 30 years, Robert Fisk reported on conflict across the Middle East for The Independent, and few moments were as consequential as the beginning of Operation Iraqi Freedom – that first night of “shock and awe” that marked the beginning of a disastrous war.
On 20 March 2003, as American bombs rained on Baghdad and Fisk – who died in 2020 aged 74 – was there to witness it all. With unparalleled insight, his reports capture the fear and bemusement of Iraqis in the face of terror, and the unknowable brutality of the conflict that lay ahead of them. Here are his dispatches, as published in The Independent on 21 March 2003:
