Iraq War Enters Sixth Year
伊拉克战争五年回顾 仍在平暴

Five years ago, on March 20, 2003, U.S.-led forces invaded Iraq to overthrow a dictatorship that President Bush accused of developing weapons of mass destruction. No WMD were ever found. In this first in a series of reports on the Iraq war, the fight against an insurgency continues even though a troop surge last year has helped reduce the level of violence.

五年前，也就是2003年3月20号，以美国为首的联军攻入伊拉克，推翻了被布什总统指称研制大规模杀伤性武器的萨达姆独裁政权。但是，在伊拉克没有找到大规模杀伤性武器。尽管去年实行的增兵计划使伊拉克境内的暴力事件有所减少，但打击暴乱活动的战斗仍在继续。

Combat in Iraq, and U.S. troops are still battling insurgents, five years after the invasion.

在对伊战争爆发五年之后，美国军队仍在同暴乱分子作战。

A U.S.-led coalition of some 300,000 troops launched the attack on Iraq in the pre-dawn hours of March 20, 2003. The objective was to topple Saddam Hussein's dictatorship - accused by the United States and its coalition partners of possessing and actively developing weapons of mass destruction.

2003年3月20号凌晨，以美国为首的大约30万联军向伊拉克发动进攻。这场战争的目的是推翻被美国及其盟友指称拥有并积极研制大规模杀伤武器的萨达姆政权。

In the build-up to the war, then U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell laid out the case against Iraq before the U.N. Security Council. In his presentation, he displayed aerial photographs of alleged chemical weapons sites and mobile labs designed to make nerve agents.

在准备发动战争的过程中，当时的美国国务卿鲍威尔在联合国安理会说明了向伊拉克开战的理由。鲍威尔在讲话中展示了从空中拍摄的照片，其中的图像被说成是化学武器所在地以及用于制造神经毒气的移动式实验室。

"Ladies and gentlemen, these are sophisticated facilities. For example, they can produce anthrax and botulinum toxin - in fact they can produce enough dry biological agent to kill thousands upon thousands of people," he said.

U.S.-led forces soon achieved the invasion's main objective - overthrowing Saddam Hussein's regime. Saddam himself was captured in December 2003, and then executed three years later after a lengthy trial.

以美国为首的联军很快就完成了对伊战争的主要目标，推翻了萨达姆政权。2003年12月，萨达姆被抓获。经过长时间的审判后，萨达姆于三年后被处死。

But no weapons of mass destruction were ever found, despite thorough searches of the Iraqi countryside by U.S. soldiers and teams of weapons specialists. By 2004, it was clear that any WMD Saddam Hussein possessed had been destroyed in the 1990s.

然而，尽管美国军人和武器专家组对伊拉克农村地区进行了全面的搜寻，但并没有找到任何大规模杀伤武器。人们在2004年明确得知，萨达姆曾经拥有的所有大规模杀伤武器都在上世纪90年代销毁了。

Meanwhile, an insurgency initially made up mainly of Sunni fighters grew in strength, taking a heavy toll on U.S. forces through roadside bombs and other attacks. Iraqi civilians, especially Shi'ites, also were targeted and many were killed.

最初主要由逊尼派穆斯林发动的暴乱活动不断增多，大量美国军人死于路边炸弹和其他袭击。伊拉克平民，特别是什叶派穆斯林，也成为袭击目标，很多人遭到杀害。

Anthony Cordesman, a military expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, says the Bush administration was unprepared to deal with the invasion's aftermath.

战略及国际研究中心的军事专家科德斯曼说，布什政府对伊拉克战争的善后工作没有做好准备。

"We went into Iraq prepared for one kind of war which was to overthrow Saddam's regime and defeat Iraq's conventional forces. We had the illusion we wouldn't need stability operations and nation-building," he said. "We were unprepared for what happened, we did not create the conditions for stability."

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