Iraq War anniversary: Facts and figures about the conflict

This week marks the 10th anniversary of the invasion of Iraq. Here are a few facts about the conflict.

- Britain was one of 26 countries which made up the multi-national force in Iraq. It had the second largest representation after the US.

- The majority of UK service personnel were based in Basra in south east Iraq, with a small number in Baghdad.

[Related: Iraq War anniversary: What lessons have been learnt?]

- At its height - during the early stages of the invasion - the number of British troops in Iraq numbered some 46,000. After the initial invasion, the number dropped to 8,600.

- Britain ended combat operations in Iraq on April 30, 2009. By this time a total of 179 UK service personnel had died in the conflict.

- The biggest loss of British life in a single incident occurred on January 30, 2005. Nine personnel from the Royal Air Force and one from the Army died when a RAF Hercules crashed 19 miles north west of Baghdad.

- According to Iraq Body Count, an organisation which cross-checks data from media reports, hospital and mortuary records, the civilian death toll stands at 112,017 to 122,438 since March 2003. Studies by medical journal The Lancet have suggested that the true figure is far higher. A report in October 2006 stated the death toll as 654,965.

- 210 journalists and media assistants from around the world were killed between March 2003 and the beginning of 2008, with two missing and 15 others kidnapped, according to figures from Reporters Without Borders.

- A number of British civilians were also caught up in the conflict. Ken Bigley, from Liverpool, was beheaded after being captured by Iraqi militants in September 2004. Irish aid worker Margaret Hassan was abducted the following month by unidentified kidnappers and later murdered. Security guards Alan McMenemy, Jason Creswell, both from Glasgow, Jason Swindlehurst, from Skelmersdale, Lancashire, and Alec MacLachlan, from Llanelli, south Wales, were all taken hostage in May 2007 with news of their deaths later confirmed.

But their fellow captor Peter Moore, from Lincoln, was freed in December 2009, 946 days after he was kidnapped. British peace activist Norman Kember was also liberated in a rescue mission led by the SAS in March 2006 after being captured in Baghdad with two Canadians and an American. Guardian journalist Rory Carroll was kidnapped in the city in October 2005, but was freed after being held for just 36 hours in a dark underground cell.

- Another death during the conflict was that of former weapons inspector David Kelly, who killed himself in July 2003 after it was revealed he was the source of a BBC report casting doubt on a Government dossier claiming Saddam Hussein had WMD that could be launched within 45 minutes.

[Related: A decade on and conflict continues to cast a shadow over the UK]

- The Ministry of Defence announced in February 2007 that Prince Harry was to be sent to Iraq but then three months later said he would not be able to because of the "unacceptable risks".

- On February 15, 2003 the Stop The War coalition staged the UK's biggest ever demonstration. Organisers claim that up to 2 million people attended the London protest.

- As well as this, an estimated six to 10 million people participated in protests across the globe making it the largest mass protest movement in history to date.

- A 2007 poll commissioned by War On Want found that more people thought Britain went into Iraq to gain control of the country's oil than for any other reason.

- More than a third (37%) of people who took part in a survey in February 2010 said they thought Tony Blair should face a trial for taking the UK into the conflict - including one in four Labour supporters.

- A poll of 2,000 Iraqis in 2007 found that 43% said life was better than before the invasion, 36% said it was worse and 22% thought it was roughly the same.

- The same survey, commissioned by the BBC and other Western media, found that 22% of Iraqis supported the presence of coalition forces, with 78% opposing occupying troops.

- The war cost the UK more than £9 billion.

- The long-awaited Iraq inquiry, chaired by Sir John Chilcot, began in November 2009, ending in February 2011. It examined the period from 2001 to the end of July 2009 and saw former prime minister Tony Blair recalled for a second appearance to explain gaps in his earlier evidence and apparent discrepancies between his account and official documents and other witnesses' testimony.

Sir John's final report has been put back to this summer and is likely to be more than a million words long.

- Another public inquiry is finally due to start this year, looking into allegations that British soldiers murdered and tortured civilians during the Iraq War. The Al-Sweady Inquiry is examining claims that UK soldiers murdered 20 or more Iraqis and tortured others after the "Battle of Danny Boy" in Maysan Province, southern Iraq, in May 2004, which is denied by the MoD.

- A new Iraqi constitution defining the country as democratic and pluralist was adopted in October 2005.

- Democratic elections held in December 2005 saw 12 million Iraqis - 76% of the electorate - turn out to vote.

- A report published earlier this month found that 10 years on from the intervention, the country remains mired in human rights abuses. Thousands of Iraqis are detained without trial or serving prison sentences imposed after unfair hearings, torture remains rife, and the new Iraq is one of the world's leading executioners, Amnesty International said.