Monday marks two decades since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, which was meant to topple a dictator who had inflicted reckless wars and economic misery on his fellow Iraqis, but instead forced years of upheaval and chaos for Iraqis across the country.

Tens of thousands of Iraqi civilians and insurgents were killed in the years that followed the U.S.-led invasion, launched on the basis of a U.S. charge that Iraq had stockpiled weapons of mass destruction, a claim that proved false. A devastating insurgency, first by Saddam Hussein loyalists and then by al Qaeda, was followed by a sectarian civil war and later the rise of Islamic State, which occupied a third of the country and slaughtered thousands.

"(Former U.S president George) Bush had promised that Iraq would become a paradise," Iraqi journalist Kamal al-Kaabi said, standing near Baghdad's Freedom Monument. “This event is painful for each Iraqi, because we passed through huge disasters and until now, 20 years later, we did not see anything from the promise."

Separately, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg met with Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein in Brussels, Belgium to mark the sombre occasion, each expressing their desire for partnership between the country and the organization to achieve stability.

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