Ten years ago this week, President George W. Bush announced that the United States and coalition forces had begun military action against Iraq.

Here's a look back at some of the people who made headlines during the war.

Jessica Lynch

Then: Lynch, a 20-year-old private first class in the U.S. Army, was a prisoner of war who became a celebrity after American troops filmed her rescue in April 2003. She returned home to a hero's welcome and was awarded the Bronze Star. A television movie, "Saving Jessica Lynch," aired in November 2003.

Now: Lynch is out of the Army, and she recently earned a college degree in elementary education. In 2007, she told a House committee that the military lied about her capture. She said she had been billed as a "little girl Rambo" who went down fighting when her convoy was ambushed. "It was not true," she said. "The truth is always more heroic than the hype."

Lynch has a young daughter, Dakota Ann, who is named in honor of Lori Ann Piestewa, Lynch's best friend who was killed in the ambush. In a 2011 interview with CNN, Lynch said the injuries she suffered in Iraq still affect her and that she wears a leg brace. She had undergone 20 surgeries and expected more to come.

Muqtada al-Sadr

Then: A Shiite cleric with an intensely loyal following in Iraq, al-Sadr has long been one of the country's leading voices of anti-American sentiment. He and his Mehdi Army clashed frequently with coalition forces in the first few years of the war.

Now: Al-Sadr disbanded the Mehdi Army in 2008, announcing that it would instead be a movement to oppose secularism and Western thought. His political bloc has become a kingmaker in Iraqi politics: Its 39 members of Iraq's parliament were key to Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's winning a second term in 2010.

Al-Sadr rarely makes public appearances, but his supporters usually hold demonstrations every March to mark the anniversary of the Iraq war.

George W. Bush

Then: The 43rd president of the United States led a "coalition of the willing" into Iraq to remove Saddam Hussein and his suspected weapons of mass destruction.

Now: Bush has kept a low profile since his second term ended in 2009, and he recently said he's "pretty content" with life after the presidency.

In his memoir, "Decision Points," Bush wrote that he felt sick to his stomach when he found there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.

"I felt terrible about it," Bush told CNN's Candy Crowley in 2010. "On the other hand, those reports did point out that Saddam Hussein was very dangerous, that he had the capacity to make weapons. I'm convinced that if he were still in power today, the world would be a lot worse off."

Bush's presidential library, on the campus of Southern Methodist University in Dallas, opens to the public in May.

Hans Blix

Then: Blix was the United Nations' chief weapons inspector in the months before the war. He reported in January 2003 that the Iraqi government was not fully cooperating with U.N. inspectors looking for weapons of mass destruction. The United States started airstrikes two months later.

Now: Blix is chairman of an international advisory board for the United Arab Emirates, which is seeking a peaceful nuclear energy program. Since retiring from his U.N. post in 2003, Blix has written two books on Iraq and been critical of the Bush administration's decision to invade.

Lynndie England