I tend to agree with Lindy on this.
The place should have been, at the very least, surrounded by special forces at the openning stages of the war. and airborne forces as soon as our troops got within reach of the place. Such a high value target should not have been left unguarded for serveral days, especially after the looting of government facilities began to be witnessed. This was clearly a significant blunder on the part of our military planners.