Timeline: Four years of turmoil
April 9, 2003: US
soldiers enter central Baghdad. Statue of Saddam Hussein is pulled down in
Firdos Square. Kurdish fighters and US troops take control of cities of Kirkuk
and Mosul in the north.
April 12:
Revealed in
the form of a deck of cards, the
US
Saddam regime.
May 22: UN Security
Council supports US-led administration in Iraq and ends economic sanctions.
May 23: US abolishes
Baath Party and institutions of former regime.
July 13:
US-appointed governing council meets.
July 22:
Saddam’s sons Uday and Qusay die in gun battle in Mosul.
August 19: Bomb attack on UN headquarters in Baghdad
kills 16.
August 21: Saddam’s cousin Ali Hassan al-Majid, known
as Chemical Ali, is captured.
August 29: Najaf car bomb kills 125 people, including
Shia leader Ayatollah Mohammed Baqr al-Hakim.
December 14: Saddam Hussein is captured in Tikrit.
February, 2004: More than 100 people killed in Irbil in
suicide attacks on offices of main Kurdish factions.
March: Suicide bombers attack Shia festival-goers in
Karbala and Baghdad, killing 140 people.
 |
|
Muqtada al-Sadr prays with followers in Najaf [Reuters] |
April-May: Fighters loyal to Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr
fight coalition forces.
June 28: Iraq’s US-occupation administration transfers
power to the interim Iraqi government in a surprise move two days ahead of the
scheduled handover.
August: Fighting in Najaf between US forces and
supporters of al-Sadr.
September 21: Kofi Annan, UN secretary-general,
delivers a stern rebuke to nations that "shamelessly disregard" international
law. The previous week, he branded the US-led war on Iraq as illegal.
October 6: The US Iraq Survey Group announces that 15
months of searching have uncovered no evidence that Saddam Hussein possessed
weapons of mass destruction.
November 16: British-born charity worker Margaret
Hassan is killed by her kidnappers.
December 17: Colin Powell and John Snow, US
secretaries, sign agreement with interim Iraqi finance minister cancelling
Iraq’s $4.1 billion debt to the US.
January 30, 2005: An estimated eight million people
vote in elections for a transitional national assembly. The Shia United Iraqi
Alliance wins a majority of assembly seats. Kurdish parties come second.
February 28: At least 114 people are killed by a car
bomb in Hilla, south of Baghdad.
April 6: Parliament selects Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, as
president. Ibrahim Jaafari, a Shia, is named as prime minister.
May: Major increase in car bombings, bomb explosions
and shootings, Iraqi ministries put the civilian death toll for May at 672, up
from 364 in the previous month.
June 14: Massoud Barzani becomes regional president of
Iraqi Kurdistan.
July 19: Study compiled by the non-governmental Iraq
Body Count organisation reports nearly 25,000 Iraqi civilians have been killed
since the US-led invasion.
August 28: Draft constitution endorsed by Shia and
Kurdish representatives, but not by Sunni negotiators.
August 31: More than 1,000 people die in a stampede in
Baghdad during a Shia ceremony.
October 19: Saddam Hussein is put on trial on charges
of crimes against humanity.
Voters approve a new constitution, which aims to create an
Islamic federal democracy.
December 15: Iraqis vote for the first, full-term
government and parliament since the US-led invasion.
January 20, 2006: Shia-led United Iraqi Alliance win
December’s parliamentary elections, but fail to gain an absolute majority.
February: A bomb attack on an important Shia shrine in
Samarra unleashes a wave of sectarian violence in which hundreds of people die.
April 22: Jalal Talabani, newly re-elected as
president, asks Shia compromise candidate Nuri al-Maliki to form a new
government. The move ends four months of political deadlock.
May and June: An average of more than 100 civilians per
day are killed in violence in Iraq, the UN reports.
June 7: Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, al-Qaeda leader in Iraq,
is killed in an air strike.
September: A ceremony to transfer operational command
from US-led forces to Iraq’s new army is postponed.
November: Saddam Hussein is found guilty of crimes
against humanity and sentenced to death.
Iraq and Syria restore diplomatic relations after nearly a
quarter century.
More than 200 die in car bombings in the mainly Shia area of
Sadr City in Baghdad.
 |
| Saddam Hussein is executed [AFP] |
December 30: Saddam Hussein is executed by hanging.
January, 2007: George Bush, US president, announces a
new Iraq strategy with thousands more US troops to be sent to increase security
in Baghdad.
Barzan Ibrahim, Saddam Hussein’s half-brother, and Awad Hamed
al-Bandar, former head of the revolutionary court, are executed by hanging.
UN reports more than 34,000 civilians were killed in violence
during 2006, the figure surpasses official Iraqi estimates three times over.
February: A bomb in Baghdad’s Sadriya market kills more
than 130 people.
March: Fighters explode three trucks with toxic
chlorine gas in Falluja and Ramadi, injuring hundreds of people.
March 20: Taha Yassin Ramadan, former vice-president,
is executed.
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