Iraq: Renewed violence in Anbar province - timeline
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- November 2007. A car bomb explodes outside a courthouse in the city of Ramadi (the capital of Anbar province), in western Iraq, killing up to six people, including at least one police officer, and injuring 14 others.
- September 2007. US President George W. Bush, on a surprise visit to the al-Asad air base in Anbar province, says that co-operation between Sunni tribal chiefs and US military forces has made the province "one of the safest places in Iraq".
- June 2007. A suicide bomber in Anbar province strikes a gathering of tribal leaders opposed to al-Qaida and kills at least 15 people. At a meeting of the Anbar Salvation Council in Baghdad (the capital), a suicide bomber kills 12 people.
- May 2007. Two car bombs explode near a police checkpoint north of Ramadi, killing 25 people, including six police officers.
- April 2007. A truck rigged with explosives and chlorine is driven into a checkpoint near Ramadi, killing at least 27 people and wounding dozens.
- February 2007. In Ramadi 11 people are killed in a double suicide car bomb attack at the home of tribal leader Sattar al-Buzayih, a leader of the Awakening, a coalition of clans in the region opposed to al-Qaida-affiliated extremists.
- December 2006. Saddam Hussein, the former Iraqi president ousted by US-led forces in April 2003, is executed.
- November 2006. Saddam Hussein is sentenced to death after being found guilty of crimes against humanity for ordering the execution of at least 143 people in the mostly Shia village of Dujail, 55 km north of Baghdad, in the aftermath of an attempt on his life.
- February 2006. A bomb attack on one of Iraq's most famous Shia Muslim religious shrines sparks retaliatory attacks across the nation and raises fears that the country is sliding into open civil war.
- December 2005. Elections are held to the 275-member Council of Representatives (the unicameral legislature).
- November 2005. The International Herald Tribute reports that a group of tribal Sunni sheikhs and academics have recently met in Ramadi and have announced a new movement to contest the forthcoming legislative elections.
- October 2005. In a national referendum voters narrowly approve a new constitution.
- October 2005. A suicide bombing outside a Shia mosque in Hillah, 100 km south of Baghdad, kills at least 25 people and wounds 90 more.
- May 2005. US forces launch "Operation Matador" in the western province of Anbar designed to cut the lines of communications by which foreign Islamist suicide bombers are entering Iraq.
- November 2004. Insurgents raid three police stations in the far west of Anbar province, killing at least 21 people.
- October 2004. The decapitated body of Shosei Koda, a 24-year-old Japanese civilian, is found wrapped in a US flag in Baghdad.
- October 2004. The Iraq Survey Group (ISG), the US-led team of scientists and military personnel formed in May 2003 to hunt for weapons of mass destruction (WMD) in Iraq, issues its final report.
- June 2004. The US-led Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) transfers sovereignty to an interim Iraqi government led by Prime Minister Ayad Allawi.
- May 2004. Izzedin Salim (also known as Abdul Zahraa Othman), who had assumed the rotating post of president of the Iraqi Governing Council (IGC—the 25-member interim authority for postwar Iraq), is assassinated in a suicide car bomb attack.
- April 2004. US President Bush expresses "deep regret" in response to the publication of photographs showing naked Iraqi prisoners posed in sexually degrading positions by US military guards at the Abu Ghraib prison.
- April 2004. The US CBS News programme 60 Minutes II broadcasts pictures taken by US guards in Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad of US soldiers forcing Iraqi prisoners into acts of sexual humiliation and other abuses.
- December 2003. Saddam Hussein is captured by US soldiers near his home town of Tikrit.
- October 2003. Two US soldiers and two Iraqis die in fighting in Sadr City, near the headquarters of Muqtada al-Sadr, a young, popular Shia Muslim cleric and the spiritual head of the Jaysh al-Mahdi militia, the "Mahdi Army".
- August 2003. The toll of US troops killed in postwar Iraq increases to 139, thereby surpassing by one the total number of US troops who died from the start of the war in March until May 1 when President Bush declared the end of hostilities.
- May 2003. Bush, visiting the USS Abraham Lincoln at sea off the coast of San Diego, California, delivers a speech announcing that combat operations in Iraq have ended, despite the fact that sporadic fighting continues.
- April 2003. The regime of Saddam Hussein collapses under the pressure of an overwhelming military onslaught from US and UK forces.
- March 2003. The USA, with the support of the UK, launches war against Iraq with the aims of disarming the country of its weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and deposing Saddam Hussein and his regime.
- November 2002. Bush threatens Iraq with "the severest consequences" if it fails to comply with "the full disarmament of weapons of mass destruction".
- December 1998. US and UK forces strike Iraqi targets in four days of bombing in response to Saddam Hussein’s failure to provide unfettered access to UN arms inspectors.
- May 1994. Saddam Hussein assumes the role of Iraqi prime minister.
- June 1993. The USA bombs targets in Iraq to punish Saddam Hussein who, it claims, had planned to assassinate former US President George H. Bush.
- April 1991. A UN ceasefire resolution stipulates that sanctions against Iraq will be lifted only after Iraq had been divested of its unconventional weapons and medium-range missiles.
- February 1991. Iraqi forces withdraw from Kuwait in the face of military action by a US-led coalition.
- August 1990. Iraqi forces invade Kuwait; Iraq accepts Iran's terms for a comprehensive peace plan.
- March 1988. Iraqi aircraft bomb the town of Halabja and nearby settlements with chemical weapons.
- September 1980. Iraqi forces invade Iran.
- July 1979. President Ahmed Hassan Bakr is forced to resign on the grounds of ill health and names Saddam Hussein, a relative, as his successor to the offices of president, chairman of the ruling Revolutionary Command Council, and secretary general of the regional command of the Ba’ath Party.
- July 1968. The Ba’athists led by Gen. Bakr seize power.
- November 1963. The Ba’athist regime is overthrown.
- February 1963. Gen. Abdul Karim Kassem is ousted in a coup led by the Ba’ath Party.
- July 1958. The Iraqi monarchy is overthrown in a military coup, led by Brig. Kassen and Col Abdul Salam Aref, and the country is declared a republic.
- October 1932. Iraq achieves independence from the UK.
- 1930. The Anglo-Iraqi treaty of alliance is signed.
- 1927. Oil is discovered in the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk.
- 1921. Iraq becomes a kingdom under the Hashemite monarch Amir Faisal ibn Hussain (Faisal I).
- 1920-32. Following World War I, Iraq is put under a League of Nations mandate administered by the UK.
- 1534. Area that is now Iraq becomes part of the Ottoman empire.
