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Iraq invasion: chronology
20/03/2008 14:19 - (SA)
Key milestones since the US-led invasion of Iraq:
2003
March 20: US-led forces bomb and then invade Iraq, where they allege that president Saddam Hussein is building weapons of mass destruction.
April 9: US troops enter Baghdad and Saddam's regime is toppled.
May 1: US President George W Bush declares "mission accomplished" and the end of major combat.
August 19: A massive bomb attack in Baghdad kills 22 including United Nations envoy Sergio Vieira de Mello.
September 3: First post-Saddam government set up.
October 2: Iraq inspection group reports that no weapons of mass destruction have been found - the original rationale for the war.
December 13: Saddam is captured close to his home town of Tikrit.
2004
April 8: Start of a campaign of kidnapping foreigners. More than 30 hostages are killed.
April 18: Spain announces troops to be pulled out of Iraq, the first such move by a major US ally.
April 28: US media show photos of US soldiers torturing Iraqi prisoners in Abu Ghraib jail near Baghdad.
- June 28: Transfer of power to the Iraqi government.
2005
January 12: US intelligence officials confirm they have given up searching for weapons of mass destruction.
April 6-7: Kurd Jalal Talabani elected president and Shi'ite Ibrahim al-Jaafari named prime minister.
October 15: New constitution is adopted by referendum.
2006
February 22: A massive bomb destroys the dome of one of the holiest Shi'ite Muslim shrines at Samarra, sparking a massive rise in violence between Shi'ites and Sunnites.
June 7: Al-Qaeda in Iraq chief Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi killed in a US raid.
October 11: New law establishes Iraq as a federal state.
December 30: Saddam is hanged after being convicted of crimes against humanity over the killing of 148 Shi'ites in the 1980s.
2007
January 10: Bush announces a "surge" of an extra 30 000 US troops.
February 14: Launch of the Baghdad security plan involving 80 000 Iraqi and US troops.
June 24: Saddam's cousin "Chemical Ali" sentenced to death for genocide over the massacre of 182 000 Kurds in 1988.
August 14: More than 400 killed in bombings in villages in northern Iraq populated mostly by Yezidis in the deadliest day of attacks since the invasion.
September 3: British hands over control of Basra to Iraqi forces.
September 13: Bush announces limited withdrawal of troops from July 2008.
October 13-14: Turkish troops shell Kurkish rebel targets across the border into northern Iraq and later send in ground troops.
2008
January 12: Controversial law allows former Baathists to return to state jobs.
February 29: Turkey pulls troops from northern Iraq after an eight-day offensive against Kurdish rebels.
March 12: Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad makes a landmark visit to Baghdad.
March 19: The US death toll in Iraq nears the 4 000 mark, as Bush defends the decision to go to war.
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