Events
July 16 1979
Saddam Hussein becomes president of Iraq, after engineering the resignation of president Hasan al-Bakr.September 22 1980
Border dispute between Iran and Iraq escalates into full-scale war.
Open war as Iraq is bombedMarch 16 1988
Saddam Hussein's administration uses chemical weapons against Kurds at Halabja in Iraq: more than 5,000 die.August 29 1988
Iran-Iraq war ends; at least a million people are thought to have died, but neither side has achieved any significant territorial gain.August 2 1990
Iraq invades Kuwait. UN security council resolution 660 calls for full withdrawal.
Superpowers unite on Iraq.January 16 1991
Gulf War starts. US-led coalition begins air strikes against Iraq.
Allied planes bomb Iraq: Kuwait's liberation begun, says USApril 6 1991
Iraq accepts UN resolution requiring it to end production of weapons of mass destruction and to allow monitoring by the UN special commission inspection team (Unscom).June 27 1993
US conducts air strikes against Iraqi intelligence service, in retaliation for assassination plot against former president George Bush.April 14 1995
'Oil-for-food' programme begins, allowing Iraq to export oil to buy food and medicine.February 15 2001
US and Britain bomb Iraq's air defence network.
US and British aircraft attack IraqSeptember 12 2002
President Bush addresses UN to put the case for war against Iraq.
Bush sets the war clock tickingJanuary 30 2002
In the first state of the union address after the September 11 attacks on America, US president George Bush says Iraq is part of an 'axis of evil'.
Anti-terror war is only starting, Bush tells USAugust 1 2002
Iraq invites UN chief weapons inspector to Baghdad.
Iraq invites UN weapons inspector to talksJanuary 6 2003
Saddam Hussein says he is ready for war, accuses UN weapons inspectors of being spies and calls his enemies the "friends and helpers of Satan".April 15 2003
The first political talks involving different Iraqi groups take place at an airbase outside Nassiriyia despite a boycott from the main Shia Muslim group.April 28 2003
US troops fire on a group of Iraqi demonstrators near Baghdad, killing at least 13 people and wounding 75 others.
US troops 'kill 13 Iraqi protesters'May 6 2003
Qusay Hussein, one of Saddam's sons fled Iraq with $1bn (£620m) in cash hours before the US-led war on the country began, it is claimed.
Qusay Hussein 'fled with $1bn in cash'
MayJune 12 2003
US troops questioning about 400 suspects after the biggest military operation in Iraq since the regime collapsed two months ago.June 13 2003
Almost 100 Iraqis are killed in two of the bloodiest attacks since the fall of Baghdad. A independent research group meanwhile says that as many as 10,000 civilian may have died in the war.
100 Iraqis killed in violent clashes
War may have killed 10,000 civilians, researchers sayDecember 13 2003
Saddam Hussein, Iraq's deposed leader,is found by US forces at the bottom of a hole near his home town of Tikrit.
Saddam Hussein capturedJanuary 31 2004
Twelve people died and at least 50 were injured yesterday in two attacks by Iraqi insurgents in northern Iraq.
Nine killed in bomb attack on Iraq policePeriods
March-April 1991
Kurdish refugees flee as Iraq bombs northern towns.
The valleys of death: refugees appeal for Western interventionMarch-June 1996
UN inspection teams denied access to militarily sensitive sites.
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