Iraq Timeline 2004

Published December 31, 2004

December 31, 2004
Iraq's government announces that multinational forces have captured Fadil Hussain Ahmed al-Kurdi, a suspected senior member of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's terrorist network.

December 30, 2004
Iraqi Islamist terror groups Ansar al-Sunna, the Islamic Army in Iraq, and the Mujahedeen Army, issue joint statements warning Iraqis not to participate in the upcoming January 30 elections.

All 700 employees of Mosul's electoral commission resign in response to terrorist threats.

Gunmen kidnap Abboud al-Tufaili, head of Iraq's chamber of commerce, from his office in Baghdad.

December 29, 2004
U.S. troops kill 25 guerrillas in Mosul following a coordinated assault there the day before involving two suicide bombs and dozens of insurgents.

U.S. forces capture Abu Marwan, believed to be a senior commander of a militant group linked to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

December 28, 2004
Insurgents detonate three-quarters of a ton of explosives in a booby-trapped house police were raiding in Baghdad, killing at least 28 people.

In a town near Tikrit, north of Baghdad, gunmen swarm a police station and kill 12 Iraqi policemen.

In Baquba, a car bomb kills five Iraqi national guardsmen and one civilian. Twenty-two Iraqi soldiers and one civilian are wounded. A roadside bomb in the same city wounds four guardsmen.

December 27, 2004
Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, the leader of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, Iraq's largest Shiite political party, escapes a car bomb attack that kills nine security guards and wounds 67 guards and civilians outside the party's headquarters.

December 24, 2004
A truck carrying butane gas and wired with explosives detonates in the Mansour neighborhood in western Baghdad, the location of several foreign embassies. Nine Iraqis are killed.

A delegation from the Kurdish Referendum Movement delivers a petition with more than 1.7 million signatures to the United Nations calling for a referendum on Kurdish independence in northern Iraq.

December 21, 2004
A suicide bomber kills 24 people, including 19 U.S. soldiers, inside the mess tent of a U.S. military base in Mosul.

Christian Chesnot and Georges Malbrunot, two French journalists held hostage in Iraq since August, are freed.

December 19, 2004
Car bombings by Sunni insurgents in Najaf and Karbala kill 67 Iraqis and wound 120 others.

In Baghdad, about 30 insurgents execute three election officials after pulling them from their cars.

December 18, 2004
Former Iraqi official Ali Hassan al-Majid, known as "Chemical Ali," detained since December 13, 2003, appears before an investigative hearing. Among the charges he faces are accusations he orchestrated a 1988 chemical weapons attack on Iraqi Kurds.

December 17, 2004
Secretary of State Colin Powell, Treasure Secretary John Snow, and Iraqi Finance Minister Adil Abd al-Mahdi sign an agreement canceling Iraq's $4.1 billion debt to the United States.

December 16, 2004
The Iraqi election campaign officially begins in preparation for the January 30 elections.

An explosion outside a Shiite shrine in Karbala kills 10 Iraqis and wounds 41, including Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani's representative cleric in the holy city, Abdel-Mahdi Salami.

December 15, 2004
The United Nations announces it is expanding its presence in Iraq beyond Baghdad to Erbil and Basra to help coordinate the January 30 elections.

A bomb attack aimed at an aide to Shiite cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani kills seven at the gates of a Shiite shrine in Karbala. The aide, Sheikh Abdul Mahdi al-Karbalayee, is wounded.

December 13, 2004
A suicide bomber kills 13 Iraqis and wounds 19 at the entrance to the Green Zone on the first anniversary of Saddam Hussein's capture by U.S. soldiers.

December 12, 2004
Eight U.S. Marines are killed in three separate attacks in Anbar province, a region encompassing Falluja and Ramadi.

December 11, 2004
Four Iraqi police officers are killed and 16 U.S. soldiers are wounded in insurgent attacks across central and northern Iraq.

December 10, 2004
Masked gunmen kill three election workers from Iraq's Hezbollah Shiite movement in northern Baghdad. The movement is one of 23 groups in the United Iraqi Alliance, a Shiite electoral coalition.

December 9, 2004
Twenty-three Shiite political groups form the United Iraqi Alliance in preparation for the January 30 elections. The coalition is backed by leading Shiite cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani.

NATO agrees to increase its forces training Iraqi soldiers in Baghdad. France, Germany, Belgium, Greece, Spain, and Luxembourg refuse to participate.

December 8, 2004
Militants bomb two Christian churches in Mosul.

Five Iraqis are killed and the police chief resigns following an insurgent attack on a police station in Samarra.

December 6, 2004
More than 250 suspected insurgents are captured by U.S. Marines in a raid in Mahmudiya, 12 miles south of Baghdad.

December 5, 2004
Militants ambush a bus in Tikrit and gun down 17 unarmed Iraqi contractors employed by U.S. forces.

Militants drive a car packed with explosives into an Iraqi National Guard checkpoint near the northern city of Bayji. Insurgents then attack the checkpoint with small-arms fire. Three national guardsmen are killed and 18 wounded.

Insurgents in Samarra strike an Iraqi combat patrol with rocket-propelled grenades and small-arms fire. One Iraqi soldier is killed and four are wounded.

December 4, 2004
A suicide bomber drives into a bus carrying Kurdish militiamen in Mosul. At least 18 militiamen are killed.

Fighting erupts in Latifiya, 25 miles south of Baghdad, between members of a newly formed Shiite militia and a group of Sunni militants who had been accused of killing Shiite pilgrims on the road to the holy cities of Karbala and Najaf. More than 20 fighters are killed.

In Baghdad, a suicide bomber rams a minibus packed with explosives into a police station near the capital's protected Green Zone, killing 8 Iraqi officers and wounding 38.

December 3, 2004
A car bomb kills 18 people outside a Shiite mosque in Baghdad and heavily damages the mosque. Almost simultaneously, several dozen militants attack a Baghdad police station, killing 12 officers. All those killed were Shiite.

December 1, 2004
The Pentagon announces that, in preparation for Iraqi elections on January 30, 2005, it will increase forces in Iraq by nearly 12,000 troops. The addition will bring the total number of U.S. troops to about 150,000, the highest level since the invasion in March 2003.

November 29, 2004
A suicide bomber rams a car into a group of police officers west of Ramadi, killing 12 people.

Two U.S. soldiers are killed and three wounded in a roadside bomb explosion in northwestern Baghdad.

November 27, 2004
British and Iraqi forces raid suspected insurgent strongholds around the cities of Latifiyah and Mahmoudiyah. They arrest more than 70 people suspected of launching insurgent attacks in the area.

November 22, 2004
Iraqi authorities set January 30, 2005, as the date for the nation's first election since the collapse of Saddam Hussein's government.

November 21, 2004
Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi's cousin, Ghazi Allawi, is released by his kidnappers.

November 19, 2004
Iraqi troops backed by U.S. soldiers raid the Abu Hanifa mosque, the most revered Sunni mosque in Baghdad. They kill two and arrest dozens.

A suicide car bomb at a police checkpoint in Baghdad kills five police officers.

November 18, 2004
U.S. troops conduct an offensive in Hawija after attacks wound three U.S. soldiers and 10 Iraqi national guardsmen.

November 17, 2004
In the northern city of Bayji, a suicide bomb injures three U.S. soldiers. Ten Iraqis are killed and 20 injured in the blast and ensuing gun battle.

November 16, 2004
Margaret Hassan, director of CARE International in Iraq, is killed by her kidnappers.

November 15, 2004
U.S. military commanders announce that Falluja is under the control of U.S. forces.

In Mosul, guerillas strike with coordinated suicide car bombs, injuring at least five soldiers.

Gunmen in Suwaira kill five Iraqi national guardsmen and two policemen.

Hungary announces it will withdraw its troops from Iraq by the end of 2004.

November 14, 2004
Insurgents wound 20 Iraqi security commandos in Mosul.

A member of the National Assembly is ambushed by gunmen and killed in the northern Kurdish region.

Two kidnapped relatives of Prime Minister Ayad Allawi are released by insurgents. A third is released November 21.

November 13, 2004
Insurgents intensify attacks in Ramadi and Mosul. Twenty-five people are killed and 62 wounded.

Insurgent gunmen kill the Shiite mayor of Dora.

November 12, 2004
A suicide car bomb kills 17 Iraqis and wounds 30 in Baghdad.

A car bomb aimed at a convoy carrying the Kurdish provincial governor, Abdul-Rahman Mustafa, explodes in Kirkuk. Sixteen are wounded.

In Baquba, insurgents attack an Iraqi National Guard post. They kill one guardsman and injure three others.

November 11, 2004
A car bomb kills 10 Iraqis in Baghdad.

November 9, 2004
Iraq's most prominent Sunni party, the Iraqi Islamic Party, says it is withdrawing from the interim Iraqi government. The Muslim Scholars Association, a group of respected Sunni clerics, calls for a boycott of coming elections.

In Baghdad, insurgents kidnap three relatives of Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi.

November 7, 2004
American soldiers and Marines begin an assault on insurgents in Falluja.

Insurgents kill 22 Iraqis in attacks on police stations in Anbar Province.

Prime Minister Ayad Allawi declares emergency martial law for 60 days across most of Iraq.

November 6, 2004
Insurgents detonate four car bombs in Samarra and attack three police stations in the neighboring towns of Haditha and Haqlaniya.

November 4, 2004
A suicide car bomb kills three British soldiers in Baghdad.

The medical relief agency "Doctors Without Borders" announces it is ending operations in Iraq because of deteriorating security.

November 3, 2004
An Iraqi militant group calling itself ``Brigades of the Iraqi Honorables" beheads three Iraqi National Guardsmen it accuses of spying for U.S. troops in Iraq.

Hungary announces it will withdraw its 300 non-combat troops from Iraq by March 31.

November 2, 2004
Insurgents kill six people and injure dozens more with a car bomb at Ministry of Education headquarters in northwestern Baghdad.

In Mosul, a car bomb aimed at a military convoy kills one person and injures at least seven security officers in what Iraqi government officials said was an assassination attempt on Major General Rashid Flayeh, the commander of a special Iraqi security force. Another car bomb explodes near a convoy of Iraqi National Guardsmen, killing two civilians and injuring seven others.

November 1, 2004
The deputy governor of Baghdad is assassinated by unidentified gunmen in the capital's southern district of Dura. Two of his four bodyguards are also killed.

October 31, 2004
In Tikrit, insurgents fire a rocket into a residence hotel for Shiite itinerant workers. The attack kills 15 and wounds 8.

October 30, 2004
Nine marines are killed and nine others wounded near Abu Ghraib prison west of Baghdad when a suicide car bomb rams into their convoy.

In central Baghdad, insurgents detonate a car bomb that kills 7 people and wounds 19 others outside the offices of a popular Arab news network.

October 29, 2004
The Pentagon orders about 6,500 soldiers in Iraq to extend their tours, the first step the military has taken to increase its combat power there in preparation for the January elections.

October 28, 2004
Insurgents release a video that shows militants killing 11 Iraqi National Guard troops held hostage for several days. One guardsman was beheaded; the others were shot.

A car bomb kills a U.S. soldier and at least one Iraqi civilian and wounds two other U.S. troops in southern Baghdad. Another U.S. soldier is killed when insurgents attack his patrol about 40 miles north of Baghdad.

U.S. aircraft bomb a suspected rebel safehouse in Falluja officials say was used as a meeting site by allies of Jordanian terrorist Abu Musab al Zarqawi. The attack kills two, the U.S. military and witnesses say.

October 25, 2004
A car bomb kills three Iraqis and wounds two Australian soldiers near the Australian Embassy in Baghdad. About three hours later, an Estonian soldier is killed and five others wounded in western Baghdad when their convoy is hit by a homemade bomb set along the roadside.

October 24, 2004
In the deadliest ambush of the insurgency, guerrillas execute 49 newly trained Iraqi soldiers in a remote area of eastern Iraq.

October 23, 2004
A suicide car bomb kills 18 Iraqi police officers and national guardsmen and wounds dozens of Iraqis outside the gates of a Marine base 140 miles west of Baghdad.

October 21, 2004
Britain announces that 850 British troops in southern Iraq will be deployed near Baghdad to replace U.S. fighting units that are expected to mount an assault on Iraqi insurgents near Falluja.

October 19, 2004
Insurgents kidnap Margaret Hassan, the British-Iraqi director of Care International in Iraq.

October 17, 2004
Insurgents firebomb five Christian churches in Baghdad.

October 15, 2004
Car bombs kill one U.S. serviceman in Mosul and four in Qaim, along the Iraqi-Syrian border.

A suicide bomber drives a car loaded with 300 pounds of explosives toward an Iraqi police patrol in south Baghdad; he misses his target but the explosion kills 10 Iraqi civilians.

October 14, 2004
Suicide bombers kill five, including three Americans, and wound 20 others in the U.S.-controlled Green Zone in Baghdad.

October 13, 2004
Six U.S. soldiers--two in Mosul and four in Baghdad--are killed in roadside bomb blasts and a suicide attack.

October 12, 2004
Iraq regains its vote at the United Nations after the General Assembly concludes its failure to pay its dues is beyond its control.

October 10, 2004
Two suicide car bombs kill 10 Iraqis and one U.S. soldier and injure 15 others in eastern Baghdad.

October 8, 2004
A militant group releases a video that shows the beheading of Kenneth Bigley, a British engineer who was kidnapped in Baghdad September 16.

October 7, 2004
The top aide to rebel Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr announces that Shiite militiamen will hand over their weapons as part of a peace initiative in Baghdad's Sadr City and other areas.

Two rockets strike the Sheraton hotel in central Baghdad, where several foreign journalists and private contractors are housed. There are no casualties.

October 4, 2004
Three car bombs, two in Baghdad and one in Mosul, kill 26 people and wound more than 100 others.

October 3, 2004
Following a three-day battle, American and Iraqi forces retake Samarra from Sunni guerrillas.

October 1, 2004
A coordinated string of car bombs explodes during a street celebration called to mark the opening of a new sewer plant in Baghdad. The attack kills 42 Iraqis, 35 of them children, and wounds 139, including 10 U.S. soldiers.

September 30, 2004
The U.S. Congress approves the shift of $3.5 billion earmarked for reconstruction to improve security and create jobs. The money is part of an $18.4 billion aid package approved in November 2003.

September 25, 2004
U.S. forces launch airstrikes on suspected militants in Falluja, killing nine and wounding 16.

September 24, 2004
A rocket attack on a U.S. convoy in Baghdad kills four Iraqis and wounds 14.

September 21, 2004
U.S. hostage Jack Hensley is beheaded by the militant group "One God and Jihad," and a video of the killing is broadcast on the Internet.

September 20, 2004
The militant group associated with Jordanian Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, "One God and Jihad," posts an Internet video of the beheading of U.S. civilian engineer Eugene Armstrong.

September 18, 2004
A suicide car bomb kills 19 and wounds 67 at an Iraqi National Guard station in Kirkuk.

September 17, 2004
U.S. airstrikes south of Falluja kill 44 people and injure 27.

A suicide bomber drives an explosive-packed car into a police checkpoint in Baghdad. He kills three Iraqis and wounds 37.

September 14, 2004
In Baghdad, a suicide car bomb packed with artillery shells kills 47 people and wounds 114 outside police headquarters. Another car bomb explodes near a convoy of sport utility vehicles carrying civilian contractors, but only the bomber is killed.

Insurgents kill 11 Iraqi policemen and one civilian in Baquba in a drive-by ambush.

September 13, 2004
In Falluja, U.S. fighter planes kill 20 and wound 39 in strikes aimed at a suspected meeting place for operatives working with the militant leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

September 12, 2004
Coordinated hours-long attacks using suicide car bombings and missile and mortar fire in Baghdad and other sites around the country kill 78 Iraqis and wound more than 200 others.

September 9, 2004
U.S.-led forces launch operations in three Iraqi rebel strongholds-Tal Afar, Samara, and Falluja. The raid on Tal Afar, near the Syrian border, kills nearly two dozen insurgents.

September 7, 2004
Forty Iraqis and one U.S. soldier die in gun battles between U.S. troops and forces loyal to rebel Shiite cleric Muqtada al Sadr in the Sadr City neighborhood of Baghdad.

American planes strike a militant stronghold near Falluja. A statement issued by the U.S. military says up to 100 insurgents were killed in the assaults.

Two U.S. soldiers are killed by roadside bombs-one in eastern Baghdad and the other near the town of Balad north of the capital.

September 5, 2004
A car bomb explodes in a convoy of U.S. and Iraqi troops near Falluja, killing seven marines and three Iraqis. It is the single deadliest attack on U.S. troops in four months.

September 4, 2004
A car bomb kills 15 people outside a police academy in Kirkuk.

American and Iraqi troops kill 11 Iraqi militants and wound more than 50 in Tal Afar.

September 1, 2004
Iraqi militants broadcast the execution of 12 Nepalese contractors on an Islamic web site.

August 27, 2004
Iraq's Shiite Muslim leader, Grand Ayatollah Ali al Sistani, brokers a deal for the withdrawal of rebel cleric Muqtada al Sadr's forces from the Imam Ali mosque in Najaf, ending three weeks of intense fighting. Under the terms of the agreement, Najaf and Kufa would become "demilitarized zones" that are off-limits to militias and foreign military forces.

Three mortar shells land on the grounds of the main mosque in Kufa, killing 27 Iraqis and wounding 63. A short time later, unidentified gunmen fire into a group walking on the main road from Kufa to Najaf, killing 15.

August 26, 2004
A mortar attack on a mosque in Kufa, where supporters of rebel Shiite cleric Muqtada al Sadr were gathering, kills 27 Iraqis and wounds 63.

August 19, 2004
Fighting between U.S. forces and Shiite insurgents in the Baghdad slum of Sadr City kills 50 Iraqis.

August 18, 2004
The Iraqi National Conference selects a 100-seat national assembly that will act as a parliament, overseeing the interim government of Prime Minister Ayad Allawi until elections scheduled for January 2005.

A missile kills six Iraqis and wounds 21 in the main commercial center of Mosul.

A mortar round kills seven people and wounds 47 in a central Baghdad neighborhood.

August 15, 2004
The three-day Iraqi National Conference, intended to select members of an interim National Assembly begins in Baghdad.

August 9, 2004
A suicide car bomb kills seven people and wounds 17 outside the house of the deputy governor of Diala province, Akil Hamed, north of Baghdad.

August 8, 2004
An Iranian diplomat, Fereydoon Jahani, is kidnapped by Iraqi militants.

Iraqi officials order the arrest of former Iraqi National Congress leader Ahmad Chalabi on counterfeiting charges.

August 7, 2004
Interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi orders the temporary closing of the television network Al Jazeera's Baghdad bureau, saying its extensive coverage of kidnappings encouraged militants.

Hundreds of U.S. Marines and Iraqi government forces backed by helicopter gunships and fixed-wing strike aircraft battle militia fighters loyal to the rebel Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr in Najaf, reportedly killing 300 insurgents over two days.

August 4, 2004
Gun battles between Iraqi police and dozens of masked militants kill 12 Iraqis and wound 26 in Mosul.

Iraqi police announce that the rebel cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's Shiite militia has kidnapped 18 Iraqi police officers and has demanded the release of detained militants.

August 3, 2004
Insurgents kill six Iraqi national guardsmen in a suicide car bombing and four U.S. soldiers in separate incidents in Baghdad and the volatile west of the country.

August 2, 2004
A brigade of 3,600 U.S. troops departs from South Korea for Iraq.

August 1, 2004
Coordinated car bombings near four Christian churches in Baghdad and another in Mosul kill 12 people and wound 27.

A suicide car bomb explodes outside a police station in Mosul, killing five people and wounding more than 50.

July 29, 2004
The opening of the Iraqi National Conference, which will select a 100-seat interim council for the interim Iraqi government, is postponed for two weeks.

President Bush signs an order officially lifting the sanctions on Iraq that his father, President George H.W. Bush, imposed in 1990 after Iraq's invasion of Kuwait.

July 28, 2004
suicide bomber detonates an explosive-packed sedan on a busy street in Baquba, north of Baghdad, killing 70 people and wounding 56.

July 26, 2004
U.S. and Iraqi government forces kill 15 insurgents in Buhriz.

An Egyptian diplomat, Momdoh Kotb, held hostage by militants in Iraq for three days, is released.

A suicide car bomb packed with explosives, mortars, and rockets explodes outside a U.S. base in Mosul, killing three Iraqis and injuring three U.S. soldiers.

July 25, 2004
Attackers kill a senior Iraqi Interior Ministry official, Musab al-Awadi, and two of his bodyguards in a drive-by shooting at al-Awadi's Baghdad home.

U.S. and Iraqi troops backed by heavy artillery and helicopters kill 15 insurgents in a Baghdad fire-fight.

Soldiers from the U.S. 1st Infantry Division capture 15 members of a suspected terrorist cell near Mandali, a town on the Iranian border about 60 miles east of Baghdad.

July 23, 2004
Militants--hoping, they say, to deter Egypt from sending security experts to the new Iraqi government--abduct Egyptian diplomat Momdoh Kotb as he is leaving a mosque.

July 22, 2004
U.S. forces kill 25 insurgents and capture 25 more during daylong clashes in Ramadi.

A roadside bomb attack kills two U.S. soldiers near Samarra.

Iraqi police officers and soldiers apprehend 270 suspected members of a criminal gang and a large cache of weapons in Baghdad, according to the Interior Ministry.

July 21, 2004
A roadside bomb kills one U.S. 1st Infantry Division soldier and injures six others in Duluiyah, north of Baghdad.

July 20, 2004
Four U.S. Marines are killed in action in separate incidents in Anbar Province, a Sunni-dominated area west of Baghdad.

A bomb attack on an Iraqi minibus kills four civilians and injures two others near the city of Baquba, north of Baghdad.

July 18, 2004
Militants kill Essam al-Dijaili, a top official in Iraq's Defense Ministry, in a drive-by shooting in Baghdad.

A suicide bomber in a fuel truck kills nine and wounds more than 60 at a police station in southwest Baghdad.

With the approval of Interim Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, a U.S. airstrike on suspected foreign militants in Falluja demolishes a house and kills 14 people.

July 15, 2004
Gunmen assassinate Ussama Kachmula, the governor of Mosul, ambushing his convoy on a highway to Baghdad.

Saboteurs blast a crude-oil pipeline feeding into a main artery in northern Iraq, temporarily halting oil exports to Turkey.

A car bomb explodes near police and government buildings in the western city of Haditha, 120 miles west of Baghdad, killing 10 people and wounding 40.

July 14, 2004
In the deadliest single attack since Iraq regained sovereignty June 28, a suicide car bomber blows himself up at the gates of the U.S.-fortified Green Zone, killing 11 people and injuring dozens more.

Baghdad police round up and detain 527 suspects in a crackdown on crimes ranging from kidnapping to murder.

The Philippine government announces the early withdrawal from Iraq of its troops to meet the demands of kidnappers holding a Filipino truck driver.

July 13, 2004
The United Nations announces it has chosen Pakistan's ambassador to Washington, Ashraf Jehangir Qazi, to be the new head of its mission in Iraq.

July 12, 2004
Syria and Iraq agree to set up a special force to patrol their shared border and prevent the infiltration of insurgents.

July 11, 2004
Three U.S. soldiers are killed in attacks, two by a roadside bomb near Samarra, a hard-line Sunni Muslim city north of Baghdad where insurgents attacked U.S. forces June 9.

July 9, 2004
Insurgents in Samarra attack a military headquarters with mortars, killing five U.S. soldiers and at least one Iraqi guard. U.S. forces, backed by helicopter gunships, kill at least four insurgents.

July 8, 2004
The Iraqi interim government says it will conduct a national census in October, a step required for elections in January.

The International Monetary Fund announces it will recognize the Iraqi interim government; Iraq immediately becomes eligible for at least $100 million in loans.

July 7, 2004
Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi signs into law broad powers that allow him to impose a state of emergency.

A previously unknown Iraqi group calling itself the Salvation Movement warns Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian militant who has claimed responsibility for several deadly attacks in Iraq, to leave the country or face death.

Near Baquba, a suicide car bomber kills five at a funeral service for victims of a previous attack on a government building.

July 6, 2004
Ten people are killed when U.S. forces bomb what a U.S. military spokesman called a "mujahedeen safe house" in Falluja, the fifth such attack in recent weeks.

July 5, 2004
Prime Minister Iyad Allawi officially declines Jordan's offer to send troops to Iraq.

July 4, 2004
In an attack at a checkpoint in Mahmudiya, south of Baghdad, insurgents kill five Iraqi soldiers and wound five more.

July 2, 2004
Saddam Hussein appears before an Iraqi judge and is charged with crimes including the 1988 use of poison gas against Iraqi Kurds and the 1990 invasion of Kuwait. Eleven other former Baath Party officials, including Ali Hassan al-Majid, also known as "Chemical Ali," and former Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz, are also arraigned on charges including murder, torture, and using chemical weapons.

King Abdullah II promises to send Jordanian troops to Iraq if the new Iraqi government requests it, the first Arab leader to do so.

In Baghdad, a bomb kills the head of the Finance Ministry's audit board and two bodyguards.

July 1, 2004
Insurgents fire mortar rounds near Baghdad's airport, wounding 11 American soldiers.

American warplanes strike a suspected safe house in Falluja, killing four people.

The Iraqi Embassy in Washington opens its doors for the first time since ties were severed in advance of the 1991 Persian Gulf War.

June 30, 2004
Iraq's interim government takes legal, but not physical, custody of Saddam Hussein and 11 of his top associates from the United States.

June 29, 2004
The U.S. Army announces plans to call up 5,600 former soldiers for yearlong tours of duty, mostly in Iraq and Afghanistan, under a rarely used wartime program.

Three U.S. Marines are killed by a roadside bomb in southeastern Baghdad.

June 28, 2004
Two days ahead of schedule, the U.S.-led coalition transfers sovereignty to the Interim Iraqi Government. Chief administrator of the Coalition Provisional Authority, L. Paul Bremer III, leaves Iraq.

NATO leaders, meeting in Istanbul, announce plans to help train Iraq's security forces.

Occupation forces announce the capture of two aides to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the Jordanian terrorist believed to have coordinated several bombings and kidnappings in Iraq.

Al Jazeera television broadcasts a video in which Iraqi militants threaten to behead a U.S. marine, Corporal Wassef Ali Hassoun, unless the United States releases Iraqi prisoners. Another group says it will behead a kidnapped Pakistani, identified only as an employee of the American contractor Kellogg Brown & Root, unless Pakistan ceases cooperation with U.S. forces.

June 25, 2004
A wave of attacks by insurgents kills 105 and wounds hundreds. In the deadliest incident, in Mosul, car bombs kill 62 people dead, including a U.S. soldier.

June 24, 2004
U.S. forces strike a suspected terrorist safe house in Falluja and kill 20 foreign fighters, according to a military spokesman.

June 23, 2004
John Negroponte is sworn in as the new U.S. ambassador to Iraq.

A South Korean, Kim Sun Il, held hostage by Iraqi insurgents, is beheaded. South Korean officials announce plans to go ahead with the deployment of 3,000 additional troops to Iraq in the summer of 2004.

June 19, 2004
U.S. forces carry out an airstrike in a residential neighborhood in Falluja, firing missiles that kill 22 people. The intended target is not immediately clear.

June 17, 2004
A car bomb kills 35 Iraqis and wounds more than 140 outside a civil defense recruiting station in downtown Baghdad. Another car bomb explodes in a village 50 miles north of Baghdad, killing six.

Muqtada al-Sadr, whose militia has fought U.S. forces for more than 10 weeks, orders his followers to disband.

June 16, 2004
Two explosions at oil pipelines near the Persian Gulf force the shutdown of Iraq's main oil export terminal.

June 15, 2004
A suicide bomber rams a truck packed with explosives into a convoy of foreign contractors, killing 13 people in Baghdad. Around the same time, two more bombs explode, one south of the capital, one north, killing eight more.

June 13, 2004
In Baghdad, a suicide car bomber kills more than a dozen, including a senior Education Ministry official.

June 12, 2004
In Baghdad, gunmen kill a top Iraqi Foreign Ministry official, Bassam Qubba.

June 9, 2004
Rebels kill 12 members of an Iraqi security force in Falluja.

Saboteurs blow up an oil pipeline north of Baghdad that carries fuel to one of Iraq's largest power stations, forcing authorities to cut output on the national power grid by 10 percent.

June 8, 2004
The United Nations Security Council unanimously approves U.N.Resolution 1546, sponsored by the United States and Great Britain, to end the formal occupation of Iraq on June 30 and transfer "full sovereignty" to an interim Iraqi government. The measure authorizes the U.S.-led multinational force for Iraq, and says the mandate will end when a constitutionally elected government takes power, expected by early 2006, or if the Iraqi government requests it. It also gives the Iraqi government control over its oil revenues.

U.S. and Iraqi officials announce commitments from nine of Iraq's largest militias to disband, but two major groups fighting U.S. forces, the Mahdi Army, linked to rebel Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, and the Falluja Brigade, are not included.

June 7, 2004
Gunmen dressed as Iraqi policemen raid a police station in Musayyib and set off explosives, killing 12 people. Attackers blow up a vacant police station in the Sadr City slum in Baghdad. In Taji, a car bombing near a military base kills 9 people.

The United States announces plans to withdraw more than 12,000 troops from South Korea by the end of 2005, including 3,600 soldiers scheduled to deploy to Iraq in the summer of 2004.

June 3, 2004
The U.S. Army issues a "stop-loss" order, requiring soldiers to extend their active duty if their units were within 90 days of shipping out to Iraq and Afghanistan, in order to ease the loss of personnel through retirement and discharge.

June 1, 2004
U.N. envoy Lakhdar Brahimi announces that Sheikh Ghazi al-Yawar, a Sunni Muslim tribal leader, has been appointed interim president of Iraq's incoming government. Prime Minister-designate Iyad Allawi names new members of his Cabinet. The U.S.-appointed Iraqi Governing Council dissolves itself after the announcement of the appointment of the interim president and other new government positions.

May 29, 2004
Three U.S. Marines are killed in Al Anbar Province, in western Iraq. The deaths bring to more than 800 the number of American servicemen and women killed since the start of the American-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003.

May 28, 2004
Dr. Iyad Allawi, a former Baath Party member who broke with Saddam Hussein, is named prime minister of the interim government due to take power on June 30.

U.S. forces and militiamen loyal to Muqtada al-Sadr agree to a ceasefire in Najaf.

May 25, 2004
Pentagon officials announce Lieutenant General Ricardo S. Sanchez will leave his command as top U.S. officer in Iraq. He will be replaced by Vice Chief of Staff of the Army General George W. Casey Jr.

May 24, 2004
U.S. troops attack insurgents loyal to Muqtada al-Sadr around a mosque in Kufa, killing at least 36 fighters and seizing a cache of heavy weapons in the mosque.

May 20, 2004
The Pentagon announces that Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez has banned virtually all coercive interrogation practices by U.S. troops in Iraq.

U.S. troops raid a house used by Iraq Governing Council member Ahmad Chalabi and search his party offices in Baghdad.

May 19, 2004
Appearing before a special court-martial, Specialist Jeremy C. Sivits pleads guilty to abuse charges and is sentenced to the maximum one year in prison, reduction in rank and a bad-conduct discharge from the military following his confession that he participated in the mistreatment of Iraqi detainees at Abu Ghraib prison.

May 17, 2004
A suicide bomber kills the current president of the Iraqi Governing Council (IGC), Ezzedine Salim, and at least six other people at a checkpoint at the main headquarters of U.S. occupation forces in Iraq. The presidency of the IGC rotates on a monthly basis.

May 14, 2004
Nearly 300 Iraqi detainees are released from Abu Ghraib prison. The U.S. military says more releases are planned.

May 13, 2004
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld makes a surprise visit to Abu Ghraib prison and insists the Pentagon did not try to cover up abuses there.

May 12, 2004
The military announces it will court-martial two more American soldiers for abusing prisoners at Abu Ghraib.

May 11, 2004
A video posted on an Islamic militant Web site shows the beheading of Nicholas Berg, a U.S. civilian whose body was found near Baghdad on May 8.

May 10, 2004
U.S. forces demolish the Baghdad headquarters of rebel Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and kill 18 of his supporters during an overnight firefight.

May 9, 2004
The U.S. Army announces the court-martial of Specialist Jeremy C. Sivits, a military policeman and reservist, on charges he abused detainees at Abu Ghraib prison.

May 7, 2004
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, Joint Chiefs Chairman General Richard Myers, and acting Army Secretary Les Brownlee testify before the Armed Services committees of the House and Senate on reports of abuse by U.S. soldiers of Iraqi detainees.

The Spanish government announces it will not return troops to Iraq even as part of an international force under a United Nations mandate.

May 6, 2004
John Negroponte wins Senate confirmation as the United States ambassador to Iraq by a vote of 95-3.

May 5, 2004
CBS News' "60 minutes II" airs graphic photographs of abuse by U.S. soldiers of Iraqi detainees at Abu Ghraib prison.

The U.S. military launches a major assault in Karbala against insurgents loyal to Muqtada al-Sadr, a rebel Shiite cleric.

May 4, 2004
General John P. Abizaid, the commander of American forces in the Middle East, announces plans to keep at least 135,000 soldiers in Iraq through 2005.

Lieutenant General Ricardo S. Sanchez, the senior American commander in Iraq, issues severe reprimands to six who served in supervisory positions at Abu Ghraib prison and a "letter of admonishment" to a seventh.

May 3, 2004
An American contractor taken hostage by militants on April 9 escapes from his captors.

May 2, 2004
Six U.S. soldiers are killed and as many as 30 wounded in a mortar attack on a U.S. base in Ramadi, about 50 miles west of Baghdad. Two U.S. soldiers are killed and one wounded when their convoy is struck by a homemade bomb in northwestern Baghdad. One U.S. soldier is killed and 10 wounded during an attack on a military base in Kirkuk.

April 30, 2004
Marines withdraw from most of the positions they had taken during a three-week siege of Falluja as the U.S. military begins handing over control of security there to an Iraqi general.

April 29, 2004
Graphic photos show six army reservists mistreating and humiliating Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison west of Baghdad.

U.S. Marines announce an agreement to end the siege of Falluja, saying U.S. forces will pull back and allow an all-Iraqi force commanded by one of Saddam Hussein's ex-generals to take over security in and around the town.

April 27, 2004
U.S. troops kill 57 insurgents in an overnight battle near the southern town of Kufa.

April 26, 2004
An explosion kills two U.S. soldiers and wounds five others during a search of a chemicals warehouse in Baghdad. Eight Iraqi civilians are also wounded. A protracted firefight between Marines and insurgents in a Falluja suburb culminates in U.S. helicopter gunships and tanks firing at a mosque and toppling its minaret. One U.S. Marine is killed and eight others wounded in the battle, which also killed eight insurgents.

April 24, 2004
Fourteen Iraqis are killed when mortar bombs and rockets are fired into a crowded market in Sadr City, the district on Baghdad's outskirts that is a stronghold of the rebel cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. A roadside bomb in Iskandariya, 30 miles south of Baghdad, kills 14 Iraqis traveling to the capital on a bus.

Nine U.S. soldiers and sailors are killed in three separate insurgent attacks, including a waterborne suicide attack on the oil terminal at Basra.

At Tikrit, Saddam Hussein's hometown 110 miles north of Baghdad, a suicide car bomber kills four Iraqi policemen, and wounds 16 other Iraqis, near a U.S. military base in the center of the city.

Marines kill about 30 Iraqi insurgents in a firefight outside Falluja.

April 23, 2004
Coalition Provisional Authority head L. Paul Bremer III announces an easing of the purge of members of Saddam Hussein's ruling Baath Party. The policy change will allow thousands of former Baathists to return to positions in the military and the government bureaucracy.

April 21, 2004
Suicide attacks, aimed at Iraqi police buildings in the southern city of Basra, kill 50 people, including 20 children, and wound more than 100.

April 20, 2004
Iraqi leaders set up a tribunal to try ousted dictator Saddam Hussein and other members of his Baathist regime.

Insurgents fire 12 mortar rounds into the Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad, striking a camp where many of the 7,600 Iraqi political detainees are being held by Americans. U.S. military officials say the attacks killed 22 prisoners and wounded 92.

The Dominican Republic announces plans to withdraw its 300 troops from Iraq "as soon as possible," and Honduras says it will bring home its 370 soldiers within two months.

April 19, 2004
President Bush nominates John D. Negroponte, the U.S. representative to the United Nations, to be ambassador to Iraq.

April 18, 2004
Spain's new Socialist prime minister, Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, announces that he has ordered Defense Minister Jose Bono to "do what is necessary for the Spanish troops stationed in Iraq to return home" in the shortest possible time.

April 17, 2004
Kidnappers free two Japanese hostages in Baghdad

April 16, 2004
U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld extends the stay of some 20,000 American troops who had nearly completed their one-year tour of duty and were preparing to rotate out of Iraq.

A videotape of a captured U.S. soldier, missing for a week since his fuel convoy was attacked west of Baghdad, is broadcast by al-Jazeera. A voice speaking in Arabic on the tape says Private Keith Maupin is being held to trade for U.S.-held Iraqi prisoners.

April 15, 2004
Three Japanese civilians taken hostage April 9 are released unharmed in Baghdad. News of the release coincides with a report that two other Japanese civilians may have been kidnapped.

April 14, 2004
An Iranian diplomat is shot dead in Baghdad a day after an Iranian government delegation arrived in Iraq to help mediate a standoff between the U.S. military and anti-American cleric, Muqtada al-Sadr.

April 13, 2004
Powerful Shiite clerics, including the son of Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, meet with Muqtada al-Sadr in Najaf in an attempt to negotiate a resolution of the standoff between the U.S. military and Sadr.

April 11, 2004
U.S. forces and Iraqi insurgents agree to a cease-fire in the Sunni town of Falluja.

April 9, 2004
A group called the Mujahedeen Brigades kidnaps three Japanese citizens and threatens to burn them alive unless Japan withdraws its 550 troops from the area near the southern city of Samawa. The government of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi says it will not give in to the demands.

April 7, 2004
Violence strikes six cities, with heaviest fighting raging in Sunni strongholds of Falluja and Ramadi. Rebel Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr proclaims his solidarity with Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, Iraq's most influential religious figure, while continuing to ignore Sistani's religious decree urging Shiites to stay calm; his followers rout Iraqi security forces in Kufa, Najaf, Nasiriya, Basra, and Baghdad, and take over government offices.

April 6, 2004
Around 40 people are killed when a U.S. laser-guided bomb hits a mosque compound in Falluja.

April 5, 2004
The top U.S. administrator in Iraq, L. Paul Bremer III, labels Muqtada al-Sadr an "outlaw." U.S. officials confirm that an arrest warrant was issued against Sadr "within the last several months" for his alleged role in the death of rival Shiite cleric Abdul Majid al-Khoei in April 2003.

April 4, 2004
Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr issues a call to his followers to "terrorize your enemy." Uprisings in four Iraqi cities kill eight U.S. soldiers and dozens of Iraqis.

April 3, 2004
Coaltion authorities arrest Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's aide, Mustafa al-Yaqubi, for his alleged connection to the April 2003 killing of rival cleric Ayatollah Sayyed Abdul Majid al-Khoei.

March 31, 2004
Four American civilian contractors are killed and their corpses mutilated and dragged through the streets in an ambush in Falluja. A car bombing kills five U.S. soldiers near Habbaniya.

April 5, 2004
The top U.S. administrator in Iraq, L. Paul Bremer, labels Muqtada al-Sadr an "outlaw." U.S. officials confirm that an arrest warrant was issued against Sadr "within the last several months," after he was allegedly implicated in the death of rival Shiite cleric Abdul Majid al-Khoei.

April 4, 2004
Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr issues a call to his followers to "terrorize your enemy." Uprisings in four Iraqi cities kill eight U.S. soldiers and dozens of Iraqis.

March 28, 2004
Coalition forces close Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's newspaper Al Hawza, claiming it incited anti-American violence. Thousands of Sadr's supporters flood Baghdad streets to protest the closing.

March 23, 2004
Nine Iraqi policemen are shot and killed while driving to work near Hilla in southern Iraq.
Two Iraqi policemen are shot and killed outside a mosque in Kirkuk in northern Iraq.

March 22, 2004
Two of Iraq's largest militias, the Shiite Badr Organization and the Kurdish pesh merga, provisionally agree to disband. Under the terms of the deal, fighters will be offered jobs in Iraq's new security services or given retirement benefits.

March 19, 2004
On the first anniversary of the start of the war, President Bush makes a speechthat links the Iraq war to the global effort to combat terror, which he calls "an inescapable calling of our generation."

March 18, 2004
United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan says he will send a team to Baghdad to assist with the transition of sovereignty "as soon as practical."

March 17, 2004
A car bomb destroys the Mount Lebanon Hotel in Baghdad, killing more than 27 and injuring more than 40.
Members of the IGC write to U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan asking for U.N. help to form an interim government by July.

March 16, 2004
Following the lead of Spain, Honduras announces that it will pull its 370 troops out of Iraq by July.

March 15, 2004
Three U.S. Baptist missionaries die when gunmen open fire on their car in northern Iraq; a fourth missionary dies the following day from wounds suffered in the attack.

March 14, 2004
The Socialist Party wins a surprise victory in Spain. Prime Minister-elect Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero vows to withdraw Spanish troops if the United Nations does not assume control of Iraq by July.

March 9, 2004
Iraqi police shoot and kill two U.S. government workers and their interpreter who are driving to Hilla, 60 miles south of Baghdad.

March 8, 2004
Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani and other Shiite leaders say that the interim constitution is flawed and could lead to civil war.

March 8, 2004
The Iraqi Governing Council signs an interim constitution, also called the Transitional Administrative Law.

March 6, 2004
The New York Times reports that a team of U.S. legal experts, called the Regime Crime Adviser's Office, is being sent to Iraq to assist in the upcoming war crimes trials of Saddam Hussein and other top members of the Baath Party. A previously undisclosed directive issued by U.S. National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice in January names the U.S. Department of Justice as the lead agency in the effort.

March 5, 2004
Passage of an interim constitution is delayed because of objections by 5 Shiite members of the IGC and the bombings of March 2.

March 2, 2004
More than 180 die when multiple blasts erupt in Baghdad and Karbala among hundreds of thousands of Shiite pilgrims observing Ashura, the holiest day of the Shiite calendar.

March 1, 2004
The Iraq Governing Council reaches agreement on an interim constitution that includes a bill of rights and a system of checks and balances, names Islam as "a" source of legislation, grants Kurds some measure of autonomy, and calls for nationwide elections by January 31, 2005.

February 23, 2004
The U.N. team sent to determine the feasibility of elections before June 30 releases its report, which concludes that elections are feasible only by late 2004/early 2005 and that an alternative method should be found to hand over sovereignty to Iraq by June 30.
At least 10 are killed and 45 injured when a car bomb is detonated at a police station in Kirkuk, a city in northern Iraq.

February 18, 2004
At least 13 are killed and many more injured when two truck bombs are detonated near a Polish military camp in Hilla, a town south of Baghdad.

February 14, 2004
Twenty-three are killed in gun fights at the main police station in Falluja and at a nearby security compound housing the Iraqi Civil Defense Corps.

February 11, 2004
At least 40 are killed and dozens injured when a car bomb crashes into an army recruitment center in Baghdad.

February 10, 2004
At least 50 are killed and dozens injured when a car bomb is detonated at a police station in Iskandariya, 25 miles south of Baghdad.

February 6, 2004
President Bush announces the formation of a nine-member commission to investigate intelligence failures that led to the war in Iraq. It is to report its findings in March 2005.

February 5, 2004
In a speech delivered at Georgetown University, Director of Central Intelligence George Tenet defends the agency's intelligence gathering.

February 3, 2004
British Prime Minister Tony Blair says the government will establish an independent committee to investigate prewar intelligence on Iraq's WMD.

February 1, 2004
One hundred five are killed and more than 200 injured when two suicide bombers detonate bombs at the offices of the main Kurdish political parties in Erbil, a town in northern Kurdistan.

January 30, 2004
U.S. National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice says that Iraq may not have had chemical, biological, or nuclear weapons.

January 28, 2004
David Kay, the ex-chief of the ISG, tells a Senate hearingthat U.S. intelligence that Iraq had chemical or biological weapons was "almost all wrong."
The Hutton Reportconcludes the British government's investigation into the death of David Kelly. Prime Minister Tony Blair and other government officials are exonerated of claims they deliberately exaggerated intelligence about Iraq's ability to deploy WMD.

January 27, 2004
U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan agrees to send a delegation to Iraq to study the feasibility of Ayatollah al-Sistani's demand to hold elections before the scheduled June 30 transfer of sovereignty.

January 25, 2004
U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell saysit is possible that no WMD will be found in Iraq.
The newly organized Council for Sunnis in Iraq, a group of 160 Sunni clerics from across the religious spectrum, says that it is opposed to the American plan for indirect elections.

January 23, 2004
The largest U.S. recipient of reconstruction contracts in Iraq, the oil services company Halliburton, announces that the Pentagon is conducting investigations into whether some high-level employees accepted bribes from Kuwaiti subcontractors.
David Kay resigns as head of the ISG and is replaced by Charles Duelfer.

January 20, 2004
U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan agrees to consider sending a delegation to assist the United States with the transition to self-rule in Iraq.

January 19, 2004
Up to 100,000 march in support of the Shiite leader Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani's calls for direct elections.
U.S. administrator in Iraq L. Paul Bremer III and representatives of the Iraqi Interim Governing Council meet U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan in New York to discuss U.N. involvement during the transition to Iraqi self-rule.

January 18, 2004
At least 20 people are killed and more than 100 injured when a truck bomb is detonated outside the gate of the Republican Palace, the U.S. military and civilian headquarters in Iraq. Two American defense department contractors are among the dead, while three U.S. soldiers and three U.S. civilians are injured.

January 17, 2004
The first of about 1,000 Japanese troops depart for a humanitarian mission to Iraq, Japan's biggest military deployment since World War II. The Japanese constitution forbids the use of force to resolve international conflicts.
A roadside bomb kills three U.S. soldiers and two Iraqi troops in Taji, 20 miles north of Baghdad. The number of U.S. troops killed in Iraq since the beginning of hostilities in March 2003 reaches 500.

January 15, 2004
An assistant to the Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the most powerful Shiite cleric in Iraq, says the Ayatollah might issue a religious edict, or fatwa, against the U.S. plan for Iraq's government if his demand for direct elections to select an interim government is ignored.
In the southern city of Basra, tens of thousands of Iraqis protest in support of the Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani's call for general elections.
Old dinars cease being legal currency in Iraq. The new dinar is backed by Iraqi Central Bank reserves and the $18 billion the U.S. gave Iraq for reconstruction purposes.

January 12, 2004
British Prime Minister Tony Blair says that WMD may never be found in Iraq.

January 10, 2004
Danish troops find dozens of mortar rounds believed to be armed with mustard gas buried in the desert, 45 miles from the southern town of Al Amarah. The rounds appear to have been buried for 10 years.

January 9, 2004
Five are killed and dozens injured in an explosion near a mosque in Baquba, a town about 40 miles north of Baghdad.

January 8, 2004
Nine U.S. soldiers die when a Black Hawk helicopter crashes near the city of Falluja. The Black Hawk was trying to land during a medical evacuation mission.
One U.S. soldier is killed and 34 are injured when mortars are fired at a military base near Baghdad.

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