December 31, 2003
Eight are killed and more than 30 are injured when a car bomb explodes at a restaurant in Baghdad. Three western journalists are among the injured.

December 27, 2003
Nineteen are killed and about 120 are wounded in attacks on allied bases and government buildings in the southern city of Karbala.

December 16-December 21, 2003
Former U.S. Secretary of State James A. Baker III persuades France, Germany, Italy, Russia, the United Kingdom, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Kuwait to agree to write off and restructure the part of Iraq's $120 billion debt that is owed to them.

December 15, 2003
More than 6 die and 20 are injured when two suicide bombs are detonated outside Baghdad police stations.

December 14, 2003
At least 17 are killed and 30 injured when a car bomb explodes outside an Iraqi police station in Khalidiya, a town west of Baghdad.

December 13, 2003
Saddam Hussein is captured by American troops. He is found hiding in an underground hole on a farm near his hometown of Tikrit and surrenders without a fight.

December 9, 2003
Paul Wolfowitz, the U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense, issues a directive barring France, Germany, Canada, Mexico, China, and Russia from bidding on contracts for rebuilding Iraq, creating a diplomatic furor.

December 6, 2003
L. Paul Bremer III, the top U.S. administrator in Iraq, escapes an assassination attempt on his convoy in Baghdad.

November 15, 2003
Departing from an earlier agreement, the Coalition Provisional Authority and the Iraqi Governing Council sign an agreement to speed up the transfer of power to an interim government by July 2004. The interim government will be chosen by a complex system of regional caucuses. Under the plan, the interim government will then organize a popular election to choose delegates to a constitutional convention.
Seventeen U.S. soldiers are killed when two Black Hawk helicopters collide in the northern city of Mosul.

November 12, 2003
Eighteen Italian soldiers and 9 Iraqis are killed when a truck bomb is detonated at the Italian headquarters in Iraq in the southern city of Nasiriya.

November 7, 2003
Turkey reverses its decision to send troops to Iraq to assist in stabilization efforts. The Iraqi Governing Council had protested the possible presence of Turkish troops.
A Black Hawk helicopter crashes near Tikrit; 6 U.S. soldiers die.

November 2, 2003
Sixteen U.S. soldiers are killed and 21 others are injured when guerrillas shoot down an American helicopter in the single deadliest attack since the beginning of the war.

October 30, 2003
The United Nations orders all of its non-Iraqi staff to leave Baghdad until security there can be assessed.

October 27, 2003
On the first day of Ramadan, the Muslim holy month, suicide attacks in Baghdad kill 43 and wound more than 200 at the headquarters of The Red Crescent and at five police stations.

October 26, 2003
Air-to-ground missiles are fired at the Rashid Hotel in Baghdad, where U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz is staying. Eighteen are killed, but Wolfowitz is unharmed.

October 23-24, 2003
The Madrid Conference is held to gather pledges to fund reconstruction in Iraq. Eighty nations attend, yielding $13 billion in addition to the $20 billion already pledged by the United States. The World Bank and the United Nations had forecast that Iraq would need $56 billion over the next four years.

October 19, 2003
A new agency, the International Reconstruction Fund Facility for Iraq, headed by the United Nations and World Bank, is created to administer financial reconstruction assistance in Iraq. Some potential donor nations had protested that the United States should not control the funds. The United States retains its independent aid organization for efforts in Iraq.

October 16, 2003
The U.N. Security Council unanimously approves the U.S.- and U.K.-sponsored Resolution 1511 supporting an international force in Iraq under U.S. authority. Several nations had opposed the resolution until Washington agreed to an accelerated timetable for the transfer of power to the Iraqis.

October 14, 2003
Two die and at least 10 are injured when a car bomb is detonated outside of the Turkish Embassy in Baghdad.

October 13, 2003
In a move to persuade U.N. Security Council members reluctant to approve the U.S. occupation of Iraq, the United States submits a revised proposal for Iraq's Governing Council to schedule elections and draft a constitution. The new proposal sets December 15 as the deadline for the Governing Council to draft a schedule.

October 12, 2003
A bombing outside the Baghdad Hotel kills at least 8. The hotel is used by both senior coalition officials and members of the Iraqi Governing Council.

October 9, 2003
A suicide bomber drives his car into a group of Iraqi policeman at a Baghdad police station, killing 9 and wounding at least 45.

October 7, 2003
The Turkish Grand National Assembly consents to sending as many as 10,000 troops to assist with efforts in Iraq.

October 5, 2003
The Bush administration reorganizes its reconstruction efforts in Iraq. U.S. National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice is put in overall charge.

October 2, 2003
David Kay, the head of the Iraq Survey Group (ISG), the team searching for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, tells a congressional committee that no WMD have been located.
Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez, the commander of U.S. ground forces in Iraq, says that U.S. forces are subject to about 15 to 20 daily attacks.

September 7, 2003
President Bush announces that $87 billion is needed to pay for additional military and reconstruction costs in Iraq.

August 29, 2003
Ayatollah Mohammed Bakr al-Hakim, one of Iraq's most important Shiite leaders, is killed by a bomb in the holy city of Najaf outside the Imam Ali Mosque. Hakim was one of the few ayatollahs in direct contact with U.S. officials, and controlled the only Shiite paramilitary force. About 80 others also die in the bombing, and 25 are wounded.

August 28, 2003
British Prime Minister Tony Blair testifies before the Hutton Inquiry into the death of weapons expert David Kelly.

August 19, 2003
A suicide bomb demolishes U.N. headquarters in Baghdad. Twenty-four are killed, including Sergio Vieira de Mello, United Nations Special Envoy and High Commissioner for Human Rights; more than 100 others are wounded.

August 13, 2003
U.S. soldiers shoot into a crowd of thousands of Shiite demonstrators after a rocket-propelled grenade is fired at them, killing one and wounding four.

August 7, 2003
A blast outside the Jordanian embassy in Baghdad kills a reported 16 people and injures more than 50.

July 31, 2003
L. Paul Bremer III, the top U.S. administrator in Iraq, says that nationwide elections could follow the ratification of a new constitution within a year.

July 22, 2003
Uday and Qusay Hussein, sons of the former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, are killed by U.S. forces at their hideout in a Mosul home.

July 18, 2003
David Kelly, the senior British official identified as the source for a press report that British officials deliberately exaggerated an intelligence report on Iraq's WMD to help justify an invasion, is found dead.

July 17, 2003
U.S. combat deaths in Iraq total 147, equal to the number of soldiers who died from hostile fire in the first Gulf War. Thirty-two deaths occurred since May 1, the officially declared end of major combat operations.

July 16, 2003
General John Abizaid says U.S. troops face a "guerrilla-type campaign" in Iraq and troop replacements may be deployed for year-long tours.

July 13, 2003
The interim Iraqi Governing Council (IGC) is established. It is composed of 25 Iraqis appointed by U.S. and British officials. The council is authorized to name ministers and will help draft a new constitution. L. Paul Bremer III, the American administrator in Iraq, retains ultimate authority.

July 7, 2003
The Bush administration admits that evidence cited in the 2003 State of the Union address and elsewhere that Iraq pursued a nuclear weapons program by seeking to buy uranium in Africa was not corroborated and should not have been used.
Retiring General Tommy Franks is replaced by General John Abizaid as commander of allied forces in Iraq.

June 15, 2003
The United States launches Operation Desert Scorpion, a military campaign designed to defeat organized Iraqi resistance against American troops.

May 30, 2003
U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell and British Prime Minister Tony Blair deny that intelligence was manipulated or exaggerated to justify the invasion of Iraq.

May 29, 2003
In a British radio report, a senior official is said to have claimed that intelligence about Iraqi WMD deployable in 45 minutes was exaggerated to help justify the invasion of Iraq.

May 22, 2003
The UN Security Council passes Resolution 1483, ending the nearly 13-year-old economic sanctions against Iraq and supporting the U.S.-led administration in Iraq.

May 12, 2003
L. Paul Bremer III, the new U.S. civilian administrator of postwar Iraq, arrives in Baghdad.

May 10, 2003
Ayatollah Mohammed Bakr al-Hakim, the lead cleric of Iraq's largest Shiite Muslim opposition group, returns to Iraq.

May 9, 2003
The United States, Britain, and Spain introduce a U.N. Security Council resolution that grants the United States and Britain political and economic control over Iraq and its resources for at least one year, approves the use of Iraqi oil revenue for rebuilding, and lifts U.N. economic sanctions against Iraq.
American forces begin disarming Mujahedeen-e-Khalq, the Iranian-opposition terrorist group.

May 6, 2003
President Bush names L. Paul Bremer III, former ambassador and State Department counterterrorism director, as Administrator of the Coalition Provisional Authority. He will outrank and eventually take over for retired Lieutenant General Jay Garner.

May 3, 2003
Schools open in Baghdad for the first time in seven weeks, although safety concerns keep many children at home.

May 1, 2003
In a speech delivered from the deck of the U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln, an aircraft carrier returning from the war, President Bush declares the end of major combat operations in Iraq.

April 30, 2003
U.S. Central Command announces that it will shift its major air operations center for the Middle East from Saudi Arabia to Qatar, ending more than a decade of U.S. military operations in Saudi Arabia.

April 29, 2003
The U.S. announces a ceasefire with Mujahedeen-e-Khalq, the Iranian-opposition terrorist group. The agreement was signed April 15 but was not made public until this date.

April 28, 2003
About 300 delegates convene in Baghdad for the second meeting of Iraqi representatives chaired by retired Lieutenant General Jay Garner, the U.S. administrator of Iraq. The group decides to assemble a national conference in one month to select a postwar government.
U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld announces that the U.S. is withdrawing air crews from bases in Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Kuwait. The crews enforced the no-fly zones over southern and northern Iraq that ceased to exist when the Saddam Hussein regime fell.

April 24, 2003
Tariq Aziz, former deputy prime minister of Iraq, surrenders to U.S. forces. He is the most prominent Iraqi government official arrested to date.
U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld accuses Iran of interfering in Iraq and vows that Iraq will not end up with an Islamic fundamentalist government akin to Iran's.

April 23, 2003
Chief U.N. weapons inspector Hans Blix and Security Council members who opposed the war call for U.N. weapons inspectors to return to Iraq, a move the Bush administration opposes.

April 22, 2003
One million Shiite Muslims march to Karbala's holy shrine in a traditional pilgrimage that was banned under Saddam Hussein's regime.

April 21, 2003
Syria bans Iraqis from entering the country without a visa, in response to U.S. charges that Syria is harboring Iraqi fugitives.
U.S. officials announce that they will send 1,000 experts to Iraq to search for weapons of mass destruction. They will join the 200 U.S. inspectors already there.
The Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) is established as the temporary governing body of Iraq.

April 20, 2003
A 50-truck convoy carrying 1,400 tons of wheat flour brings the first large postwar U.N. World Food Program shipments to Baghdad.

April 19, 2003
The foreign ministers of eight Arab countries meet in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, for their first postwar summit. They call on coalition forces to quickly stabilize the country and withdraw.

April 18, 2003
Thousands of Sunni and Shiite Iraqis march in Baghdad, protesting American involvement in Iraq. Opposition leader Ahmad Chalabi, head of the Iraqi National Congress, makes his first public speech in Baghdad. He calls for a minimal U.N. role in rebuilding Iraq and for the rapid establishment of a transitional government.

April 17, 2003
The U.S. Agency for International Development awards the first Iraq reconstruction contract to Bechtel Restoration of San Francisco, a company with close ties to the Bush administration.

April 16, 2003
President Bush signs a bill allocating $80 billion to pay for costs associated with the war in Iraq. The president also calls for the United Nations to lift economic sanctions on Iraq. The Department of Homeland Security lowers the terrorism threat level to yellow; it had been raised to orange on March 17, just prior to the start of the war.
U.S. forces bomb bases of the Mujahedeen-e-Khalq, anti-Iran extremists who had the backing of Saddam Hussein's government. MEK is on the State Department's list of foreign terrorist groups.

April 15, 2003
In Ur, some 70 Iraqi leaders, representing different tribal, religious, and civil factions, meet for the first time with retired Lieutenant General Jay Garner, the head of the Pentagon's Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance, and other officials. They call for an end to the chaos in the country and agree to establish a democratic system in Iraq.

April 14, 2003
The northern city Tikrit, Saddam Hussein's hometown, falls without a battle, to the surprise of coalition troops expecting Iraqi fighters to make a last stand there. The Pentagon announces that "major combat engagements are over."
The Bush administration warns Syria against harboring Iraqi fugitives and developing chemical weapons.

April 13, 2003
Iraqis release seven American prisoners of war: five members of the 507th Maintenance Company ambushed in Nasiriya March 23 and the two-man crew of an Apache attack helicopter shot down near Karbala March 24.

April 12, 2003
Looters ransack the Iraq National Museum in Baghdad.

April 11, 2003
Mosul falls to American and Kurdish troops.
The U.S. Army issues troops playing cards imprinted with the names and faces of the most-wanted Iraqi government figures.

April 10, 2003
Kurdish troops and American Special Forces take control of the northern city of Kirkuk after minor Iraqi resistance.
Abdel Majid al-Khoei, an American-backed Muslim cleric, is murdered by a mob outside the Ali Mosque in Najaf.

April 9, 2003
Coalition forces move into central Baghdad, and U.S. Marines and cheering Iraqis topple a 40-foot statue of Saddam Hussein in Baghdad's central square. All evidence of Iraqi governmental authority disappears.

April 8, 2003
President Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair, meeting in Northern Ireland, say that coalition authorities will cede control to Iraqis as soon as possible and that they envision a "vital role" for the United Nations in Iraq's postwar reconstruction.
Two journalists are killed and many others injured when U.S. forces mistakenly attack the Palestine Hotel in Baghdad.

April 7, 2003
British troops take the southern town of Basra.

April 6, 2003
Two American warplanes mistakenly bomb a convoy of Kurdish and U.S. Special Forces fighters, killing 19 Kurds and one American and injuring 45 people.

April 5, 2003
In a show of force, U.S. armored vehicles drive into the center of Baghdad. In the ensuing clashes, at least 1,000 Iraqi troops are killed, according to various U.S. military reports.
Iraq's Republican Guard divisions are "almost to the point they're combat-ineffective," according to the Pentagon.

April 3, 2003
American forces start to take control of Saddam International Airport in Baghdad and rename it Baghdad International Airport.
Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, Iraq's senior Shiite Muslim cleric, issues a fatwa, or edict, instructing Iraqis not to interfere with coalition troops.

April 2, 2003
Pentagon officials report that the Baghdad and Medina divisions of the Republican Guard defending Baghdad are "no longer credible forces."
American troops capture the town of Najaf, 85 miles south of Baghdad, and are greeted with cheers as they enter the city. The U.S. Army takes control of Karbala, 45 miles south of Baghdad, and the Marines seize Kut, 105 miles southeast of Baghdad.

April 1, 2003
U.S. Special Operations forces rescue 19-year-old U.S. soldier Jessica Lynch from Saddam Hospital in Nasiriya. She was captured during a March 23 clash near Nasiriya.

March 31, 2003
American soldiers fire at a van after the vehicle refuses to stop at a checkpoint near Karbala. Between seven and ten women and children are killed, according to various press reports.

March 29, 2003
U.S. and coalition forces destroy a building north of Basra, where 200 members of the Baath Party reportedly were meeting.
In northern Iraq, U.S. Special Operations and Kurdish forces bombed Ansar al-Islam, an al Qaeda-linked terror group, in the mountains where it maintained bases from which it controlled nearby towns.

March 23, 2003
Fifteen U.S. soldiers are reported missing or detained after a clash near Nasiriya. Iraqi TV airs footage of dead American POWs and interviews with other POWs.
At Camp Pennsylvania in Kuwait, a U.S. soldier throws a grenade into a 101st Airborne Division command center, killing two and wounding 14.

March 22, 2003
U.S. and coalition forces capture the bridge across the Euphrates River, north of Nasiriya, and the Tallil Air Base.

March 21, 2003
"A-Day" of Operation Iraqi Freedom. "Shock and awe" bombing campaign begins in Baghdad and the northern cities of Kirkuk and Mosul. In the south, U.S. and coalition forces take control of oilfields west of Basra and the Faw Peninsula and seize two significant Iraqi air bases, known as H-2 and H-3, in western Iraq.

March 20, 2003
The ground offensive begins as U.S. and coalition forces cross the border from Kuwait into Iraq.

March 19, 2003
Operation Iraqi Freedom begins, with U.S. and coalition forces striking a target in Baghdad where, intelligence reports indicated, Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein and his top deputies had gathered in underground bunkers.
President George Bush addresses the nation and says the early stages of military operations to disarm Iraq have begun.
President Bush's address.

March 17, 2003
President George Bush addresses the nation and tells Saddam Hussein and his sons to leave Iraq within 48 hours in order to avoid military action..
President Bush's address.
The United States, Great Britain, and Spain pull the proposed second U.N. resolution from before the Security Council.

March 16, 2003
The United States, Great Britain, and Spain hold a summit in the Azores Islands, off Portugal.

March 12, 2003
Britain sets out list of six conditions for Saddam Hussein.
List of conditions.

March 7, 2003
Britain offers an amendment to the draft second resolution, setting March 17 as the deadline for Iraq to disarm. The amendment is supported by resolution cosponsors Spain and the United States.
The U.N. Security Council takes up the quarterly report on UNMOVIC activities submitted on March 1, by UNMOVIC Executive Chairman Hans Blix.

March 1, 2003
Deadline set by Hans Blix for destruction of Iraq's Al-Samoud II missiles and related material. Iraq begins destruction of the weapons under U.N. Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC) supervision.
Hans Blix submits a quarterly report on UNMOVIC activities, as mandated by Resolution 1284.

February 24, 2003
France, Russia, and Germany propose a program of stepped-up weapons inspections to extend for 120 days.
Text of Memorandum.
The United States, Britain, and Spain submit the draft a so-called second resolution to the U.N. Security Council that concludes that the Security Council has decided that Iraq has failed to take its final opportunity to disarm offered in resolution 1441.
Text of draft resolution

February 22, 2003
Hans Blix orders Saddam Hussein to destroy its arsenal of Al-Samoud II missiles and related material.
Excerpts of Blix's letter

February 14, 2003
Hans Blix and International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director-General Mohamed ElBaradei report to the U.N. Security Council on inspections in Iraq, saying that Iraqi cooperation was merely adequate and urging Baghdad to do more to explain unaccounted-for weaponry.
Blix and ElBaradei's report to the U.N. Security Council

February 8, 2003
Hans Blix and Mohamed ElBaradei return to Iraq for a new round of talks with Iraqi officials.

February 5, 2003
U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell addresses the U.N. Security Council on Iraq and its disarmament obligations under U.N. Security Council Resolution 1441.
Full text

January 28, 2003
In his State of the Union address, President Bush says "if Saddam Hussein does not fully disarm, we will lead a coalition to disarm him."
Full text

January 27, 2003
Hans Blix and Mohamed ElBaradei update the U.N. Security Council on their findings 60 days after resuming inspections in Iraq. Blix says Iraq still hasn't accounted for weapons and weapons-related materials that previous U.N. disarmament reports had documented and ElBaradei says inspectors have not turned up any evidence "that Iraq has revived its nuclear weapons program."
Blix's update to the U.N. Security Council
IAEA update report for the U.N. Security Council

January 19, 2003
Hans Blix and Mohamed ElBaradei visit Baghdad.

January 9, 2003 Hans Blix and Mohamed ElBaradei brief the U.N. Security Council on Iraq's weapons declaration. Blix tells reporters afterward that weapons inspectors have yet to find a "smoking gun" that would prove Iraq has violated U.N. resolutions.
Blix's notes for the U.N. Security Council briefing
Full text