Combat troops withdraw from cities
All U.S. combat units withdraw from Iraq's urban centres and redeploy to bases outside.
Obama visits Iraq
President Obama visits Baghdad. (Mandel Ngan/Getty Images)
Obama announces withdrawal
U.S. President Barack Obama announces a plan to end U.S. combat operations in Iraq by Aug. 31, 2010. He says up to 50,000 troops will remain to train Iraqi forces. (Chris Keane/Bloomberg News)
Provincial elections
Provincial elections are held in Iraq, demonstrating major security improvements.
Chemical Ali executed
Ali Hassan al-Majid, also known as Chemical Ali for his role in a chemical weapons attack on Iraqi Kurds, is executed. (Nikola Solic/Reuters)
Bush outlines troop reduction
President Bush gives an address announcing that troops will be cut from 169,000 to 130,000 by July 2008. (Saul Loeb/Getty Images)
Bush announces troop surge
President Bush announces 20,000 troops will be sent to Baghdad to stem sectarian violence there.
Saddam executed
Saddam is executed is hung before a crowd of witnesses. An image grab from a video, believed to be captured on a mobile phone and posted on the internet appears to show Saddam's head in the noo...
Rumsfeld resigns
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld resigns amidst heavy opposition to the war in Iraq by the American public. (Chris Greenberg/Bloomberg News)
Saddam sentenced to death
Saddam is sentenced to death by hanging after being found guilty of crimes against humanity.
Zarqawi killed
A US airstrike kills Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq. (AFP/Getty Images)
Prime minister chosen
Re-elected president President Jalal Talabani, names Shiite candidate Nouri al-Maliki as prime minister. (Ha Sa-hun/Yonhap/Reuters)
General election
Iraqis vote in a general election to choose a full-time parliament. The election is mostly peaceful.
Saddam goes to trial
Saddam goes to trial for war crimes and crimes against humanity. (David Furst/Getty Images)
Iraqis vote on constitution
Iraqis head to the polls again, this time to narrowly approve a new constitution.
Iraqis vote
The Iraqi people cast their first ballots in decades, electing a transitional government. Shiites win a majority, while Sunnis largely boycott the vote. (Ali Jarekji/Reuters)
No WMDs found
The White House announces the search for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq has ended without any such weapons having been found.
Battle for Fallujah
US forces launch an assault on Fallujah, which had been under the control of insurgents for months. The US uncovers large caches of weapons. (Shawn Baldwin/New York Times)
SIC criticizes pre-war intelligence
The Senate Intelligence Committee releases a report criticizing the CIA's pre-war intelligence, saying there was no establishment of a relationship between Saddam Hussein and al-Qaeda.
Government handed to Iraqis
The Coalition Provisional Authority hands over the government to the Iraqi people, two days earlier than expected for security purposes. An interim government takes over.
Abu Ghraib photos revealed
Leaked photos reveal abuse of prisoners by US forces at Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad. (Reuters/Courtesy of The New Yorker)
Interim constitution
The Iraqi governing council signs an interim constitution outlining a bill of rights.
Saddam captured
Saddam Hussein is captured by US forces at a farm near his hometown of Tikrit. He surrenders peacefully. (AFP)
Saddam's sons are killed
Saddam's two sons Uday and Qusay are killed by US forces at a villa in the northern Iraq town of Mosul. U.S. forces in Iraq partly rebuilt the faces of two bodies shown to journalists in an eff...
Paul Bremer takes over
Former head of the counterterrorism department at the US State Department Paul Bremer takes over as Iraq administrator. His predecessor Jay Garner was viewed as unable to control the rampant vi...
Major combat declared complete
George Bush declares major combat operations in Iraq complete while visitng the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln. He makes his statements in an address on the ship, standing in front of a b...
Looting continues
Looting in Baghdad and Basra has become so rampant that all major government offices other than the US-protected Oil Ministry have been completely plundered.
Baghdad captured
Astatue of Saddam in central Baghdad is pulled down by US forces. Fierce battles in the outskirts of the city subside and Baghdad falls as looting begins. (Goran Tomasevic/Reuters)
War begins
The war in Iraq begins with two rounds of air strikes on Baghdad. Troops enter the country through Kuwait. Saddam is unhurt in the air strikes. (Goran Tomasevic/Reuters)
48-hour warning
George Bush gives Saddam 48 hours to leave Iraq. UN weapons inspectors evacuate.
Canada will not participate
Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien announces in parliament that Canada will not participate in the US-led war in Iraq. (Jim Young/Reuters)
'Diplomacy has failed'
The US and Britain claim that diplomacy has failed and they will proceed to rmove weapons from Iraq along with a coalition of allies. The US tells UN weapons inspectors to leave Baghdad.
Colin Powell asks UN for OK
U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell addresses the UN Security Council in an attempt to get authorization for an invasion of Iraq. Powell says that Iraq has ties to al-Qaeda and is developing ch...
'No smoking gun'
UN chief weapons inspector Hans Blix tells reporters that inspectors have "not found any smoking guns" in Iraq. Inspectors had been searching the country for weapons of mass destruction for two mon...
