December 17 1999
UN replaces Unscom with Unmovic, the 'monitoring, verification and inspection commission'; Iraq rejects the move.
UN plan to ease anti-Iraq sanctions

December 16-19 1998
Operation 'Desert Fox' begins: four days of US-British air strikes against Iraqi weapons programmes.
Missile blitz on Iraq

December 16 1998
UN inspection team is withdrawn, after concluding that Iraq is not cooperating fully.

November 14 1998
Iraq allows inspections to resume.

October 31 1998
Iraq suspends cooperation with UN inspectors.

February 23 1998
Iraq promises Kofi Annan unrestricted access for UN inspectors.
Back from the brink

January 13-22 1998
Iraq withdraws cooperation with UN inspectors, claiming too many members are American and British; then denies UN inspectors access to presidential sites.

October 29 1997
Iraq demands that Americans on UN inspection team leave; they go temporarily, but return on November 20.

June 21 1997
UN demands Iraq allow inspection teams access to disputed sites.

March-June 1996
UN inspection teams denied access to militarily sensitive sites.

July 1995
Iraq threatens to withdraw cooperation with inspectors unless some sanctions and oil embargo are lifted by August 31.

April 14 1995
'Oil-for-food' programme begins, allowing Iraq to export oil to buy food and medicine.

June 27 1993
US conducts air strikes against Iraqi intelligence service, in retaliation for assassination plot against former president George Bush.

August 26 1992
No-fly zone established in southern Iraq.

April 10 1991
UN 'safe haven' established in northern Iraq for protection of Kurds.

April 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).

March-April 1991
Kurdish refugees flee as Iraq bombs northern towns.
The valleys of death: refugees appeal for Western intervention

March 3 1991
Iraq accepts terms of ceasefire.

February 27 1991
Kuwait is liberated after three-day ground operation.

January 16 1991
Gulf War starts. US-led coalition begins air strikes against Iraq.
Allied planes bomb Iraq: Kuwait's liberation begun, says US

August 6 1990
UN imposes economic sanctions on Iraq.

August 2 1990
Iraq invades Kuwait. UN security council resolution 660 calls for full withdrawal.
Superpowers unite on Iraq

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.

March 16 1988
Saddam Hussein's administration uses chemical weapons against Kurds at Halabja in Iraq: more than 5,000 die.

September 22 1980
Border dispute between Iran and Iraq escalates into full-scale war.
Open war as Iraq is bombed

July 16 1979
Saddam Hussein becomes president of Iraq, after engineering the resignation of president Hasan al-Bakr.