July 31 2003
Around 10,000 young men have come forward to join an "Islamic army" in the holy city of Najaf, according to Muqtada al-Sadr, the fiery cleric who is trying to become the unchallengeable leader of Shia opposition.
Anti-US cleric rallies recruits for Islamic army

July 29 2003
A tape recording purported to be by Saddam Hussein declares that his two sons, Uday and Qusay, died as martyrs for Iraq, and pledges that the US will be defeated.
Saddam praises dead sons

July 28 2003
Tony Blair and other British ministers are accused of crimes against humanity in prosecuting the war against Iraq in a case lodged with the international criminal court by Greek lawyers.
Greeks accuse Blair of war crimes in Iraq

July 27 2003
Iraqi guerrillas kill a US soldier in a grenade attack south of Baghdad, bringing the American death toll in 24 hours to five.
Iraqis kill five more US soldiers

July 25 2003
Tokyo approves its biggest deployment of troops since 1945 as Washington casts around for help shouldering the post-Saddam burden.
End of an era as Japan enters Iraq

July 24 2003
Three US soldiers are killed when their convoy is ambushed near the northern Iraqi town of Mosul.
Three US soldiers die in Iraq convoy ambush

July 23 2003
Photographs of Saddam Hussein's sons laid out in plastic body bags are released by the US in a bid to convince sceptical Iraqis that neither will follow their father into power.
US releases photos of Saddam sons
'A grisly exhibition of death'

July 22 2003
Uday and Qusay, Saddam Hussein's sons and his most feared lieutenants, are killed in a gun battle at their hideout in the northern Iraqi town of Mosul.
Dead: the sons of Saddam
Lack of safety and power worries Iraqis more than fate of Saddam's sons

July 21 2003
The United Nations secretary-general gives his stamp of approval to Iraq's governing council, selected by the US-led occupation forces in Iraq.
Annan backs Iraq's US-picked leaders

July 17 2003
An audio tape purported to be of Saddam Hussein, and apparently timed to coincide with the anniversary of the 1968 Ba'athist revolution, is played on Arab television station al-Arabiya.
'New Saddam tape' condemns Iraqi governing council

July 16 2003
Guerrilla attacks in western Iraq claim the lives of a pro-US mayor and his son, as well as a US soldier.
Pro-US mayor killed by Iraqi guerrillas

July 14 2003
The foreign secretary, Jack Straw, says the CIA believed British intelligence reports that Iraq was attempting to obtain uranium from Africa.

One US soldier is killed and six injured in an attack on a convoy of military vehicles in Baghdad.
Straw defends Iraq uranium claim
US soldier killed in Baghdad

July 13 2003
Iraq's governing council, which is to prepare the way to free elections, has its first meeting.
Ruling council in symbolic first step

July 11 2003
The CIA director, George Tenet, apologises for not preventing George Bush from making use of the British-sourced uranium claims in his state of the union address.
CIA chief takes rap for Bush's false war claim

July 8 2003
Tony Blair tells a committee of MPs that his evidence for Iraq's attempts to secure uranium from Niger did not come from forged documents but "separate intelligence".

White House spokesman Ari Fleischer says the report on the uranium "did not not turn out to be accurate".

July 7 2003
Downing Street's communications director, Alastair Campbell, is cleared by MPs of exerting "improper influence" on the drafting of the government's intelligence-led dossier on Iraq but the Commons foreign affairs committee attacks the government over its handling of the affair.
Dossier report clears Campbell

July 6 2003
The BBC's governors issue a pugilistic statement demanding that Downing Street retract its claims of bias against the corporation's journalism.

Former US diplomat Joseph Wilson says it was "highly doubtful" that Niger sold uranium to Iraq.
Governors back BBC in row over Iraq dossier

July 5 2003
A British freelance TV cameraman is shot and killed by an Iraqi gunman in the centre of Baghdad.
Reporter killed covering his first war

July 4 2003
A tape recording purportedly of Saddam Hussein is broadcast urging guerrilla fighters in Iraq to continue their resistance to the US-led occupation of the country.
'Saddam' tape urges guerrillas to fight on

July 2 2003
Jack Straw claims that the political and security situation in Iraq is improving, in spite of attacks on US soldiers and sabotage of electricity and oil supplies.
Straw denies allies are in quagmire

July 1 2003
A huge explosion destroys a mosque in central Iraq, killing at least five Iraqis and injuring four others, according to witnesses and officials.
Five killed in Fallujah mosque blast

June 28 2003
Andrew Gilligan, the reporter at the centre of claims that Number 10 deliberately 'sexed up' evidence against Saddam Hussein, announces he is ready to sue a serving Minister.
BBC set to sue Minister over Iraq 'lies' claim

June 26 2003
One US solider is killed and another injured when their vehicle is ambushed on a road leading to Baghdad airport. An Iraqi passer-by also dies in the attack.

June 24 2003
Six British soldiers are killed and eight injured in two attacks in the south eastern town of Majar al-Kabir.
Six British soldiers dead, eight hurt as a fragile peace fractures

June 22 2003
George Bush addresses increasing national disquiet over the number of US servicemen killed in Iraq. More than a quarter of US casualties have occurred since the president declared an end to major military combat on May 1.
Bush forced to defend rising US death toll

June 19 2003
One American soldier is killed and two are injured when the military ambulance they are travelling in is struck by a rocket-propelled grenade.
US soldier killed in Iraq grenade attack

June 17 2003
Scores of American troops mount new searches through Baghdad after a sniper shot dead a US solider on patrol.
Sniper adds to US toll in Iraq

June 15 2003
Hundreds of American soldiers sweep through Falluja in a further, apparently more precise, operation against guerrilla resistance.
Policing Iraqis tests US troops

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 say

June 12 2003
US troops questioning about 400 suspects after the biggest military operation in Iraq since the regime collapsed two months ago.
US moves in on Iraq's resistance

June 10 2003
The all-party parliamentary intelligence and security committee serves notice that it expects ministers to cooperate fully with its inquiry into Iraq's banned weapons programme.

Hans Blix, the UN chief weapons inspector, meanwhile lashes out at the "bastards" in who he says tried to undermine him throughout the three years he has held his high-profile post.
MPs chastise No 10 over 'dodgy dossier'
Blix: I was smeared by the Pentagon

June 8 2003
David Blunkett becomes the most senior minister to admit publicly that Downing Street was wrong to publish the "dodgy dossier" on the military threat posed by Saddam Hussein.
Blunkett admits weapons error

June 6 2003
Hans Blix hits out at the quality of intelligence given to him by the United States and Britain on Iraq's alleged chemical and biological weapons programmes. "Only in three of those cases did we find anything at all, and in none of these cases was there any weapons of mass destruction, and that shook me a bit, I must say," he says.
Blix criticises weapons intelligence

June 4 2003
Tony Blair rejects calls for an independent judicial inquiry into the case for the Iraq war.
Blair rules out judicial inquiry

June 2 2003
Tony Blair faces mounting pressure from across the House of Commons to hold an independent inquiry into the Iraq war after Clare Short levelled the incendiary allegation at the prime minister that he had lied to the cabinet.
Short: Blair lied to cabinet and made secret war pact with US