December 31 2003
Car bomb at a Baghdad restaurant kills eight and wounds more than 30, including three Western journalists.

December 27 2003
Attacks on government buildings and foreign troops' bases in the southern city of Kerbala using suicide car bombers, machine guns and mortars kill 19 and wound about 120.

December 23 2003
British security officials circulate stories that the former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein may have been hoodwinked into believing he possessed weapons of mass destruction; a distinguished Kurdish judge, Youssef Khoshi, is shot dead while driving in the Northern Iraqi city of Mosul.
New theory for missing WMD: Saddam was fooled
Judge shot dead in northern Iraq

December 19 2003
US administrator Paul Bremer reveals that he survived an assassination attempt earlier in the month when a roadside bomb exploded near his vehicle convoy.
Bremer survived assassination attempt

December 18 2003
A Ministry of Defence inquiry finds that the death of the first British casualty of the war in Iraq, Sergeant Steve Roberts, could have been prevented with better body armour.
Soldier's Iraq death 'avoidable'

December 16 2003
Germany and France agree to a US request to write off part of Iraq's $120bn (£68bn) debt; two divisions of Halliburton - the oil services firm formerly run by the US vice president, Dick Cheney - file for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection as part of a $4.2bn (£2.5bn) plan to settle hundreds of thousands of asbestos claims.
Chirac and Schröder agree to debt cuts
Halliburton units file for bankruptcy

December 13 2003
Saddam Hussein, Iraq's deposed leader,is found by US forces at the bottom of a hole near his home town of Tikrit.
Saddam Hussein captured

December 12 2003
A Pentagon audit finds that Halliburton overcharged the government by $61m (about £35m) for delivering petrol to Iraq; Tony Blair insists at the EU summit that it is "for the Americans to decide how to spend their own money" over Iraq reconstruction.
Cheney oil firm accused of overcharging $61m in Iraq
Iraq splits EU summit as Blair backs US

December 10 2003
Pentagon excludes countries that opposed the Iraq invastion from bidding for reconstruction contracts.
US bans anti-war countries from Iraq deals

December 9 2003
Forty-one US troops and six Iraqi civilians are wounded in a suicide car bombing outside a barracks near the northern Iraqi city of Mosul.
Barracks blast injures 41 US troops

December 8 2003
Key contract decisions postponed again as Tony Blair is drawn into row over lack of 'level playing fields'
Iraq delays hand Cheney firm $1bn

December 7 2003
An Iraqi officer claims he warned British intelligence about Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction programme.
Iraqi says he was source for 45-minute claim

December 4 2003
US secretary of state says alliance is united on need to play bigger role.
Powell calls on Nato to send troops to Iraq

December 3 2003
The US is planning to set up a paramilitary battalion in Iraq drawn from the five main political parties to help American troops fighting a fast-spreading insurgency.
Security unit to be run by Iraqi parties

December 2 2003
An American soldier is expecting to be dismissed from the army for taking a break from patrol in Baghdad to marry his Iraqi girlfriend, says his lawyer.
US soldier left patrol duty to marry Iraqi

December 1 2003
Iraqi officials in Samarra challenge US military accounts of a bloody battle, accusing American soldiers of spraying fire at random on the city streets, killing several civilians.
Iraqis challenge US account of battle

November 30 2003
American soldiers kill 46 Iraqis and capture eight in three repelled ambushes on US convoys in the central Iraqi city of Samarra, according to a military spokesman.
Troops kill 46 in Iraq as violence spreads

November 29 2003
US troops return fire on insurgents in the central Iraqi city of Samarra after an ambush on a convoy. Seven Spanish intelligence agents, two Japanese diplomats, two US soldiers and a Colombian oil worker are also killed.

November 27 2003
George Bush makes a surprise visit to US troops in Baghdad to serve them a Thanksgiving Day dinner.

November 12 2003
A suspected car bomb on an Italian military police base in the southern town of Nassiriya kills at least 14 Italian officers and eight Iraqis. Until now, no Italian military personnel had been killed in combat in Iraq.
22 killed in Iraq blast

November 11 2003
Head of the US coalition, Paul Bremer, is summoned to Washington for high level talks amid growing unease at the lack of progress in Iraq and the mounting human and financial cost. The visit prompts speculation that the US is trying to speed up the transfer of power.
Bremer flies to US for crisis talks

November 7 2003
Six US soldiers are killed when their Black Hawk helicopter crashes in central Iraq, apparently after being hit by a rocket-propelled grenade. It is the third time in two weeks that Iraqi fighters have brought down a US military helicopter.
Six US soldiers die in helicopter attack

November 6 2003
Several US papers report that, in the weeks before its fall, Iraq's Ba'athist regime made a series of increasingly desperate peace offers to Washington, promising to hold elections and even allow US troops to search for banned weapons.
Saddam's desperate offers to stave off war

November 4 2003
The US president, George Bush, wins Senate approval for $87.5bn (£52bn) in funds to continue the US-led occupation of Iraq.
Bush wins $87bn to keep up fight in Iraq

November 2 2003
Sixteen US soldiers are killed after their Chinook helicopter is struck six miles south of Falluja in the deadliest attack against the occupying powers since the US declared major combat to be over.
16 die in attack on US helicopter

October 27 2003
Thirty-five people are killed in attacks in Baghdad on its bloodiest day since the fall of Saddam. A suicide bomber rams an explosive-laden ambulance into barriers outside the Red Cross headquarters and three police stations are attacked.
35 killed and 224 injured in Baghdad bomb attacks

October 26 2003
Iraqi resistance fighters fire a rocket salvo at the Rashid hotel in Baghdad, narrowly missing Paul Wolfowitz, the US deputy defence secretary. An American colonel is killed and 18 people wounded.
US hawk escapes Baghdad rocket attack

October 24 2003
Last-minute pledges from Arab states and Japan gave a major boost to Iraq's reconstruction funds as governments opposed to the US-led invasion began to soften their positions.
Arabs and Japan pledge reconstruction cash

October 23 2003
Major security failures at the United Nations headquarters in Baghdad were partially responsible for the large number of deaths and casualties caused by the truck bomb there in August, according to a report on the incident.
Security lapses blamed for UN bomb

October 19 2003
Two American soldiers are killed and one wounded in an ambush outside the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk.
Troops die as Saddam urges jihad

October 17 2003
Three American soldiers and at least seven Iraqis are killed in a gun battle outside the office of a Shia cleric in the holy Iraqi city of Kerbala.
Ten killed in firefight as tension grows in Iraq

October 14 2003
A suicide car bomber exploded his vehicle outside the Turkish embassy, killing the driver and a bystander, and wounding at least 13.

October 12 2003
A suicide car bombing near the Baghdad Hotel leaves eight people dead and at least 32 wounded.
Another day in Iraq, another bomb - 84 dates that tell tale of mayhem

October 9 2003
A suicide bomber drives his Oldsmobile into a police station in Baghdad's Sadr City district, killing himself and nine other people.
Eight die in suicide bomb attack
Two US soldiers killed in Baghdad ambush

October 2 2003
The man in charge of a hunt for Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction admits that no weapon stocks had been found, and that all a three-month search, costing some £180m ($300m), had uncovered was a single vial containing a possible strain of biological agent.
'There are no shining weapons'

September 25 2003
Aqila al-Hashmi, the most prominent of three women on Iraq's governing council, dies of wounds sustained in an ambush. A planted bomb damages a hotel housing the offices of NBC News, killing a Somali guard.
Iraq council member dies after shooting

September 21 2003
Officials on Iraq's governing council warn that they are increasingly at risk from attack, a day after one of their number was shot and badly wounded in an assassination attempt.
Attack on Iraq council member spurs tighter security call

September 19 2003
Saddam Hussein's former defence minister surrenders to US troops in northern Iraq following weeks of negotiations, says a Kurdish mediator.
Former Iraqi defence minister surrenders

September 18 2003
The former UN chief weapons inspector, Hans Blix, says he believes Iraq destroyed most of its weapons of mass destruction 10 years ago.
Iraq dumped WMDs years ago, says Blix
Blix accuses UK and US of spin over Iraq

September 17 2003
An audio tape message purported to have been recorded by the deposed Iraqi leader, Saddam Hussein, is aired by Arabic television channel al-Arabiya.
New 'Saddam tape' issued

September 14 2003
Colin Powell, US secretary of state, meets Iraqi politicians in Baghdad as an American soldier is killed and three wounded in an attack near Falluja, where Iraqi police died in a "friendly fire" incident.
Powell flies in to Iraqi anger at deaths

September 13 2003
President George Bush's approval ratings have slumped to a lower point than they were in the week of the terrorist attacks two years ago, according to the latest Gallup poll.
Support for Bush and war slumps

September 12 2003
The US military reignites tension in one of Iraq's most troubled towns when its troops mistakenly shoot dead eight policemen who were chasing a car full of suspected bandits.
US killing of eight Iraqi police fuels anger in troubled town

September 10 2003
A suicide car bomber attacks the US intelligence base in the northern Iraqi city of Irbil, killing three people and injuring 41.
Three killed in Irbil suicide bombing

September 8 2003
Britain will send 1,000 more troops to bolster its security operation in Iraq, says defence secretary Geoff Hoon.
UK to send 1,000 more troops to Iraq

September 7 2003
President George Bush seekst to reassure jittery Americans about their country's involvement in Iraq, dismissing doubts by arguing that it remains a central front in the war on terror.
Fear of $80bn Iraq bill moves Bush to address nation

September 5 2003
A Briton and an American working in Iraq are shot and killed in separate incidents, fuelling concerns that guerrillas launching attacks on the military occupiers may be widening their targets.
British charity worker killed in Iraq gun attack

September 3 2003
Resolution is defeat for hawks in White House.
Bush asks UN for help in Iraq

September 2 2003
Tens of thousands of mourners turn the funeral service for the murdered Iraqi cleric Ayatollah Mohammed Baqir al-Hakim into a show of defiance against the US-led occupation.
Shia mourners demand end to US occupation

September 1 2003
Two Arabic television channels broadcast what they say is a recorded message from Saddam Hussein, denying responsibility for last week's devastating car bomb in Najaf.
Tape said to be by Saddam denies role in Najaf bombing
Iraqi quits council in security protest

August 29 2003
A leading Shia cleric is among the many people killed in a car bomb attack outside a mosque in the Iraqi town of Najaf.
Huge bomb blast in Najaf
Spiritual and political leader of the Iraqi Shias

August 26 2003
Humanitarian aid agencies say they are evacuating their workers from Iraq in the latest sign that the security situation is slipping out of the US-British coalition's control.
Aid agencies evacuate their workers

August 24 2003
Three Iraqi security guards are killed when a bomb explodes at the office of a senior cleric in Najaf in central Iraq.
Bomb kills three in Najaf

August 23 2003
The British and American-led mission in Iraq suffers a new blow when three British soldiers are killed and one seriously wounded by unidentified attackers in the southern city of Basra.
British soldiers gunned down in Basra ambush

August 22 2003
America and Britain will face a challenge to persuade the international community to send troops to Iraq unless they agree to share power, says the UN secretary general, Kofi Annan.
Annan throws doubt on international help in Iraq

August 22 2003
A previously unknown group claims responsibility for the bomb attack on the UN compound in Baghdad that killed at least 23 people, and threatened further attacks.
Mystery group says it planted Baghdad bomb

August 21 2003
The former high-ranking Iraqi official known as 'Chemical Ali' is captured and taken into custody, according to US central command.
'Chemical Ali' captured by US forces

August 20 2003
The official message from the UN breathed defiance - the terrorist attack that had killed more than 20 of its staff would not stop the rebuilding of Iraq.
Bloodied but unbowed, UN vows to stay to finish the job of rebuilding Iraq

August 19 2003
A truck bomb strikes at the heart of the international humanitarian effort in Iraq, destroying part of the UN headquarters in Baghdad and killing at least 20 people, including the head of the UN mission.
Iraq: the agony goes on

August 17 2003
US attempts to restore Iraq's shaky infrastructure suffer a serious setback when guerrillas blow up a vital oil pipeline in the north for the second time. A hole is also blown in a water main in Baghdad.
Iraq hit by fresh attack on oil pipeline

August 17 2003
A Reuters TV cameraman is shot dead by US troops after they mistake his camera for a grenade launcher.
Cameraman shot dead by US troops

August 15 2003
Saboteurs blow up a crude oil export pipeline in northern Iraq, starting a huge oil fire, halting all oil exports to Turkey and starving an economy in chaos of much-needed income to rebuild.
Terror blast cuts off Iraq's oil pipeline to Turkey

August 14 2003
A British soldier is killed, and two others injured, in an attack on an army ambulance travelling through the outskirts of Basra.
British soldier killed in Basra

August 10 2003
US officials say they are braced for further large-scale terrorist attacks in Iraq after reports from intelligence sources that hundreds of Islamic militants, who escaped across the border to Iran during the war, may have got back into the country.
Be prepared for terror attacks, says Bremer

August 9 2003
British troops in riot gear fight to restore calm in the southern Iraqi city of Basra as dire shortages of fuel and power spark disturbances.
British troops battle to control mobs in Basra

August 8 2003
US snipers shoot dead two Iraqis and injure at least two others they claim were selling weapons at a street market in Saddam Hussein's home town, Tikrit.
US shoots two dead at start of softer rule

August 8 2003
Six Iraqis, including a father and three of his children, are killed in Baghdad by US troops who open fire on them as they hurry home to beat the curfew.
Civilians killed by US troops

August 7 2003
Att least 11 people are killed in a car bomb explosion outside the Jordanian embassy in Baghdad, sparking fears that guerrilla fighters may be turning their attention towards so-called soft targets.
Jordanian embassy blast kills 11 in Baghdad

August 2 2003
With their coffins wrapped in the Iraqi flag, but guarded by the troops of their mortal enemy, the bodies of Uday and Qusay Hussein are laid to rest in a dusty cemetery in the village where their father was born.
Tribe gathers to bury Saddam's sons