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March 20:
-- 0235 GMT: The United States launches war on Iraq with limited air strikes on Baghdad, after Iraqi President Saddam Hussein rejects a US deadline to leave the country by 0100 GMT
March 21:
-- The United States launches 1,000 cruise missiles on hundreds of targets in Baghdad and elsewhere
March 22:
-- US troops meet stiff resistance around the key port of Umm Qasr and in Nasiriyah, a key crossing over the Euphrates River
March 23:
-- Iraqi television shows pictures of dead US soldiers and five captured US troops
-- US air raids pound Baghdad, the northern city of Mosul and positions held by Kurdish Islamist group allegedly linked to al-Qaeda
-- A US soldier is detained after a grenade attack that killed one US soldier and wounded 12 in northern Kuwait
March 24:
-- Iraq shoots down two US Apache helicopters
-- Iraq's northern oil capital of Kirkuk is rocked by 24 hours of bombardment
March 25:
-- British and US forces take control of the deep-water port of Umm Qasr, as a fierce sandstorm slows down another flank
-- US President George W. Bush asks Congress to approve a package of 74.7 billion dollars to finance the war
March 26:
-- Iraq says 14 Iraqis are killed when missiles hit a Baghdad residential and market area
-- US-led forces bombard the state television building in Baghdad, taking main TV channels briefly off the air
March 27:
-- 1,000 US paratroopers parachute into the mountainous Kurdish-held north
-- Mines discovered in the port of Umm Qasr delay the first shipment of British aid
-- Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair hold a summit, predicting victory while warning the conflict could drag on
March 28:
-- At least 30 people are killed in an air strike on a busy Baghdad market, Iraqis say
March 29:
-- A suicide car bombing kills four US soldiers in central Iraq
-- Invading US and British forces destroy a building hosting a meeting of some 200 members of Iraq's ruling Baath party in the Basra region, a US general says
March 30:
-- US military leaders warn of a long battle for Baghdad
-- US withdraws war material prepositioned in southeastern Turkey
March 31:
-- US forces report their first serious battle with Iraq's elite Republican Guard, south of Baghdad
-- Hundreds of British Royal Marines launch a major assault to secure a suburb southeast of the key southern city on Basra
April 1:
-- US forces shoot dead seven women and children at a military checkpoint
-- Coalition warplanes pound Iraqi army positions at the northern oil city of Kirkuk
April 2:
-- US forces attack four elite Republican Guard divisions at Karbala in central Iraq
-- US special forces rescue 19-year-old US soldier, Jessica Lynch, missing since her supply convoy was ambushed on March 23
-- US Secretary of State Colin Powell wins an accord from Turkey to use its territory to resupply troops in Iraq
April 3:
-- US troops reach Baghdad airport, 20 kilometres (12 miles) from the city centre
-- Coalition forces say they now hold more than 9,000 Iraqi prisoners of war
April 4:
-- US forces capture large parts of Baghdad airport and deploy on the tarmac but do not seize the airport buildings
-- Kurdish fighters cross a bridge near the strategic northern junction of Khazer after more than 24 hours of fierce fighting
-- Expatriate UN humanitarian workers return to Iraq
April 5:
-- US forces make their first ground advance into Baghdad, reportedly killing hundreds of Iraqis
-- The US 101st Airborne Division launches an air assault to secure the central town of Karbala
-- British soldiers discover hundreds of human remains in an abandoned Iraqi military base in southern Iraq
-- US Secretary of State Colin Powell says the United States has no intention of invading Iran and Syria
April 6:
-- 18 Kurdish fighters are killed and 45 wounded near Arbil in northern Iraq when US aircraft mistakenly bomb a joint convoy. BBC correspondent John Simpson is injured and his translator killed.
-- Several people are injured when a convoy evacuating the Russian ambassador from Baghdad comes under fire. US Central Command in Qatar says no US-led coalition forces were in the area
-- US forces have smashed most of the six active Republican Guard divisions defending the Iraqi regime, a US army intelligence officer says
-- US troops fight their way around Baghdad in a drive to encircle the capital
April 7:
-- US forces move into Baghdad and seize several presidential palaces including Saddam's main official residence. British Royal Marines also seize the huge presidential palace in Basra.
-- Iraq's Information Minister Mohammad Said al-Sahhaf insists the regime is still in control and vows that the invaders would be "massacred".
-- A British military spokesman says Hasan al-Majid, the Iraqi official better known as 'Chemical Ali' and a cousin of Saddam, was apparently killed in a coalition air strike.
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