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 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, Iraqi officials 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 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 Kurds are killed, including a BBC translator, and 45 are wounded near Arbil in northern Iraq when US aircraft mistakenly bomb a Kurdish-US convoy.

-- Several people are injured when a convoy evacuating the Russian ambassador from Baghdad comes under fire. It is unclear whether the shooting came from US or Iraqi forces

-- US forces have destroyed 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 Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon says US troops now control major routes into and out of Baghdad.

-- British Royal Marines seize the huge presidential palace in Basra declaring the battle for the strategic southern city "more or less over"

-- Fighting rages in the area of Baghdad's landmark al-Rashid hotel, which has been cordoned off by Iraqi fighters

-- At least nine civilians die when a missile crashes into a residential neighbourhood in central Baghdad, witnesses tell AFP

-- Iraq risks an outbreak of cholera, as clean drinking water is scarce and hospitals are overwhelmed, a World Health Organisation (WHO) spokeswoman warns

-- State-run television shows pictures of Saddam chairing a meeting of top military and political brass including his son Qussay, head of the elite Republican Guard

-- Iraq's Information Minister Mohammad Said al-Sahhaf says the regime is still in control and vows the invaders will be "massacred"

-- Britain says it has indications that "Chemical Ali", a cousin of Saddam Hussein who was blamed for a gas attack on Kurds in 1988, has been killed in a US-British raid but cannot confirm his death

-- Two US soldiers and two journalists are killed in an Iraqi rocket attack on a US military army position south of Baghdad, a US army major says

-- US President George W. Bush goes to Northern Ireland for talks with British Prime Minister Tony Blair on post-war Iraq

-- UN Secretary General Kofi Annan says United Nations involvement is required to confer legitimacy on any post-conflict administration in Iraq.

-- The Russian ambassador to Iraq accuses US forces of deliberately shooting at his convoy as it was fleeing Iraq for Syria, RIA Novosti news agency reports

-- US national security adviser Condoleezza Rice assures President Vladimir Putin in Moscow that if US troops indeed shot at the convoy no harm had been intended.

SPACE.WIRE