March 20:

-- 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

March 21:

-- The United States fires 1,000 cruise missiles on hundreds of targets in Baghdad and elsewhere

March 23:

-- US air raids pound Baghdad, the northern city of Mosul and positions held by Kurdish Islamist group allegedly linked to al-Qaeda

March 24:

-- Iraq's northern oil capital of Kirkuk is rocked by 24 hours of bombardment

March 25:

-- British and US forces take control of Umm Qasr

March 27:

-- 1,000 US paratroopers parachute into the Kurdish-held north

March 28:

-- At least 30 people are killed in an air strike on a busy Baghdad market, Iraq says

March 31:

-- US forces report their first serious battle with the Republican Guard, south of Baghdad

April 1:

-- US forces shoot dead seven women and children at a military checkpoint

April 3:

-- US troops reach Baghdad airport, 20 kilometres (13 miles) from the city centre

April 6:

-- 18 Kurds are killed and 45 wounded near Arbil in northern Iraq when US aircraft mistakenly bomb a Kurdish-US convoy

April 7:

-- US forces move into Baghdad and seize several presidential palaces

April 9:

-- US Marines help Iraqis pull down a huge statue of Saddam in central Baghdad, as scenes of jubilation spread throughout the capital

April 10

-- US-backed Kurdish forces seize the heart of the northern oil city of Kirkuk without a fight

-- Iraqis begin widespread looting of ministries, shops and museums across Baghdad

April 11

-- The United States issues a list of its 55 most-wanted Iraqis

April 12

-- Saddam's chief weapons advisor, Lieutenant General Amer al-Saadi, turns himself in, saying the ousted regime did not have weapons of mass destruction

April 13

-- US troops enter Saddam's ancestral home town of Tikrit

-- Bush accuses Syria of having chemical weapons

April 14

-- US forces take control of Tikrit, effectively ending the military campaign

-- US forces say all Iraqi oil wells are under allied control

-- Iraqi police escorted by US soldiers begin first joint patrols in Baghdad

April 15

-- Fifteen people are killed in Mosul by US troops, witnesses say. US forces later admit to shooting dead seven people

-- Washington threatens Syria with diplomatic and economic sanctions amid reports Damascus has given refuge to fleeing Iraqi officials

April 17

-- US-led forces arrest Barzan al-Tikriti, half-brother of Saddam Hussein

-- Mohammed Mohsen Zubeidi and Jaudat Obeidi declare themselves governor and mayor of Baghdad. US forces do not recognise their appointments

April 18

-- Thousands of Iraqis stage anti-US protests

April 20

-- The opposition Iraqi National Congress says Jamal Mustafa Abdullah, deputy head of the tribal affairs office and a son-in-law of Saddam, has surrendered.

April 21

-- Retired US general Jay Garner, the US administrator for Iraq, arrives in Baghdad and vows to restore water and power as soon as possible

-- Hundreds of thousands of Shiite Muslims gather in the holy city of Karbala for a pilgrimage suppressed under Saddam

-- The US military arrests Mohammed Hamza al-Zubaidi, number 18 on its most-wanted list

April 22

-- US forces say they are holding Jamal Mustafa Abdullah Sultan, one of Saddam's sons-in-law

-- US officials confirm US forces have reached a ceasefire agreement with the Iraq-based Iranian armed opposition group, the People's Mujahedeen.

-- France says UN sanctions iposed in 1990 can only be scrapped once the UN certifies Iraq is free of banned weapons

April 23

-- US Secretary of State Colin Powell says France will face consequences for opposing the war

-- The White House says economic sanctions on Iraq must be lifted

April 24

-- United States says Iraqi government ministries will reopen in a week and oil is again flowing from wells but only for Iraqi use

-- The United States announces the capture of four more key members of Saddam's inner circle

April 25

-- US forces say they are holding Saddam's deputy prime minister Tareq Aziz

April 26

-- At least six members of the same family are killed after a stash of Iraqi arms explodes in Baghdad, prompting angry anti-US demonstrations

April 27

-- Rumsfeld arrives for a tour of the Gulf region

-- The US military announces the capture of the Iraqi official in charge of liaising with UN weapons inspectors, General Hossam Mohammad Amin

-- US officials say they have arrested self-proclaimed Baghdad governor Mohammad Mohsen Zubeidi

April 28

-- Iraqis from across the political spectrum agree at a US-chaired conference to try and form an interim government within a month

-- Amer Mohammad Rashid al-Ubaidi, a former oil minister and weapons adviser to Saddam, gives himself up

-- Tareq Aziz tells his US captors Saddam was still alive in early April

-- The US military announces it is moving its combined air command centre from Saudi Arabia to neighbouring Qatar

April 29

-- Witnesses say US troops shot dead 13 Iraqis during a celebration to mark Saddam's birthday

-- US administrator of Iraq, Jay Garner, begins talks with Iraqi officials in Baghdad on security and the renewal of basic services

-- The United States says it will increase military patrols in Baghdad to boost security

April 30

-- US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld arrives in Baghdad on a tour of Iraq, saying the country is rid of Saddam's "truly brutal, vicious regime." He is the highest-ranking US official to tour Iraq since the fall of Saddam

-- US troops shoot dead three more civilians at an anti-US demonstration, doctors and witnesses say

-- An Arabic newspaper publishes what it says is a handwritten letter signed by Saddam urging Iraqis to rise up against US occupation

May 1

-- Seven US soldiers are wounded in a grenade attack in the city of Fallujah, where people are angry at the recent shooting deaths of 16 protesters by US forces

-- US Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage says that finding evidence of Iraq's banned weapons programs could take several months because it is so well-hidden

-- Britain says it will re-establish its diplomatic presence in Iraq after a 12-year break

-- A few hundred joyous Iraqi communists freely celebrate May Day in Baghdad for the first time in decades

SPACE.WIRE