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Country : Iraq Official name: Al Jumhouriya al Iraqia (The Republic of Iraq) |
Historical profile
Prior to the First World War, Iraq was part of the Ottoman Empire and was known as the province of Mesopotamia.
1918 The Ottomans sided with Germany during the First World War; when Turkey was defeated, Iraq was occupied by the UK.
1920 Iraq was placed under a League of Nations mandate and administered by the UK.
1921 Amir Faisal ibn Hussain (a member of the Arab Hashemite dynasty) was proclaimed King of Iraq.
1932 The League of Nations mandate ended and Iraq became an independent state.
1933 King Faisal died and was succeeded by his son Ghazi.
1939 King Ghazi was killed in a car crash and succeeded by the infant Faisal II. Faisal's uncle, Prince Abd al Ilah, acted as regent until 1953, when King Faisal II assumed full powers.
1958 A military coup overthrew the monarchy. King Faisal II and Prince Abd al Ilah were killed. The 1925 constitution was abolished and a republic proclaimed. Brigadier (later Lieutenant General) Abd al Karim Kassem headed the new left-wing government.
1963 Pan-Arab elements in the armed forces staged a coup, killing Kassem and forming a government under Colonel (later Field Marshal) Abd as Salem Muhammad Aref.
1966 President Aref was killed in an airplane crash. He was succeeded by his brother, Major General Abd ar Rahman Muhammad Aref.
1968 President Aref was removed from office in a coup organised by the Hizb al Ba'ath al Arabiyah al Ishtiraki (Ba'ath) (Socialist Arab Rebirth Party). The government was headed by Major General Ahmad Hassan al Bakr (a former prime minister). Supreme authority was vested in the Revolutionary Command Council (RCC).
1979 The vice president of the RCC, Saddam Hussein (already the real power in Iraq), replaced Bakr as president.
1980 War with neighbouring Iran broke out after Iraq invaded over a disputed border area.
1988 A cease-fire was signed ending the eight-year, destructive and attritional, war.
1990 Iraq invaded Kuwait on 2 August. The invasion was condemned by the international community which, led by the US, deployed armed forces to Saudi Arabia. Following the invasion the UNSC imposed an arms embargo and economic sanctions on Iraq (Resolution 661) and in November passed Resolution 678 which authorised member states to use force if Iraq had not withdrawn from Kuwait by 15 January 1991.
1991 The allied forces launched an aerial bombing campaign against Iraqi forces in Kuwait and Iraq on 16 January. US-led ground forces (from around 30 countries, including Syria, Egypt and Morocco) liberated Kuwait. The UN maintained the arms embargo and economic sanctions on Iraq after the end of the war in an attempt to force it to disarm of weapons of mass destruction (WMD). After a Kurdish and Shi'a Muslim-led uprising was brutally quashed by Saddam Hussein's regime, the US, UK and France imposed 'no-fly zones' on Iraq to protect the Kurds in the north and the Shi'as in the south. The UN adminstered the three northern provinces of Dahuk, Arbil and As Sulaymaniyah, which allowed the Kurds to develop their own semi-autonomous Kurdish enclave, with its own parliament.
1993 The US launched 24 cruise missiles at targets in Baghdad after an alleged Iraqi plot to assassinate former US president George Bush was uncovered.
1994 Saddam Hussein appointed himself prime minister as well as president.
1995 The population voted in a referendum on Saddam Hussein's presidency and, inevitably, supported him.
1997 The UN established an oil-for-food programme, allowing Iraq to export limited quantities of oil to fund the purchase of humanitarian and medical supplies for the Iraqi population.
1998 Various disputes arose between Iraq and the UN over UN inspections to verify the termination of Iraq's WMD programme and Saddam Hussein excluded the weapons inspectors from Iraq. As a result, the US and UK launched its largest military attack against Iraq since the Gulf War, bombing installations throughout Iraq. Iraqi attempts to target and shoot down US and UK military aircraft policing the 'no-fly zones' led to further sporadic bombing raids on Iraqi territory.
2000 In his capacity as head of the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec), President Hugo Chávez Frías of Venezuela travelled overland to Baghdad – the first democratically elected head of state to enter Iraq since the Gulf War.
2001 Five UN officials working for the UN oil-for-food programme were expelled by Iraqi authorities on charges of spying.
2002 The UN Security Council unanimously voted to revise economic sanctions when the 11th phase of the oil-for-food programme ended on 29 May. The new sanctions were aimed at preventing Saddam Hussein from building WMD, and less at depriving the Iraqi population of their needs. A presidential referendum extended Saddam Hussein's rule for another seven years; official results showed a 100 per cent 'yes' vote and a 100 per cent turnout. US President Bush received evidence of terrorist links with Iraq and declared that if Saddam Hussein could not prove to the UN weapons inspectors that he had disposed of his WMD as stipulated after the Gulf War, the US would launch a war against Iraq. Prime Minister Tony Blair confirmed that the UK would also fight. The build-up of troops in Kuwait began at the end of the year and although UN weapons inspectors were allowed into Iraq for the first time in four years, the information they were shown was not sufficient to convince the US that there were no WMD.
2003 After diplomatic efforts to force Iraq to disarm, and the expiry of an US ultimatum giving Saddam Hussein and his sons 48 hours to leave the country, US-led coalition forces invaded Iraq on 20 March. On 9 April, US forces took control of central Baghdad, marking the collapse of Saddam Hussein's government. On 2 May, President Bush declared that `major combat operations in Iraq have ended'. The UN Security Council lifted economic sanctions against Iraq. On 7 May, Paul Bremer replaced Jay Garner as the head of the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA), a transitional, interim administration. A 25-member Iraq Governing Council (IGC) was appointed by the CPA on 13 July with Muhammad Bahr al Uloum as acting head. On 29 July, a nine-member presidency of the IGC was named; it was decided to rotate the presidency monthly among the nine members, beginning with Ibrahim al Jaafari. In August, a bomb attack at the UN headquarters in Baghdad killed 22 including the UN's chief envoy. The UN withdrew its international Baghdad staff in October, following more bomb attacks. Saddam Hussein's sons, Uday and Qusay, were killed after an informant led the Americans to their hideout. The New Iraqi dinar was introduced on 15 October.
2004 In March, suicide bombers killed about 170 people in attacks on Shi'a Muslims attending the religious festival of Ashura in Karbala. A temporary constitution was signed by the governing council on 8 March. On 17 May, Ezzedine Salim, president of the Governing Council, was killed in a car bomb attack; Ghazi Mashal Ajil al Yawar was chosen to replace him.
Iyad Allawi (a Shi'a) was designated prime minister on 28 May and Ghazi al Yawar (a Sunni tribal leader) was chosen as president, to take office on 30 June. The UN Security Council unanimously passed a US-drafted resolution endorsing the appointment of an interim 36-member cabinet to govern Iraq until elections for a fully independent government and it approved sharing responsibility between the new government and the US-led multinational forces in matters of security. On 28 June (two days early), the US handed over sovereignty to the Iraqi interim government. President Ghazi al Yawar and Prime Minister Iyad Allawi were sworn in. Saddam Hussein was transferred to Iraqi legal custody. Fighting occurred in August in Najaf between US forces and Shi'a militia of radical cleric Moqtada Sadr.
2005 The Shi'ite religious list, known as the United Iraqi Alliance, won the 31 January parliamentary elections. A month later, more than 100 people were killed by a car bomb in Hilla, south of Baghdad. On 16 March, Iraq's first freely elected parliament in half a century began its opening session after a series of explosions targetted the gathering. Kurdish leader, Jalal Talabani, was named president, to take office on 7 April. Previous president and Sunni leader, Ghazi al Yawar, and Shi'ite leader, Adel Abdul Mahdi, were named as deputies. On 7 April, Shi'a leader, Ibrahim Jaafari, was named prime minister of the new government, which was sworn in on 3 May.
The Kurdish parliament unanimously elected Massoud Barzani as president of the autonomous region of Kurdistan; he was sworn in on 14 June.
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