Iraq War Events

2002 Jul 10 CIA Operatives, Joined by JSOC, Prepare the Iraqi Battlespace for the US-led Invasion
The first CIA team entered Iraq on July 10, 2002. This team was composed of members of the CIA's famed Special Activities Division and was later joined by members of the U.S. Military's e...
2003 Mar 19
9:34PM
 The US-led Invasion of Iraq Begins
At approximately 02:30 UTC, or about 90 minutes after the lapse of the 48-hour deadline, at 5:30 am local time, explosions were heard in Baghdad. According to The Pentagon, 36 Tomahawk mi...
2003 Mar 20
to 2003 May 1
 United States Invades Iraq
The 2003 invasion of Iraq, from March 20 to May 1, 2003, was spearheaded by the United States, backed by British forces and smaller contingents from Australia, Spain, Poland and Denmark. ...
2003 Mar 31 Geraldo Rivera Ordered by The Pentagon to Leave Iraq After Revealing Troop Positions
"He was with a (U.S.) military unit in the field and the commander felt that he had compromised operational information by reporting the position and movements of troops." —Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman
2003 Apr 7 Muhammad Saeed al-Sahhaf, Information Minister of Iraq, Claims No US Troops Are In Baghdad
Al-Sahhaf is known for his daily press briefings in Baghdad during the 2003 Iraq War. His colorful appearances caused him to be nicknamed Baghdad Bob (in the style of previous propagandis...
2003 Apr 9 Baghdad Falls to US Troops
San Francisco Chronicle - After a spectacular foray in the early morning, with U.S. and Iraqi troops trading bursts of fire, the Americans captured a huge swath of western Baghdad, and...
2003 May 1 President Bush Declares "Mission Accomplished" in Iraq
On May 1, 2003, Bush became the first sitting President to make an arrested landing in a fixed-wing aircraft on an aircraft carrier when he arrived at the USS Abraham Lincoln in a Lockhee...
2003 Jun 3 Iraqi Insurgency Begins to Swell
After President Bush's speech on May 1, 2003 (the "Mission Accomplished" speech), coalition forces noticed a gradually increasing flurry of attacks on its troops in various regions, espec...
2003 Jun 9 Operation Peninsula Strike
Operation Peninsula Strike was a series of raids conducted by American troops from June 9 to June 13, 2003 as part of Operation Iraqi Freedom. It took place on a peninsula alongside the T...
2003 Jul 22 Uday and Qusay Hussein Killed in a Firefight with US Troops
On 22 July 2003, Task Force 20, aided by troops of the U.S. Army 101st Airborne Division, had a showdown with Uday, Qusay and Qusay's 14-year-old son Mustapha during a raid on a home in t...
2003 Aug 19 The Canal Hotel Bombing - At Least 22 Killed in Baghdad
The Canal Hotel Bombing in Baghdad, Iraq, in the afternoon of August 19, 2003, killed at least 22 people, including the United Nations' Special Representative in Iraq Sérgio Vieira de Mel...
2003 Oct
to 2003 Nov
The Ramadan Offensive
In October 2003, the intensity and pace of insurgent attacks began to increase. Finally, at the end of October, a series of four simultaneous suicide car bomb attacks on the Iraqi police ...
2003 Dec 13 Saddam Hussein Captured in Iraq
In April 2003, Saddam's whereabouts remained in question during the weeks following the fall of Baghdad and the conclusion of the major fighting of the war. Various sightings of Saddam we...
2004 Mar 2 The Ashura Massacre Leaves At Least 178 Dead in Iraq
The Ashura massacre of March 2, 2004 in Iraq was a series of planned terrorist explosions that killed at least 178 and injured at least 500 Iraqi Shi'a Muslims commemorating the Day of As...
2004 Mar 31 Four Blackwater Defense Contractors Are Ambushed and Killed in Fallujah, Iraq
On March 31, 2004 Fallujah ambush saw Iraqi insurgents in Fallujah ambush a convoy containing four United States contractors from the private security company Blackwater USA, who were con...
2004 Apr 4
to 2004 May 1
 The First Battle of Fallujah
As part of the occupation of Iraq, the First Battle of Fallujah, codenamed Operation Vigilant Resolve, was an unsuccessful attempt by the United States Military to capture the city of Fal...
2004 Apr 5 Edward Kennedy Calls Iraq "George Bush's Vietnam"
Senator Edward M. Kennedy said yesterday that President Bush's Iraq policy is ''ridiculous" and disputed Bush's statement that the 2004 reelection validated the war. Iraq is ''Bush's Viet...
2004 Oct 25 Nearly 380 Tons of High-Explosives Are Found Missing From an Iraqi Bunker
AP WASHINGTON - An Army unit removed 250 tons of ammunition from the Al-Qaqaa weapons depot in April 2003 and later destroyed it, the company’s former commander said Friday. A Defense Dep...
2004 Nov 7
to 2004 Dec 23
 The Second Battle of Fallujah
The Second Battle of Fallujah (code-named Operation Al-Fajr - "The Dawn" in Arabic, and Operation Phantom Fury) was a joint U.S.-Iraqi offensive in 2004, led by the U.S. Marine Corps agai...
2004 Nov 8
to 2004 Nov 16
 The Battle of Mosul
The Battle for Mosul was a battle fought during the Iraq War in 2004 for the capital of the Ninawa Governorate in northern Iraq that occurred concurrently to fighting in Fallujah. Duri...
2005 Jan 4 Ali al-Haidari, Governor of the Baghdad Governorate, is Assassinated by Armed Gunmen
Ali al-Haidari was the governor of the Baghdad Governorate in Iraq. Al-Haidari had narrowly escaped being killed in an assassination attempt in early September 2004 in Baghdad, but he was...
2005 Jan 26 37 U.S. Servicemembers Are Killed in Iraq During One Day
BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Thirty Marines and a Navy corpsman were killed in a helicopter crash near Iraq's border with Jordan, bringing the number of U.S. troops killed Wednesday to 37 -- th...
2006 Nov 5 Saddam Hussein Sentenced to Death
Today, Saddam Hussein was convicted and sentenced to death by the Iraqi High Tribunal for the massacres committed by his regime in the town of Dujayl. Saddam Hussein's trial is a mileston...
2009 Jun 22 Morning bomb attacks kill 11 in Baghdad
Iraqi police say early morning bomb attacks have killed at least 11 people in different areas of Baghdad. A car bomb exploded on the road to the government compound known as the Green ...
2009 Jun 24 Bomb Kills At Least 69 in Baghdad
On June 24, 2009, an explosion occurred in the Muraidi Market of the Sadr City area of Baghdad, Iraq. At least 69 people were killed and 150 others injured. An official said that the expl...
2009 Jun 30 US Troops Withdraw from Iraqi Cities
BAGHDAD (AP) — Hours before the deadline for U.S. combat troops to withdraw from Iraqi cities, the top American military commander in the Middle East expressed confidence Monday that Iraq...
2009 Aug 19 A Series of Bomb Attacks Kill 95 in One Hour in Baghdad
BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- A series of bombings rocked Iraq's capital within one hour Wednesday, killing at least 95 people and wounding 563 others, an Iraqi Interior Ministry official said. ...
2009 Sep 15 Mortar Strikes Greet Vice President Joe Biden on a Second Unannounced Visit to Iraq
BAGHDAD — Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. arrived here on Tuesday for two days of talks with Iraqi leaders, and shortly after saying he was headed to bed for the night at the American ...
2010 Aug 19 Last Combat Soldiers Leave Baghdad, Ending Operation Iraqi Freedom
OPERATION IRAQI FREEDOM COMES TO AN END.... It is not a "Mission Accomplished" moment, and it'd be an irresponsible exaggeration to suggest the war in Iraq is "over." But as the last A...
2011 Oct 21 President Obama Announces Pullout of US Soldiers from Iraq
Barack Obama laid out an exit strategy yesterday for the U.S. withdraw from Iraq within 18 months, marking the beginning of the end of the most divisive American military conflict in a ge...
2011 Dec 15 Iraq War Officially Ends
After nearly nine years of war, the loss of more than 100,000 lives and hundreds of billions of dollars spent, the U.S. military mission in Iraq has formally ended. But violence contin...