978-1-4222-3442-6

CHRONOLOGY

2004:

The Coalition Provisional Authority is scheduled to hand over power to an Iraqi provisional government by the end of June. The Shia-dominated United Iraqi Alliance wins a majority of seats in the historic parliamentary election held January 30; efforts to involve Sunni Muslims slow down the formation of Iraq’s new government under Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari. In October, Iraqis approve a new constitution that creates an Islamic federal system of government. In December, Iraqi voters select members of a permanent parliament. In February an important Shiite shrine, the Golden Mosque of Samarra, is bombed, igniting a wave of sectarian killings. After months of political stale- mate, the leader of the Shiite Dawa Party, Nouri al-Maliki, is asked to form a government. In November Saddam Hussein is found guilty of crimes against humanity; he is executed in December. President Bush announces an American troop “surge”; the Sunni Awakening, which began in Anbar Province, begins to spread. In August Moqtada al-Sadr, head of the Mehdi Army, a powerful Shiite militia, announces a cease-fire. Violence in Iraq begins to subside by the end of the year. In March Prime Minister Maliki orders a crackdown on the Mehdi Army in Basra. In November the Iraqi parliament approves an agreement by which American troops are to leave Iraq by the end of 2011. Candidates allied with Prime Minister Maliki do very well in provincial elections in February. In June, U.S. troops begin to withdraw from Iraqi cities and vil- lages. Throughout the year, a terrorist group linked to al-Qaeda that calls itself the Islamic State of Iraq carries out suicide bombings in Baghdad and other cities that kill approximately 400 people. In January, Ali Hassan al-Majid, a key figure in Saddam Hussein's government who was nicknamed Chemical Ali" for his use of chemical weapons against Iraq’s Kurdish population during the 1980s, is executed. In August, the last U.S. combat brigade leaves Iraq. In October, more than 50 Iraqi Christians are mas- sacred by militants in Baghdad. In December, the COuncil of Representatives re-appoints Jalal Talabani as president and Nouri al-Maliki as prime minister. In December, the United States withdraws the last of its troops from Iraq. Terrorist attacks targeting Shia Muslims spark fears of a new sectarian conflict. Nearly 200 people are killed in January, more than 160 in June, 113 in a single day in July, more than 70 people in August, about 62 in attacks nationwide in

2005:

2006:

2007:

2008:

2009:

2010:

2011: 2012:

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