BAGHDAD, Feb 13 (AFP) - As Iraqis are set to learn the results of the country's milestone elections, here is a chronology of events since the US-led invasion of Iraq almost two years ago:

MARCH 2003
- 20: The United States launches war on Iraq after Saddam Hussein ignores a US deadline to leave the country. It says it mounted a limited strike on a Baghdad building where Saddam was believed to be staying.

APRIL
- 9: US forces penetrate into the heart of Baghdad, where they topple a large statue of Saddam Hussein, an act held as symbolizing the toppling of the regime.

MAY
- 1: US President George W. Bush declares that major combat is over in Iraq.
- 6: Paul Bremer, a counterterrorism specialist, is named civil administrator.
- 16: Bremer forbids all high-ranking Baath party officials from holding public sector jobs.
- 23: Bremer announces the dissolution of the Iraqi military, the information ministry and other state security organizations.

JULY
- 6: Bremer confirms the creation of an Interim Governing Council equipped with real executive powers, but he reserves veto power.
- 13-15: First meeting of the 25-member Governing Council. Creation of a tribunal to judge war crimes committed under Saddam Hussein.
- 22: Saddam's sons Uday and Qusay are killed in the northern city of Mosul by US forces after a tip-off.

AUGUST
- 14: The UN Security Council approves the establishment of the Interim Governing Council but without explicitly recognizing it as Washington wanted.
- 19: A suicide car bomb rips the UN headquarters in Baghdad, killing the world body's representative in Iraq, Sergio Vieira de Mello, and 21 others.
- 29: A car bomb explodes in the Shiite city of Najaf, killing Ayatollah Mohammed Baqr al-Hakim and 81 others in the first high-level assassination of the US-led occupation.

SEPTEMBER
- 3: The first post-Saddam cabinet is sworn in.
- 20: Governing Council member Akila al-Hashimi is shot in Baghdad, and dies five days later.

OCTOBER
- 15: New Iraqi dinars are put into circulation.

DECEMBER
- 13: US announces capture of Saddam Hussein near Tikrit.

MARCH 2004
- 8: A provisional constitution is signed, opening the way to a transfer of power to a transitional Iraqi authority by June 30.
- 28: The first of 25 government ministries is handed over to Iraq's interim leadership

APRIL
- 4: Followers of radical Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr demonstrate in the central town of Najaf following the arrest of a top Sadr aide in connection with the murder of a rival cleric in 2003. Twenty-one people are killed in clashes with the US-led coalition.
- 5: US marines launch a major offensive against the longstanding Sunni Muslim insurgency in the flashpoint western town of Fallujah.
Sadr followers take control of the holy cities of Najaf and Kufa.
A US offensive in Baghdad's Sadr City leaves at least 57 Iraqis dead.

MAY
- 17: The head of Iraq's Governing Council, Ezzedine Salim, is killed in a car bombing.

JUNE
- 1: Interim government unveiled in Baghdad as Governing Council dissolved.
- 8: Security Council votes unanimously in Resolution 1546 to approve a US-British resolution on Iraq's future, formally giving Baghdad sovereignty when the occupation ends.
- 28: Bremer hands document declaring Iraq sovereign to top officials and flies out of country. New US ambassador John Negroponte arrives.

JULY
- 16: Philippines contingent pulls out of US-led coalition after kidnappers threaten to execute Filipino hostage.
- 28: Seventy people killed in suicide bombing outside police building in Baquba.

- SEPTEMBER
- 14: Attack on police headquarters in Baghdad claimed by supporters of Jordanian fugitive Abu Musab al-Zarqawi kills 49 people.
- 30: Thirty-seven children among 42 people killed by the Zarqawi group in car bombings in Baghdad and northern Iraq.

- OCTOBER
- 8: Beheading announced of British hostage Ken Bigley, who was kidnapped in Baghad in September along with two US colleagues who were also beheaded by the Zarqawi group.
- 19: British-Iraqi aid chief Margaret Hassan, who lived in Iraq for more than 30 years, is kidnapped. Her murder is announced in mid-November and shown in a video, but the body never found.
More than 30 foreign hostages have been murdered since a spate of such kidnappings broke out in April 2004.
- 23: 49 Iraqi army recruits and three civilian drivers massacred in ambush north of Baghdad.

- NOVEMBER
- 7: Iraqi government declares 60-day state of emergency in all regions except the Kurdish north, which was extended by a month on January 6.
- 8: More than 10,000 US soldiers backed by 2,000 Iraqi troops launch assault on the rebel stronghold of Fallujah.
- 22-23: International conference in the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh supports the holding of elections on January 30 as planned.
- 26: Sunni Muslim groups call for six-month delay in elections because of the lack of security.

- DECEMBER
- 10: Official death toll of US soldiers killed in combat tops 1,000.
- 16: Start of the election campaign.
- 19: Shiite holy cities of Najaf and Karbala are rocked by two attacks which kill a total of 66 people and wound almost 200 others.
- 21: Twenty people, including 18 Americans, are killed in an attack on a US base in Mosul, one of the deadliest anti-US strikes since the invasion.
- 21: Tony Blair visits Baghdad, becoming the first British prime minister to do so since Winston Churchill.

-- 2005 --
- JANUARY
- 4: Baghdad governor Ali Radi al-Haidari assassinated in killing claimed by Zarqawi's group.
- 12: White House announces end to fruitless search for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.
- 26: Thirty marines and a sailor died in a helicopter crash, the biggest single US loss of life in Iraq
- 28: Iraqi exiles begin voting in 14 countries across the globe.
- 30: Iraqis go to the polls for the first free elections in half a century despite a rash of deadly attacks.

02/13/2005 08:42 GMT - AFP