History

At least 400 people die in protests against unemployment and corruption in cities including the capital Baghdad, prompting Adel Abdul Mahdi to tender his resignation.

Parliament elects veteran Kurdish politician Barham Salih as president. He appoints Adel Abdul Mahdi as prime minister, with the support of the Shia majority of MPs.

Parliamentary elections. The political bloc of Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr wins most votes.

Government forces with Shia and Kurdish allies drive Islamic State out of all but a few redoubts.

Army offensive drives back Kurdish forces in a move aimed at halting the regional government's moves towards an independent Kurdistan.

Kurds back independence in referendum staged by Kurdish regional government. Baghdad imposes punitive measures.

Parliament recognises the Shia Popular Mobilisation Units (PMU) militia as part of the armed forces with full legal status.

Supporters of cleric Moqtada al-Sadr storm parliament building demanding new government to fight corruption and end allocation of government posts along sectarian lines.

Government and Islamic State forces fight for control of Tikrit and Anbar Province.

Islamic State destroys Assyrian archaeological sites of Nimrud and Hatra.

The Iraqi government and the leadership of the Kurdish Region sign a deal on sharing Iraq's oil wealth and military resources, amid hopes that the agreement will help to reunite the country in the face of the common threat represented by Islamic State.

Shia politician Haider al-Abad forms a broad-based government including Sunni Arabs and Kurds. Kurdish leadership agrees to put independence referendum on hold.

Sunni rebels led by Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant surge out of Anbar Province to seize Iraq's second city of Mosul and other key towns. Tens of thousands flee amid atrocities. Kurdish forces, US and Iran assist government in repelling attacks.

Prime Minister Al-Maliki's coalition wins a plurality at first parliamentary election since 2011 withdrawal of US troops, but falls short of a majority.

Islamist fighters infiltrate Falluja and Ramadi after months of mounting violence in mainly-Sunni Anbar province. Government forces recapture Ramadi but face entrenched rebels in Falluja.

Government says October is deadliest month since April 2008, with 900 killed. By the year-end the UN estimates the 2013 death toll of civilians as 7,157 - a dramatic increase in the previous year's figure of 3,238.

Series of bombings hits Kurdistan capital Irbil in the first such attack since 2007. The Islamic State of Iraq group says it was responding to alleged Iraqi Kurdish support for Kurds fighting jihadists in Syria.

Sunni insurgency intensifies, with levels of violence matching those of 2008. By July the country is described as being yet again in a state of full-blown sectarian war.

Iraq cancels a $4.2bn deal to buy arms from Russia because of concerns about alleged corruption within the Iraqi government.

Tight security for Arab League summit in Baghdad. It is the first major summit to be held in Iraq since the fall of Saddam Hussein. A wave of pre-summit attacks kills scores of people.

US completes troop pull-out.

Unity government faces disarray. Arrest warrant issued for vice-president Tariq al-Hashemi, a leading Sunni politician. Sunni bloc boycotts parliament and cabinet.

Radical Shia cleric Moqtada Sadr returns after four years of self-imposed exile in Iran.

Seven years after the US-led invasion, the last US combat brigade leaves Iraq.

Elections. Parliament approves new government of all major factions in December.

US troops withdraw from towns and cities in Iraq, six years after the invasion, having formally handed over security duties to new Iraqi forces.

Parliament approves a security pact with the United States, under which all US troops are due to leave the country by the end of 2011.

US forces hand over control of the western province of Anbar - once an insurgent and Al-Qaeda stronghold - to the Iraqi government. It is the first Sunni province to be returned to to the Shia-led government.

Prime Minister Maliki orders crackdown on militia in Basra, sparking pitched battles with Moqtada Sadr's Mehdi Army. Hundreds are killed.

Britain hands over security of Basra province to Iraqi forces, effectively marking the end of nearly five years of British control of southern Iraq.

Controversy over private security contractors after Blackwater security guards allegedly fire at civilians in Baghdad, killing 17.

Kurdish and Shia leaders form an alliance to support Prime Minister Maliki's government, but fail to bring in Sunni leaders

US President Bush announces a new Iraq strategy; thousands more US troops will be dispatched to shore up security in Baghdad.

Saddam Hussein is executed for crimes against humanity.

Iraq and Baathist Syria restore diplomatic relations after nearly a quarter century.

Al-Qaeda leader in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, is killed in an air strike.

Newly re-elected President Talabani asks Shia compromise candidate Nouri al-Maliki to form a new government, ending months of deadlock.

A bomb attack on an important Shia shrine in Samarra unleashes a wave of sectarian violence in which hundreds of people are killed.

Iraqis vote for the first, full-term government and parliament since the US-led invasion.

Voters approve a new constitution, which aims to create an Islamic federal democracy.

Massoud Barzani is sworn in as regional president of Iraqi Kurdistan.

Surge in car bombings, bomb explosions and shootings: government puts civilian death toll for May at 672, up from 364 in April.

Amid escalating violence, parliament selects Kurdish leader Jalal Talabani as president. Ibrahim Jaafari, a Shia, is named as prime minister.

Elections for a Transitional National Assembly.

Major US-led offensive against insurgents in Falluja.

Fighting in Najaf between US forces and Shia militia of radical cleric Moqtada Sadr.

US hands sovereignty to interim government headed by Prime Minister Iyad Allawi.

Photographic evidence emerges of abuse of Iraqi prisoners by US troops at Abu Ghreib prison in Baghdad.

Suicide bombers attack Shia festival-goers in Karbala and Baghdad, killing 140 people.

Saddam Hussein captured in Tikrit.

Suicide truck bomb wrecks UN headquarters in Baghdad, killing UN envoy Sergio Vieira de Mello.

Car bomb in Najaf kills 125 including Shia leader Ayatollah Mohammed Baqr al-Hakim.

US-appointed Governing Council meets for first time. Commander of US forces says his troops face low-intensity guerrilla-style war

 US-led invasion topples Saddam Hussein's government, marking the start of years of violent conflict with different groups competing for power.

UN weapons inspectors return to Iraq backed by a UN resolution which threatens serious consequences if Iraq is in "material breach" of its terms.

US President George W Bush tells UN Iraq poses "grave and gathering danger".

US and British Operation Desert Fox bombing campaign aims to destroy Iraq's nuclear, chemical and biological weapons programmes.

Iraq ends cooperation with UN Special Commission to Oversee the Destruction of Iraq's Weapons of Mass Destruction.

US extends northern limit of southern no-fly zone to just south of Baghdad.

UN allows partial resumption of Iraq's oil exports to buy food and medicine in an oil-for-food programme.

A no-fly zone, which Iraqi planes are not allowed to enter, is set up in southern Iraq.

UN-approved haven established in northern Iraq to protect the Kurds. Iraq ordered to end all military activity in the area.

Southern Shia and northern Kurdish populations - encouraged by Iraq's defeat in Kuwait - rebel, prompting a brutal crackdown.

Iraq subjected to weapons inspection programme.

Iraq invades and annexes Kuwait, prompting what becomes known as the first Gulf War. A massive US-led military campaign forces Iraq to withdraw in February 1991.

Iraq attacks Kurdish town of Halabjah with poison gas, killing thousands.

Israeli air raid destroys Iraqi nuclear reactor at Osirak near Baghdad.

Iran-Iraq war results in stalemate

Saddam Hussein takes over from President Al-Bakr.

Iraq grants limited autonomy to Kurdish region.

Iraq nationalises the Iraq Petroleum Company.

A Baathist led-coup puts Ahmad Hasan al-Bakr in power.

The Baathist government is overthrown, but seizes power again five years later

Prime Minister Qasim is ousted in a coup led by the pan-Arab Baath Party.

The monarchy is overthrown in a left-wing military coup led by Abd-al-Karim Qasim. Iraq leaves the pro-British Baghdad Pact.

Britain re-occupies Iraq after pro-Axis coup during Second World War.

Mandate ends, Iraq becomes independent. Britain retains military bases.

Britain appoints Feisal, son of Hussein Bin Ali, the Sherif of Mecca, as king.

League of Nations approves British mandate in Iraq, prompting nationwide revolt.

Britain seizes Baghdad during First World War.

Region is part of the Ottoman Empire.