December 29 2004
At least 28 people - including 10 policemen - die in Baghdad in a huge explosion at a suspected militant safe-house that may have been booby-trapped. US army experts estimate that up to 1,800lb of explosives have been detonated.
Explosion in house kills 28 in Baghdad

December 27 2004
Iraq's largest mainstream Sunni Muslim party pulls out of the election race, saying the violence plaguing areas north and west of Baghdad makes a "free and fair vote" on January 30 impossible.
Main Sunni party pulls out of Iraqi election

December 24 2004
The US defence secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, pays a surprise visit to American troops in Iraq, telling them the insurgency in the country can still be quashed.
Rumsfeld drops in on Iraq troops

December 21 2004
Tony Blair becomes the first serving British prime minister to visit Baghdad since Stanley Baldwin in 1924. He enters the Iraqi capital by RAF helicopter with an escort of six US Black Hawk helicopters.

Meanwhile, Iraqi insurgents inflict their deadliest single attack on US forces since the start of the war, killing at least 24 people, including 19 soldiers, and wounding more than 60 in an explosion that spews fire and shrapnel into a lunchtime queue at a crowded mess tent.

Also, four months and a day after they were kidnapped outside Baghdad, two French journalists are unexpectedly freed by their Iraqi captors.
Blair 'feels the danger' on visit to Baghdad
19 US troops killed in explosion at mess tent
Iraqi captors free French journalists

December 20 2004
The US president, George Bush, admits he expects violence in Iraq to continue in the run-up to the country's elections, with no halt to the killing of "hundreds of innocent" citizens.
Iraqi deaths likely to continue, says Bush

December 19 2004
The pressure on the beleaguered US defence secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, intensifies amid revelations he used a mechanical signature writer to sign his name on letters of condolence to relatives of soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Meanwhile, at least 60 are killed in bombings in the Shia holy cities of Najaf and Kerbala.
Signature row turns up heat on Rumsfeld
Bloody day hits Iraq poll hopes

December 14 2004
The family of an Iraqi civilian allegedly beaten to death by British troops wins a high court challenge against the government's refusal to order an independent inquiry into his death.
UK must investigate Iraqi civilian's death

December 13 2004
A suicide car bomber kills at least 13 people in Baghdad, as Iraq's interim president says the decision to disband Saddam's army was a contributing factor to the violence over the last 18 months.
Suicide car bomber kills 13 in Baghdad

December 11 2004
Scenes of jubilation greet the homecoming to the UK of 200 soldiers from the Black Watch after completing a six-month mission in Iraq.
First Black Watch troops return

December 7 2004
The number of US troops killed in action in Iraq hits 1,000, after a soldier was shot dead on patrol in Baghdad. In all, 1,275 US service personnel have died since the invasion on March 20 2003. A total of 9,765 US troops have been wounded.
US death toll in Iraq hits 1,000

December 5 2004
Insurgents in Iraq mount a third straight day of serious attacks, killing 17 people when they open fire on buses delivering workers to an ordnance disposal site. At least 70 Iraqis, many of them members of the police and security forces, have been killed since Friday.
70 die as Iraq violence escalates

December 4 2004
The Black Watch return to Basra after their controversial month-long mission to Camp Dogwood near the "Triangle of Death". Soldiers declared "mission accomplished" as the battle group convoy of more than 200 vehicles arrived at the relative safety of Shaibah Logistics Base.
Black Watch return to Basra

December 3 2004
Up to 30 people, including at least 16 Iraqi police officers, are killed when insurgents launch two major attacks in Baghdad against a Shia mosque and a police station.
Insurgents kill 30 in Baghdad attacks

December 2 2004
Former Labour MP George Galloway wins his libel action against the Daily Telegraph and is awarded £150,000 in damages. High Court judge David Eady rules the allegations that he was in the pay of Saddam Hussein were "seriously defamatory".
Galloway wins libel case against Telegraph

November 30 2004
The US-led war in Iraq has created a healthcare disaster in a country where 20 years of war, mismanagement and sanctions had already left public health in a fragile state, according to Medact, a UK-based medical charity.
Charity blames invaders for Iraq 'health disaster'

November 24 2004
Four Gurkhas working for a British security firm in Baghdad are killed and another 15 injured in a mortar attack on their base in the capital's heavily fortified Green Zone.
Four Gurkhas die in Baghdad Green Zone mortar attack

November 22 2004
NBC cameraman Kevin Sites, who shot footage of a US marine appearing to kill an injured, unarmed Iraqi, tells why he published the images.
'Something was not right'

November 21 2004
Iraqi election officials announce that the first democratic elections in decades will be held on January 30, despite the relentless violence of the insurgency. The decision, taken by the independent electoral commission of Iraq, reflects a determination in Washington and London to press ahead with the political process, however fragile, in the hope it will eventually resolve the security crisis.
Iraq vote to be held in ten weeks

November 18 2004
The January deadline for Iraq's first post-Saddam elections looks increasingly in doubt after a senior aide to the interim prime minister predicted a delay.
Pressure grows for Iraq election delay

November 16 2004
The family of Margaret Hassan accepts she has probably been murdered, after analysis of a video showing a masked gunman shooting a blindfolded woman in the head.
Kidnapped aid worker blindfolded and shot
Obituary: Margaret Hassan

November 15 2004
US troops call in air strikes on the Iraqi city of Baquba as they fight gun battles in the street with crowds of insurgents.
Fighting spreads to more towns as Falluja operation continues

November 13 2004
The human cost of the battle of Falluja emerges as large numbers of wounded civilians are evacuated to hospitals in Baghdad.
Civilian cost of battle for Falluja emerges

November 12 2004
It is revealed that three British soldiers and an army interpreter are suing the American military after their vehicle was rammed by a US tank transporter in Iraq.
British soldiers sue Pentagon

November 8 2004
Thousands of American troops fight their way into the most dangerous parts of Falluja at the start of an all-out assault to win back control of the Iraqi insurgent stronghold

Meanwhile, a fourth Black Watch soldier is killed and two are injured by a roadside bomb.
US troops enter Falluja as jets pound rebel-held city
Black Watch soldier killed and two injured

November 4 2004
Three die, eight injured as fears grow for safety of British troops at Camp Dogwood.
Suicide bomber kills Black Watch soldiers

October 29 2004
Study claims 100,000 Iraqi civilians have died in Iraq since the invasion, mostly as a result of airstrikes by coalition forces.
100,000 Iraqi civilians dead, says study

October 26 2004
Iraq's interim prime minister, Ayad Allawi, says that "negligence" by US-led forces brought about the massacre of 49 Iraqi soldiers and warned of further "terrorist acts".
Allawi blames US 'negligence' for massacre

October 25 2004
The militant group led by the Jordanian extremist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi signals a fresh escalation of the Iraq insurgency crisis by claiming responsibility for the massacre of about 50 members of the national guard found dead on a remote road in eastern Iraq.

The UN confirms that a huge cache of 340 tonnes of conventional explosives has gone missing from a military facility that once played a key role in Saddam Hussein's efforts to build a nuclear bomb.
Massacre of 50 Iraqi soldiers
340 tonnes of Iraqi explosives missing

October 22 2004
A video showing Margaret Hassan, the kidnapped director of aid agency Care International, pleading for British troops to be withdrawn from Iraq is broadcast on Arabic television. The al-Jazeera channel screens footage showing the Dublin-born Ms Hassan, who has lived in Iraq for more than 30 years, weeping as she appeals for help.
Hostage Hassan pleads for her life

October 21 2004
A US soldier at the centre of the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal is sentenced to eight years for sexually and physically abusing detainees.
Eight years for US soldier who abused prisoners

October 20 2004
A US soldier on trial for abusing Iraqi prisoners tells a Baghdad court martial that he hooked up wires around a hooded detainee in a mock electrocution at the behest of military and civilian intelligence officials.
Soldier says interrogators told him to stage mock execution

October 19 2004
The humanitarian aid group Care International announces that the British-born head of its Iraqi operation has been kidnapped in Baghdad.
Charity worker kidnapped in Iraq

October 18 2004
The death toll from suicide car bombings in Iraq continues to rise with at least 13 people killed in Baghdad and Mosul in the last two days, as the US and Iraqi army siege of Falluja continues unabated.
Death toll climbs as Falluja siege continues

October 16 2004
The MoD announces that Black Watch soldiers will be redeployed in central Iraq during US assault on Falluja.
UK troops set to patrol in key Iraq flashpoints

In Baghdad, a car bomb explodes near an Iraqi police patrol in southern Baghdad, killing ten people and wounding four others.
US forces continue strikes of Falluja
Baghdad blast kills 10

October 14 2004
Insurgents kill five people and wound 18 others after breaching the heavy fortifications of Baghdad's green zone and setting off bombs they carried into an outdoor market and a cafe.
Five dead in Baghdad green zone blasts

October 13 2004
A US-led team of investigators working in northern Iraq discovers a mass grave containing hundreds of bodies, including that of an infant with a gunshot to the back of the head.
Secrets of Iraqi mass grave revealed

October 11 2004
Equipment and materials that could be used to make nuclear weapons have disappeared from Iraq, says the UN's nuclear watchdog.
Nuclear items go missing in Iraq

October 8 2004
The family of British hostage Ken Bigley confirm that he has been murdered. In a statement, Mr Bigley's younger brother, Phil, says: "It's been three long weeks of waiting and agony, and we can confirm that the family has received absolute proof that Ken was executed by his captors."
Hostage Ken Bigley is killed

October 7 2004
A senior aide to rebel Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr offers to disarm his militia fighter loyalists as part of a peace initiative in Baghdad's Sadr City and other areas.
Rebel cleric in Baghdad offers peace deal

Iraq's insurgency spreads to a relatively calm area near the Syrian border when a suicide car bomber kills at least 16 people at an Iraqi National Guard centre.
Iraq had no WMD - inspectors
Suicide bomb kills 16 at guard centre

October 4 2004
At least 21 people are killed and 90 wounded in three car bombings in Iraq. Baghdad's green zone, one of the capital's main streets and a primary school in the northern city of Mosul are all hit by insurgents.
21 killed in Iraq blasts

Parliament has the power to impeach Tony Blair over his decision to invade Iraq, lawyers acting for an all-party campaign to use the ancient right say. "Impeachment is appropriate where there is no other means of calling a person to account, either legally or politically, for some serious wrong," according to lawyers from Matrix chambers, the firm of which the prime minister's wife, Cherie Booth, is a member.
A mother's plea for mercy
Lawyers say PM could be impeached over Iraq

Kidnapped Briton Kenneth Bigley appears in internet video footage pleading with Tony Blair to take action which could save his life. The 62-year-old addresses the prime minister directly, telling him he was the only person on earth who could save his life.

The confusion surrounding the decision over whether two "high-value" women prisoners being held in Iraq would be released underlines the limits of the interim government's authority. The apparent differences between the statements of Iraqi ministers and US officials raise renewed questions over the coherence of the new administration and the degree of independence it actually enjoys.
22 die in Baghdad violence
'Mr Blair, I don't want to die'
Clash over prisoners exposes power struggle

A later message claims that an al-Qaida related group has slaughtered a second American hostage in Iraq, an announcement that came as the group's 24-hour deadline for meeting its demands ran out.
Fears for Briton as hostage killed
Second US hostage murdered

In Britain, Tony Blair uses a joint press conference with his Iraqi counterpart, Ayad Allawi, to say: "Whatever the disagreements about the first conflict in Iraq to remove Saddam, in this conflict now taking place in Iraq, this is the crucible in which the future of this global terrorism will be decided."
Daily US raids seen as anticipating all-out Falluja attack
Blair: we must win this new conflict

Meanwhile, US marines shoot dead 25 Iraqis in several hours of fighting in the troubled city of Ramadi.
Pentagon admits 94 abuse cases
Marines kill 25 Iraqis in battle after ambush

Tony Blair accepts that intelligence 'caveats' should have been included in the British government's dossier on Iraqi weapons of mass destruction, as he defends his decision to go to war in a packed and turbulent House of Commons.
Filipino hostage gains his freedom
Blair: dossier should have kept caveats

The Guardian reports that ministers and Labour backbenchers have urged Tony Blair to recalibrate his approach to foreign affairs and publicly detach himself from the Bush administration.
Blair urged to loosen ties with US
Mirror editor sacked over hoax

The UK government says the alleged prisoner abuse photographs published by the Daily Mirror were 'categorically not taken in Iraq'.
Rumsfeld pays surprise Iraq visit
Ingram: Mirror photos were faked

The Washington Post publishes a new batch of photos showing abuse of Iraqi prisoners by the American military.
Seven killed in Baghdad suicide blast
New Iraq abuse photos published

Meanwhile, the UN endorses Washington's timetable for the transfer of power, saying that elections should wait until after the handover on June 30.
Three killed in Iraqi roadside bombing
United Nations backs US date for handover in Baghdad