Second Gulf War (2003) - events

20–31 March 2003	Iraq	Despite inconclusive inspections for weapons of mass destruction and failure to win United Nations Security Council backing for military action to forcefully disarm Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq, the USA and UK launch air strikes on Iraqi strategic targets, particularly in the capital Baghdad. French and German opposition to the action causes serious friction in the Western alliance, and Russia similarly expresses dissent. By the end of March, as the Iraqi government remains defiant and reports of increasing civilian casualties provoke worldwide concern, US ground forces from bases in the Gulf advance on Baghdad to confront the elite troops of the Iraqi Republican Guard. Meanwhile, British forces surround Iraq's second city of Basra in the south of the country.
22–31 May 2003	Iraq	Contrasting with the deep divisions in the United Nations (UN) Security Council in the run-up to the US-led war in Iraq against the regime of Saddam Hussein, the 15-member body adopts a new resolution (by 14 votes to 0, with Syria not participating) granting wide interim governing powers over Iraq to the USA, including a role for a UN special representative, and lifting sanctions imposed on Iraq almost 13 years ago following the invasion of Kuwait. As the month ends, the failure to unearth conclusive evidence of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction leads to increasing criticism of the US and UK's case for going to war.
August 2003	Iraq	In a continuing series of violent incidents in Iraq since the US-led overthrow of Saddam Hussein's regime, 11 people are killed as a bomb explodes outside the Jordanian embassy in Baghdad, Iraq's oil export pipeline to Turkey is targeted by saboteurs, a bomb destroys the United Nations (UN) headquarters in the capital (killing 22 people including Sergio Vieira de Mello, the head of the UN mission), and a leading Shia cleric, Ayatollah Mohammad Bakr al-Hakim, and 100 others die in a bomb attack on a mosque in the holy city of Najaf.
October 2003	Iraq	In Iraq the search for ex-dictator Saddam Hussein's alleged weapons of mass destruction continues without significant result. After months of argument, the United Nations Security Council votes to provide a mandate for US-led occupation forces, and an international conference is held in Madrid, Spain, to raise finance for the reconstruction of Iraq. Meanwhile, Iraqi insurgents and suicide bombers maintain daily attacks on US and other targets, including the International Red Cross, killing and wounding dozens of people. By the end of the month more US soldiers have been killed since the official end of the war than before it.
December 2003	Iraq	In Iraq, the fugitive former dictator Saddam Hussein is captured alive and without resistance by US troops near his home town of Tikrit on 13 December, although this fails to herald an end to guerrilla and suicide attacks against the US-led military occupation.
February 2004	Iraq	Iraq suffers a wave of suicide bombings and insurgent attacks in Irbil, Iskandariya, Baghdad, Falluja and Kirkuk, killing about 230 people during February. Meanwhile, the US and UK governments each set up an inquiry into intelligence failures about Saddam Hussein's alleged weapons of mass destruction. The UK government's case for war is further undermined as it abandons the prosecution of an employee who leaked information about US and UK plans to bug United Nations Security Council delegations in the run-up to the war – further claims about which are aired publicly by former cabinet minister Clare Short.
9–14 July 2004	UK, USA	A committee of inquiry chaired by Lord Butler delivers its report on the UK government's justification for going to war against Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq in 2003. It criticises the seriously flawed quality of intelligence about Iraqi weapon capabilities, but finds that there was no deliberate attempt on the part of the government to mislead and apportions no blame to individuals. The Butler report follows a few days after a more damning assessment of US intelligence failures on Iraq by the US Senate Intelligence Committee.