PARIS, March 23: The following is a chronology of the main events of the US-led war on Iraq.

March 17:

— US President George Bush sets a 48-hour deadline for Iraqi President Saddam Hussein to leave Iraq with his sons or face war.

March 18:

— Iraq rejects the US ultimatum.

— UN weapons inspectors are withdrawn from Iraq.

— Thousands of US marines set off toward Iraq through the Kuwaiti desert.

March 20:

— 0100 GMT: The US deadline for Saddam to flee expires without action from Baghdad.

— 0235 GMT: The United States launches war on Iraq with limited air strikes on Baghdad.

— President Saddam appears on Iraqi television in military dress, saying he is “confident of victory”.

— World leaders condemn the war as illegitimate and hundreds of thousands of people demonstrate against the war.

March 21:

— Eight British and four US troops become the first known casualties on the coalition side when a helicopter crashes.

— The United States launches the main thrust of its air war on Iraq, using 1,000 cruise missiles and 1,000 air strike sorties on hundreds of targets in Baghdad.

March 22:

— US-British forces claim capture the southern city of Nasiriyah.

— US troops meet stiff resistance around Umm Qasr.

— A Kurdish military official says dozens of cruise missiles have been fired at a hardline group in Iraqi Kurdistan.

— US Army Gen Tommy Franks says the US-British forces had no plans to move on Basra.

— An Australian cameraman is killed in a suicide car bombing in northern Iraq, apparently in a revenge attack for the US missile strikes.

— Anti-war protests take place around the world.

— The United States ends its bid to send ground forces into northern Iraq through Turkey.

— Saddam Hussein is shown on television in military uniform meeting his war council.

March 23:

— US air raids pound Baghdad, Mosul and positions held by an alleged Al Qaeda-linked Kurdish radical group.

— US officials say a

US Patriot missile brought down a British RAF Tornado fighter.

— Iraqi troops launch a counter-attack at the key southern port of Umm Qasr.—AFP