BAGHDAD, June 28: Here is a chronology of events leading up to the power transfer:
APRIL 2003
- 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.
- 21: Arrival of General Jay Garner, provisional civilian administrator of Iraq.
MAY
- 1: 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.
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.
- 16: A US resolution on Iraq is adopted by the UN Security Council, authorizing the creation of a multinational force but preserving the almost absolute control the US has had in Iraq.
NOVEMBER
- 15: Agreement on calendar for the handover of power to an Iraqi administration. The Shias demand changes, including a early general election.
DECEMBER
- 13: US announces capture of Saddam Hussein near Tikrit.
MARCH
- 8: A provisional constitution is signed, opening the way to a transfer of power to a transitional Iraqi authority on June 30.
APRIL
- 4: Followers of radical Shia 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.
Seven US soldiers are also killed in Baghdad's impoverished Shia Muslim suburb of Sadr City.
- 5: US marines launch a major offensive against the flashpoint western town of Fallujah.
Sadr followers take control of the holy cities of Najaf and Kufa as well as the governor's office in the British-controlled port city of Basra.
A US offensive in Baghdad's Sadr City leaves at least 57 Iraqis dead.
MAY
- 16: US Secretary of State Colin Powell says that the United States "will have to accept" any government created as a result of free and fair elections in Iraq.
- 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: UN 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 two hours later. New US ambassador John Negroponte arrives in the evening. -AFP