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— UN weapons inspectors are withdrawn from Iraq.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