Saddam Hussein invades Iran, beginning an 8-year war that will bring massive human cost

President Reagan's administration breaks a US embargo with secret arms sales to Iran in return for assistance in the release of US hostages in Lebanon

The Iran-Iraq war ends with the border between the countries unchanged and more than a million dead

Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein uses chemical weapons against the Kurds of northern Iraq

Iraqi troops cross the border into Kuwait and are soon in control of the whole country and its oil wells

Saddam Hussein announces the annexation of Kuwait, claiming it to have been historically part of Iraq

The Gulf War begins when Iraq fails to meet the UN deadline for withdrawal from Kuwait

With all Iraqi troops expelled from Kuwait by Allied tanks, President Bush declares a ceasefire in the Gulf War

Kurds in northern Iraq achieves a measure of autonomy in a safe haven imposed by the UN

Moderate Shiite cleric Muhammad Sadiq al-Sadr and two of his sons are assassinated in the Iraqi city of Najaf

US, British, Australian and Polish forces invade Iraq

US forces are in control of Baghdad and an excited crowd topples from its plinth a massive statue of Saddam Hussein

President Bush prematurely celebrates his Iraq achievement with a speech on a US aircraft carrier in front of a banner declaring 'Mission Accomplished'

Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein is found hiding in a subterranean hole in a farmyard near Tikrit

Abuses in the US military prison at Abu Ghraib in Iraq are revealed on US television

The first general election is held in Iraq, for 275 members of a permanent Iraqi General Assembly

An Iraqi court sentences former dictator Saddam Hussein and two of his senior colleagues to death by hanging

Former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein is hanged in Baghdad, a month after being convicted of a few of his crimes