Following are key dates in the Iraqi conflict since the US-led invasion of March 2003, ahead of Sunday's general election:
2003
March 20: US-led forces invade Iraq, which Washington and London accuse of harbouring weapons of mass destruction.
April 9: US forces move into the heart of Baghdad, where they topple a large statue of president Saddam Hussein, signalling the regime's downfall.
May 1: US President George W. Bush announces the end of major combat operations, but the violence continues.
October 2: US acknowledges that no weapons of mass destruction were found.
October 16: UN Resolution 1511 legitimises the occupation.
December 13: Saddam Hussein captured.
2004
April-August: Clashes between coalition forces and militiamen of Shiite radical leader Moqtada al-Sadr.
April 8: The start of abductions of foreigners. More than 30 are killed.
April 28: Publication of photographs of Iraqi prisoners being humiliated by American troops in Abu Ghraib prison on the outskirts of Baghdad.
June 28: The US-led administration says it has handed over power to Iraqis.
2005
January 30: Iraqis go to the polls in the first multi-party vote in 50 years despite a spate of deadly attacks, but disenchanted Sunni Arabs largely boycott the vote.
April 6: Jalal Talabani chosen as president, the first Kurd to hold the office in Iraqi history.
December 15: The conservative Shiite United Iraqi Alliance wins most seats in parliamentary election.
2006
February 22: Revered Shiite shrine in Samarra, north of Baghdad, blown up; 450 people die in surge of Sunni-Shiite sectarian violence.
June 7: Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, leader of Al-Qaeda in Iraq, killed in a US air strike.
October 11: A law creating a federal state is passed.
November 5: Saddam Hussein condemned to death for the execution of 148 Shiites in 1982.
December 30: Saddam Hussein hanged.
2007
January 10: Bush announces the dispatch of 30,000 more troops in a so-called "surge" strategy.
August 14: More than 400 people killed by suicide truck bombs targeting the Yazidi sect.
September 3: British troops withdraw from Basra.
2008
March 23, 2008: 4,000 US soldiers killed since May 2003.
2009
January 1: US formally transfers control of downtown Baghdad's high-security Green Zone, the symbol of the American occupation.
February 27: US President Barack Obama announces that all US combat operations in Iraq will end by August 31, 2010, and that he intends to fully withdraw all American troops by the end of 2011.
