Timeline of key events

Here are some key dates from the US invasion and subsequent developments:

March 20, 2003: The invasion is launched, and Baghdad is attacked with missiles and bombs in an attempt to target Saddam Hussein and bring down the government.

May 1, 2003: US president George W. Bush declares an end to major combat operations in Iraq.

December 2003: Saddam is captured in an underground hideout near Tikrit.

October 2004: US arms inspector David Kay reports his team found no evidence of stockpiled weapons of mass destruction.

January 2005: Iraqis elect a new parliament in the first elections since the fall of Saddam. Shiite and Kurdish parties secure an overwhelming majority after Sunnis largely boycott.

December 2010: Shiite politician Nouri al-Maliki wins second term as prime minister, supported by Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.

December 2011: The last US troops leave Iraq.

2013-2018: From the remnants of al-Qaida in Iraq, a new terrorist force emerges. The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria releases Sunni militants out of prisons and mounts a battle to establish a worldwide Islamic State caliphate based in Syria. Islamic State is evicted from strongholds in northern Iraq and Syria.

October 2022: After a year of political stalemate following 2021 elections, the Shiite-dominated parliament chooses Kurdish leader Abdul Latif Rashid as president. He nominates Shiite politician Mohammed Shia al-Sudani as prime