Timeline of the Iraq War
sequence of events in the US invasion of Iraq
The following is a timeline of major events during the Iraq War, following the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
2003
March
March 20: The United States begins the invasion of Iraq; coordinating a satellite-guided Tomahawk cruise missile strike on Baghdad. American, British, Australian, Polish, and Danish military operations begin; ground troops move into Iraq.
April
April 9: Fall of Baghdad: Coalition forces moved into Baghdad, symbolically ending the twenty-four year reign of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.
May
May 1: U.S. President George W. Bush declares major combat operations in Iraq over.
May 15 - U.S. forces launch Operation Planet X, capturing roughly 260 people.
May 23 - L. Paul Bremer issues Coalition Provisional Authority Order Number 2, dissolving the Iraqi Army and other entities of the former Ba'athist state. U.S. forces seized a truck carrying 36 tons of gold-colored bars made mostly out of copper near the Syrian border. Afterwards, they were handed over to the appropriate authorities for disposition.
June
June 15: The U.S. military begins Operation Desert Scorpion, a series of raids across Iraq intended to find Iraqi resistance and heavy weapons.
“Timeline of the Iraq War” enters the record as sequence of events in the US invasion of Iraq. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Timeline, Iraq and sequence can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“Timeline of the Iraq War” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Timeline, Iraq and sequence provides the most credible route into that argument.
Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 9, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q2967067. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 2003.
Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Timeline of the Iraq War”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Timeline of the Iraq War primary sources, Timeline of the Iraq War archive and Timeline research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Timeline of the Iraq War”?
- Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
- What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Timeline of the Iraq War” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.