1988 - Iraq uses chemical weapons to kill thousands of Kurdish people in the city of Halabja.
1990 - Iraq invades Kuwait.
1991 - The Persian Gulf War (also known as the First Gulf War) begins as a coalition of countries attack Iraq to free Kuwait. The mission is called "Operation Desert Storm." Iraq is defeated and forced out of Kuwait.
1992 - Southern Iraq is declared a "no-fly zone."
2003 - A coalition of countries including the United States and the United Kingdom invades Iraq for UN violations and WMDs (Weapons of Mass Destruction). They take Baghdad and capture Saddam Hussein. This is known as the Iraq War or the Second Gulf War.
2006 - Saddam Hussein is executed for war crimes.
2010 - A new Iraqi government is approved by the parliament.
2011 - U.S. troops officially leave Iraq.
Brief Overview of the History of Iraq
The land of Iraq is often called the "Cradle of Civilization" because the oldest civilization in the world, the Sumerians, was formed here. The Sumerians invented writing and started the first recorded history. For over 3000 years the Sumerian civilization flourished in the Tigris-Euphrates river valley.
The next great civilization to emerge in the land was the Babylonian Empire in the 1800s BC. The Babylonians would rise to great power in the region until they were defeated and absorbed into the Persian Empire led by Cyrus the Great in the 6th Century BC. Over the next several hundreds of years the land would be conquered by various empires including Greece (Alexander the Great), the Parthians, the Romans, and the Persians again. In the 7th Century the Islamic Empire took control and would rule until the 1500s when the Ottoman Empire came into power.
When World War I ended, the British took over for the Ottoman Empire. Iraq became an independent country in 1932 ruled by a constitutional monarchy. In 1958 the country was declared a republic, but it was really ruled by a series of dictators. The last dictator was Saddam Hussein.
In 1990 Iraq invaded the country of Kuwait. This started the First Gulf War where US-led forces expelled Iraq and forced Iraq to come under UN restrictions regarding weapons and armaments. In 2003, when Iraq refused to comply to earlier agreements, the United States invaded Iraq in what is called the Second Gulf War and removed Saddam Hussein from power.
