Week's events
Thursday 10 April
* After the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime, anarchy spread in Baghdad, with the looting and destruction extended to Saddam's palaces, hotels, government buildings and hospitals.
* One US soldier is killed in a suicide bombing in Saddam City in northern Baghdad.
* The peshmerga, the Kurdish fighters, moved into Kirkuk, northern Iraq's key oil city, with the help of American forces.
* Turkey warned it would send its forces into Iraq if Kurds take control of the cities of Kirkuk and Mosul.
* White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said Turkey had been assured the US will take control of the city. * US Secretary of State Colin Powell gave Turkey the green light to send a small number of Turkish military observers across the border.
* US forces continued to move north towards Tikrit.
Friday 11 April
* The International Committee of the Red Cross said it doubted any hospital in Baghdad was still functioning due to the anarchy in the city.
* Twenty-five people were admitted to Baghdad's Al-Kindi Hospital after suffering gunshots in clashes that resulted from looting.
* International Development Secretary Clare Short said US and British forces have a duty to end looting and chaos that broke out after the fall of Saddam's regime.
* US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld announced the US is trying to repair Iraqi television and radio broadcast infrastructure to expand the flow of free information.
* Two children were killed and nine adults injured when US marines fired at a van with blacked out windows that bypassed the warning signs and failed to stop at checkpoints in southern Iraq.
* The US issued a list of 55 wanted Iraqi individuals. * Britain began to downscale its military deployment in the Gulf by sending home warships, helicopters, planes and a submarine.
* US marine forces guarding the checkpoint outside one of Saddam Hussein's palaces in one day shot six civilians who refused to stop their cars at the checkpoint.
* In Mosul, Lt Commander Robert Waltemeyer, commander of a US special operations unit, met with local tribal and clan leaders and announced a 10pm to 6am curfew.
Saturday 12 April
* Ransacking in Baghdad and other Iraqi cities spread to government ministries, universities, the homes of former regime leaders, foreign embassies, hospitals and private businesses.
* The head of UNESCO urged American officials to send troops to protect what was left of the Iraqi National Museum's collection following two days of looting.
* Hundreds of Iraqi volunteers, including police, turn up in Baghdad to help restore order and stop the plundering.
* Kurdish fighters begin withdrawing from Kirkuk, which was seized Thursday by coalition forces.
* Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul announced there was no need for the Turkish army to enter northern Iraq for now.
* Twenty people died and at least 200 were wounded in clashes between Arabs and Kurds in Mosul, and anarchy continues to reign as US forces move into the city.
* In Baghdad, US forces announced the seizure of one of the last strongholds of Arab "mujahideen" fighters after heavy fire exchange.
* The US said it has worn down resistance around Qaim in the west and controlled Kut in the east.
* Russia expressed its "growing concern" about the humanitarian crisis in Iraq and said it was up to the "occupying forces" to take care of the needs of the country's people.
* One of Saddam's half-brothers, Barzan Al-Tikriti, was killed in US bombing of his farm, in the Ramadi area, west of Baghdad.
* General Amer Al-Saadi, Saddam's top weapons advisor, who surrendered to US troops, insisted that Iraq did not have weapons of mass destruction.
* US forces advanced from Baghdad to Tikrit.
Sunday 13 April
* Fifteen tribal leaders in Saddam's last stronghold of Tikrit called for an end to the US bombardment of the city so that a peaceful surrender of pro-Saddam fighters could take place.
* In Tikrit, most public buildings were totally destroyed by the US bombing.
* In Baghdad, more than 2,000 policemen reported back for work to help restore order in the city.
* French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin said it was illogical that the UN's role in Iraq be limited to humanitarian issues, since they cannot be dissociated from the military and political aspects of the crisis.
* Seven missing US soldiers thought to have been taken prisoners by the Iraqi forces were found in good shape by US troops 60 miles north of Baghdad.
* Coalition forces captured Saddam's half-brother, Watban Ibrahim Hassan, in Rabia north west of Mosul. He served as an interior minister during his brother's rule.
* US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld reiterated his charges that Syria is harbouring senior Iraqi officials.
* General Tommy Franks announced that a number of Iraqi leaders were captured by US-led forces as they were trying to flee Iraq and were being held in the western part of the country.
* Several dozen residents of Baghdad stage the first anti-US protest since American forces swept into the capital.
Monday 14 April
* US forces easily take control of Tikrit thereby ending the military campaign in Iraq.
* Saudi Arabia plans first regional emergency meeting on Iraq since the outbreak of the war.
* Iran said it will arrest and put on trial any Iraqi leaders fleeing to its territory.
* Aides to Iraq's top Shi'ite Muslim cleric, Ayatollah Sistani, said the armed siege of his home has ended.
* The British military moved to a policy of zero tolerance on looting in Basra.
Tuesday 15 April
* The US launched talks with Iraqi factions on post-war rule, while the main Shi'ite opposition group boycotted the meeting.
* A 13-point statement was issued at the end of the meeting that scheduled another meeting in 10 days.
* Nearly 20,000 Iraqis demonstrated in protest against the meeting in Nasseriya.
* The UN delayed the return of its international staff to northern Iraq after the US said it could not guarantee the safety of the flight taking them in.
* Iraqi policemen joined US troops in an effort to restore law and order in Baghdad.
* The US military said that all the oil fields in the north were secured.
* The ICRC announced that water supplies should be made available to much of eastern Baghdad.
* An Argentinian journalist was killed in a car accident in Iraq, becoming the 13th journalist to die while covering the war.
* The total death toll of members of the coalition forces since the outbreak of the war on Iraq reached 121 Americans and 30 Britons, with four Americans missing.
* According to Iraqi sources, up to 3 April, 1,254 Iraqi civilians were killed and 5,112 wounded since the outbreak of war.
* At least 10 people were killed and nearly 100 wounded when US troops fired at a crowd that became increasingly hostile towards Mosul's new governor, Mashaan Al-Juburi, as he delivered a pro-US speech.
* Bush declared that victory in Iraq was certain, but that it was not yet complete.
* The US threatened Syria with diplomatic and economic sanctions, accusing it of amassing chemical weapons and harbouring officials from Saddam's government.
* Syria denounced US accusations and Jack Straw said it was up to Syria to prove it is not a "rogue nation".
* Powell said the US has expressed concern about Syrian actions but has no plan for a military move against the country.
* The commander of 16,000 Iraqi army troops who controlled the Iraqi border with Syria formally surrendered to US forces.
Wednesday 16 April
* Syria will submit a draft resolution to the UN Security Council calling for a Middle East free from weapons of mass destruction.
* In Baghdad, US special forces raided the house of a microbiologist nicknamed "Dr Germ" who is alleged by the US to have run Iraq's secret biological laboratory.
* At the Baghdad International Fairgrounds, looters helped themselves to sacks of sugar, tea and flour that had been stored in warehouses before the war.
Compiled by Dena Rashed
