An Anbar province timeline

Wed Aug 27, 2008 5:20 PM EDT

politics, timeline, anbar

The Associated Press

A timeline of significant events in al-Anbar province since the beginning of the U.S.-led invasion in 2003.

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2003:

— Nov. 2: A Chinook transport helicopter is shot down near Fallujah, killing 16 soldiers and wounding 26.

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2004:

— Jan. 8: A Black Hawk medevac helicopter, possibly hit by a rocket, crashes near Fallujah, killing nine soldiers.

_Feb. 14: An assault by dozens of insurgents on a police station kills 25 people in Fallujah, most of them Iraqi policemen.

_March 31: Four private security employees ambushed and killed in Fallujah, and their bodies hung on a bridge. U.S. forces later attack the city in some of the first major urban battles against Sunni insurgents.

_April 5: Marines seal off Fallujah; siege begins.

— May 1: Under mounting international criticism, all 700 Marines pull out, turning the city over to the "Fallujah Brigades," a new force made up largely of former Iraqi soldiers. The brigade fails to maintain control; the city falls into the hands of militants and radicals blamed for car bombings and beheadings of foreign hostages.

_June 19: U.S. warplanes repeatedly target safehouses in Fallujah used by followers of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi , in first significant attack since the end of the siege.

_July 5: American forces drop bombs on a purported militant safehouse in Fallujah, killing at least 10 people. Interim Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi says his government provided intelligence for the strike.

_July 29-30: Fighting between U.S. forces and Iraqi insurgents in Fallujah kills some 20 people.

_Oct. 13: Allawi threatens military action against Fallujah if residents don't hand over al-Zarqawi.

_Nov. 8: U.S. forces fight their way into the western outskirts of Fallujah, American and Iraqi troops move into the city's main hospital. Late in the day, thousands of U.S. ground troops move toward the toughest insurgent strongholds in the city.

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2005:

— Dec. 1: Ten Marines on foot patrol killed and 11 wounded by a roadside bomb near Fallujah.

— May: Sixteen American security guards employed by North Carolina-based Zapata Engineering are jailed by Marines in Fallujah after they allegedly fired on U.S. forces and Iraqi civilians. The guards are released after three days and sent back to the U.S. None are charged.

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2006:

_September: A prominent tribal leader from Ramadi, Sheik Fassal al-Guood, said tribal leaders and clerics in his home city met and set up a 43-member Anbar Salvation Council with a force of about 20,000 men to fight the virulent insurgency.

_Oct. 7: Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, joined by U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad, met with with the tribal sheiks, clerics and government officials from Anbar who united to fight insurgents. Al-Maliki assured the group of the full "support and backing of the government."

_Oct. 11: Bush praised Maliki for meeting with the tribal leaders.

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2007:

_Jan. 10: President Bush announces that more than 20,000 additional U.S. troops will be sent to Baghdad and Anbar province in a mission dubbed "the surge."

_Jan. 28: A suicide bomber driving a dump truck filled with explosives and a chlorine tank strikes a quick reaction force and Iraqi police in Ramadi, killing 16 people.

— Feb. 7: A Marine CH-46 Sea Knight was shot down by insurgents in a Sunni-dominated area in Anbar province, killing all seven people on board.

_Feb. 22: U.S. military discovers car bomb factory with propane and chlorine in Anbar. U.S. troops discover vehicles being prepared as car bombs, as well as detonation material in five buildings.

_March 16: Three suicide bombers driving chlorine-laden trucks strike in Anbar province, killing two policemen and forcing about 350 Iraqi civilians and six U.S. troops to seek treatment for exposure to the gas.

_April 6: A suicide bomber driving a truck loaded with TNT and toxic chlorine gas crashes into a police checkpoint in western Ramadi, killing at least 27 people and wounding dozens.

_Sept 3: Bush paid a surprise visit to an air base in Anbar. He praised the province's security improvements.

_Sept. 13: Abu Risha, head of the Awakening Council in Anbar province, died when a roadside bomb exploded near his home just west of Ramadi. His group started the Sunni Arab revolt against al-Qaida. He had met with Bush just days earlier.

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2008:

_June 27: The handover ceremony for Anbar province is delayed after weather forecasts that called for high winds and sandstorms. It later became clear that the postponement was also due to worries that the shift could set off unrest due to competing Sunni camps in Anbar.

— August 27: U.S. Marine commandant said the military will hand over control of the Anbar region to the Iraqis within the next few days and that forces in the once-deadly province can be reduced.