October 16:The UN Security Council adopts Resolution 1511, endorsing the interim
Iraqi Governing Council and calling on other countries to contribute troops to help
stabilize Iraq.
November 15:U.S. authorities in Iraq issue a plan for handing political power to an
appointed Iraqi government by June 30, 2004, with national elections to be held
by the end of 2005. The plan comes under sharp attack from Shiite leaders, notably
Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, who demands elections no later than the end of 2004.
December 14:U.S. Army troops capture former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein hiding
in a hole in his home region of Tikrit, north of Baghdad.
December 18:Israeli prime minister Sharon announces tentative plans for “unilateral
disengagement” from the Palestinians, starting with the probable withdrawal of at
least some Jewish settlements from the Gaza Strip.
December 19:British, Libyan, and U.S. officials announce that Libya has agreed to
abandon all programs to develop biological, chemical, and nuclear weapons. The
United States subsequently will remove substantial material from Libya’s weapons
programs and in the process uncover evidence of the illicit trade in nuclear weapons
material by “A.Q.” Kahn, a scientist often called the father of Pakistan’s nuclear
bomb.
2004
February 1:Simultaneous suicide bombings in Irbil target the headquarters of the two
main Iraqi Kurdish political parties, killing more than 100 people and wounding
more than 200 others.
February 24:Conservative candidates win a majority of seats in Iran’s parliamentary
elections. Most reformists had withdrawn their candidacies in protest after the
Council of Guardians disqualified several thousand candidates, including some
incumbent legislators. The election is widely seen as ending, for the time being, any
prospect of serious political reform in Iran.
March 2:Suicide bombs and other attacks at Shiite shrines in Baghdad and Karbala
kill more than 180 people, the highest single-day toll since the U.S.-led invasion.
March 8:The Iraqi Governing Council formally approves an interim constitution
called the Transitional Administrative Law. Shiite members had resisted the law,
arguing that it failed to provide enough representation for Shiites.
March 21:An Israeli air strike kills Shaykh Ahmad Yasin, the founder and spiritual
leader of the Palestinian movement Hamas.
March 31:Mobs in Fallujah, Iraq, mutilate the bodies of four civilian U.S. contrac-
tors and hang them from a bridge. This action will prompt a major U.S. operation
against Fallujah that will be called off by the White House just as gets under way
on April 9.
April 4:U.S. forces in Iraq and the Mahdi Army militia of Shiite cleric Muqtada al-
Sadr engage in combat, which lasts for two months; the militia withdraws from
Kufa and Najaf.
April 17:Israel kills Hamas leader Abd al-Aziz Rantisi, who had succeeded Shaykh
Ahmad Yasin.
April 23:The United States lifts most remaining economic sanctions against Libya.
April 28:CBS News airs photographs of U.S. Army Reserve soldiers humiliating Iraqi
detainees at Abu Graib prison outside Baghdad. The photographs prompt a series
CHRONOLOGY OF THE MIDDLE EAST, 1914–2007 691