Saddam Hussein timeline:

March 17: President Bush issues ultimatum to Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and his sons, declaring they “must leave Iraq within 48 hours.”

March 19: In a night airstrike, U.S. forces bomb Baghdad. Iraqi defenses fire back. The war starts.

March 20: U.S. and coalition forces enter Iraq.

April 9: Iraq’s capital, Baghdad, is taken by the U.S. 3rd Infantry Division.

May 1: President Bush declares major action in Iraq over.

July 22: Saddam’s two sons, Odai and Qusai, are killed in Mosul, Iraq.

Dec. 12: The Iraqi Governing Council creates war crimes tribunals to prosecute atrocities committed in Iraq.

Dec. 13: Saddam is captured in Adwar, Iraq, south of his hometown of Tikrit.
— Knight Ridder/

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