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January-February 1991: U.S. and UN coalition forces retake Kuwait in the Gulf War effort. UN imposes economic sanctions. March 1991: Following the Persian Gulf War’s end, a ceasefire imposes sanctions on Iraq and the dispatching of UN weapons inspectors, part of the commission known as UNSCOM. April 1991: A no-fly zone is established and a United States order to end all military activity in northern Iraq is implemented. July 1991: Saddam Hussein, citing Iraqi sovereignty, rejects UN offer to sell oil in order to buy food and medicine as hunger and disease become widespread. June 1991: UN chemists, biologists and weapons experts begin inspections aimed at disarming Iraq. June 1991: Amnesty International urges Kurdish leaders to stop killing and mutilating prisoners in their custody. 1992: Iraqi troops march on Shiite shrine cities of Najaf and Karbala and force the grand ayatollah to denounce rebellion there. UN later reports many clerics are killed, with administrators put in charge of Shiite mosques. 1993: Saddam River Irrigation Project dams the Tigris and Euphrates, draining Shiite marshlands. UN calls it “the environmental crime of the century.” June 27, 1993: In response to an aborted assassination attempt against former president George Bush by the Iraqis, the U.S. launches a cruise missile attack on Iraqi intelligence headquarters. 1996: Saddam accepts oil-for-food plan after U.N. estimates a quarter of Iraqi children suffer malnutrition. March 1997: First shipment of food, chickpeas and white flour arrives. 1998: Iraq Sanctions Challenge, a coalition of U.S. opposition groups, delivers first shipment of medical supplies to Iraq in violation of sanctions. October 1999: Iraqi authorities stop working with UN weapons inspectors. December 1998: UN weapons inspectors are evacuated from Iraq. Between Dec. 17-19, U.S. launches Operation Desert Fox, a bombing campaign in response to the conflict over weapons inspectors. February 2001: The U.S. and Britain bomb Iraq in an effort to weaken Iraq’s air defence network. September 2001: Only a week before the U.S. is attacked by terrorists on September 11, the U.S. rains bombs on southern Iraq over a no-fly zone dispute. September 11, 2001: The World Trade Center and Pentagon attacked. January 29, 2002: In his State of the Union address, President Bush denounces Iraq, Iran and North Korea as an “axis of evil.” October 16, 2002: Bush signs a resolution authorizing the use of armed forces against Iraq. October 2002: U.S. President George W. Bush states publicly the War on Terrorism will span beyond Afghanistan’s borders. February 2002: Responding to anti-aircraft fire, the U.S. and Britain strike Iraq with bombs in the northeast July 2002: Talk of an American attack on Iraq in order to topple President Saddam Hussein heats up. August 2002: Iraq invites UN weapons inspectors to resume talks about continuing inspections. A resolution is adopted by a unanimous vote of the Security Council. It warns of “serious consequences” if Iraq does not offer unrestricted access to U.N. weapons inspectors. November 27, 2002: After a lapse of four years, the U.N. finally resumes weapons inspections in Iraq. December 2002: Inspectors return to Iraq.
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