2004 in Iraq: Meaning (information, definition, explanation, facts)

See also: 2003 in Iraq, other events of 2004, 2005 in Iraq and the list of 'years in Iraq'.

Events

• January 10 - Protests in the city of Amarah because of an unemployment crisis. Police officers and soldiers open fire on demonstrators.
• January 15 - The United Nations call direct elections in advance of July impractical, due to continuing disorder and other factors.
• January 18 - A suicide bomber blew up a pickup truck packed with 1,000 pounds of explosives outside the headquarters of the US led coalition killing about 20 people and injuring more than 60 - most of them Iraqis.
• February 1 - Two suicide bombers kill 109 and wound 235 at two Kurdish buildings in the northern Iraqi city of Arbil.
• February 3- The CIA admits that there was no imminent threat from weapons of mass destruction before the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
• February 7- Charles, Prince of Wales begins a tour of the Middle East, visiting troops in Iraq.
• February 10 - At least 50 people killed in a car bomb attack on a police recruitment centre south of Baghdad.
• February 11 - Up to 47 people killed in a car bomb attack on an army recruiting centre in Baghdad.
• February 21 - The U.S. permits the Red Cross to visit Saddam Hussein for first time since his capture in December.
• March 2 - Almost 200 are killed in a series of bomb blasts in Baghdad and Karbala at the climax of the Shi'a festival of Aashurah.
• March 8 - The governing council unanimously approves the country's new interim constitution
• March 31 - Four American defense contractors are attacked and killed in Fallujah and their burned bodies are hung openly from a bridge.
• April 21 - At least 68 people are killed and dozens wounded in Iraq in suicide attacks on police stations in Basra and Zubair.
• June 28 - Control and sovereignty of Iraq is handed over from the United States to an interim Iraqi government.

• January 24 - Abdul Rahman Munif, author