The United States and Britain have turned to air and missile strikes on Iraq several times since a Washington-led multinational coalition evicted Iraqi occupation forces from Kuwait in the 1991 Gulf War.
Following a raid Friday on Baghdad, the first on the capital in more than two years, here is a chronology of previous attacks:
1993
January 13: 19 people were killed in a US-British-French air raid on military positions in southern Iraq, after Iraqi incursions into Kuwait and the setting up of surface-to-air missile batteries which posed a threat to allied air patrols.
January 17: US navy warships in the Gulf fired more than 30 Tomahawk cruise missiles at a factory near Baghdad that the United States suspected of being linked to a secret nuclear arms program. Baghdad said four people were killed and 40 wounded.
January 18: Allied raids targeted air defenses in southern and northern Iraq. Baghdad said 21 people were killed.
January 19-21: After radars locked on US aircraft, the planes attacked anti-air defenses in the exclusion zone. Baghdad said three were killed.
June 23: Two US warships fired 23 Tomahawks at the headquarters of Iraqi intelligence in reprisal for an alleged plot to kill former US president George Bush in Kuwait. Six civilians were killed as three of the missiles strayed off course, and heavy damage was inflicted.
1996
September 3-4: In retaliation for an Iraqi army incursion into Kurdish northern Iraq, the United States fired cruise missiles at air defense installations, including radar posts, surface-to-air missile batteries, and anti-aircraft command and control posts in southern Iraq. The missiles, fired from warplanes and ships in the Gulf region, left six dead and 26 injured, Iraq said.
After Saddam decided in October 1997 to expel US arms inspectors working for the United Nations, the United States built up an armada in the Gulf to strike Iraq.
The showdown was defused in February 1998 by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, who clinched a last-minute deal in Baghdad opening the gates of presidential sites to UN arms inspectors.
1998
December 16-19: In a three-day operation dubbed "Desert Fox," US and British warplanes struck Iraq after Baghdad refused to allow UN weapons inspectors to visit a suspicious site.
Washington said the operation wiped out between 600 and 1,600 Iraqi soldiers, but Baghdad gave a drastically different toll, saying 62 soldiers were killed and 180 wounded. Iraq also said 11 civilians were killed and wounding some 300.
1999
January 25: Warplanes hit five sites in the Basorah region, killing 24 civilians and wounding 76, according to Iraq. United Nations said 17 were killed and 100 injured.
February 28: A US raid on northern Mosul killed three and damaged a pipeline, blocking Iraqi oil shipments to Turkey for 84 hours.
March-April: US and British warplanes regularly bombed Iraqi anti-air defenses, radar stations and communication centers.
May 13: Ten days after announcing that at least 20 Iraqis were killed and 50 injured since April, Baghdad said 12 civilians were killed when planes hit shepherds and a residential area in the northern part of the country.
July 18: Fourteen Iraqi civilians were killed and 17 injured in the south of Iraq in a US-British raid, Baghdad said.
July 29: Eight Iraqis were killed and 26 injured in a raid in northern Iraq. The Pentagon announced that the US-British force has struck Iraqi military sites 108 times since Desert Fox.
2000
August 17: Baghdad said that US-British raids in Iraq had claimed 315 civilian lives and injured some 900 since the end of 1998.
2001
January 20: Six Iraqis were killed in a raid on the southern part of the country, Baghdad said -- NICOSIA (AFP)
