Al-Qaida in Iraq (AQI), Jama'at Al-Tawhid Wa'al-Jihad, Monotheism and Holy Struggle, Tanzim Qa'idat al-Jihad fi Bilad al-Rafidayn, Unification and Jihad, al-Tawhid, al-Zarqawi network. The group has also been referred to as Al-Qaida in Mesopotamia.

Iraq. The group occasionally strikes other targets in the region.

AQI seeks to expel from Iraq the U.S. and what it calls other foreign invaders and to establish a hardline Islamic government.

Estimates of AQI membership range from several hundred to the thousands.

AQI aligned itself publicly with Al-Qaida in October 2004, when founder Abu Musab al Zarqawi pledged allegiance to Osama bin Laden. The group is financed by many of the same sources that fund Al-Qaida.

The group is also believed to have links to a number of other terrorist organizations, including the Kurdish Islamic terrorist group Ansar al-Islam, with some members belonging to both.

AQI seeks to create a climate of terror and chaos in Iraq. It has targeted coalition military forces, interim government officials, Iraqi security force members and recruits, United Nations workers, humanitarian agencies, foreign journalists and Iraqi Shi'ites, Kurds and religious minorities. Its terrorist tactics have included kidnappings, beheadings, assassinations and suicide bombings, as well as the use of conventional military weapons such as rocket-propelled grenades.

The group was founded by Jordanian-born Abu Musab al Zarqawi. A veteran of the Afghan resistance against the Soviet Union, Zarqawi served seven years in prison in Jordan after being convicted of attempting to overthrow the monarchy. Zarqawi then left the country, and was subsequently tried in absentia and sentenced to death in Jordan for the death of an American diplomat.
 
Later, Zarqawi is thought to have established a terrorist training camp in the western Afghan city of Herat. The U.S. launched a cruise missile at the suspected camp, and reports alleged that Zarqawi might have lost his leg. Subsequent events revealed that he still had both legs. Zarqawi probably sought refuge in Iraq in 2001, establishing ties with Kurdish Islamic militants in the northern part of the country.
 
AQI emerged after the U.S.-led coalition invaded Iraq; the group has claimed responsibility for hundreds of killings, including many high-profile attacks. The group is made up of foreign militants, Iraqi Sunni extremists and elements of the Kurdish Islamic terrorist group Ansar al-Islam. Some U.S. officials blamed the group for much of the insurgent violence in Iraq.
 
The U.S. placed a $25 million bounty on Zarqawi's head, which may have helped corner him in June 2006. Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said the reward would be paid for intelligence that allowed the deadly U.S. air strike that killed Zarqawi. Following Zarqawi's death, AQI members reaffirmed their allegiance to Osama bin Laden and Al-Qaida.
 
Since mid-2006, Al-Qaida in Iraq's influence and effectiveness has waned. AIQ's brutal tactics and its insistence on strict Islamic behavorial standards eventually met resistance from Iraqi Sunni tribal groups, many of whose leaders began cooperating with U.S. and government security forces. The combined efforts of the tribal leaders and the security forces resulted in the displacement of AQI operatives in the group's former stronghold in Anbar province.
 
Hard-core AQI members moved into other Sunni and religiously and ethnically mixed provinces in northern Iraq, particularly concentrating around Mosul. In January of 2008, the Iraq government began a major campaign in northern Iraq to rid the country of AQI militants. Nevertheless, sporadic terrorist attacks continued throughout the year, not only in northern Iraq, but also in and near Baghdad. Many were attributed to AQI.

As U.S. forces pulled back from urban areas, AQI became more aggressive in the second half of 2009. and the group conducted at least three major attacks between August and December. The U.S. military reported that AQI remained "operationally capable," despite progress made by American and Iraqi forces.

U.S. and Iraqi security forces reported a "major blow" to AQI's leadership in April 2010 when joint operations led to the deaths of two AQI top leaders.

Note: AQI is believed to be responsible for thousands of deaths in Iraq since 2003. Consequently, only the largest and most high-profile attacks are listed below.
 
1997
Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was released from prison in Jordan after serving a seven-year sentence for plotting to overthrow the government.
 
2000
Zarqawi returned to Afghanistan, setting up a camp or network of camps near the western city of Herat.
 
2001
Zarqawi reportedly was injured during a U.S. cruise missile attack on his terrorist camp.
 
2002
Oct. 28: U.S. diplomat Laurence Foley was assassinated in Amman, Jordan. Zarqawi was later found to have ordered the murder and sentenced in absentia to death.
 
2003
Aug. 19: AQI detonated a truck bomb at the United Nations headquarters in Baghdad, killing 22 civilians, including the top U.N. official in Iraq.
 
2004
May: A video reportedly released by AQI showed the beheading of American contractor Nick Berg. A man in the video identified himself as Zarqawi. The killer said the execution was in response to abuses against Iraqi prisoners at the Abu Ghraib prison.
 
May 17: Iraqi governing council chairman Izzedin Salim was killed in a suicide car bombing along with five others. Zarqawi's group claimed responsibility.
 
May 22: A car bomb exploded outside the house of the Iraqi Interior Ministry Undersecretary Abd-al-Jabbar Yusuf, killing the official. AQI claimed responsibility for the bombing.
 
Oct. 15: The U.S. State Dept. named AQI a foreign terrorist organization.
 
Oct. 17: Zarqawi pledged an alliance of his group with Osama bin Laden.
 
2005
Jan. 23: Two days before elections were held in Iraq, a statement attributed to Zarqawi declared a war on democracy and all those who practice it.
 
Feb. 28: U.S. officials revealed intercepted communications from Osama bin Laden to Zarqawi suggesting that he become involved in attacks inside the U.S.
 
April 2: Around 40 insurgents launched a large-scale, precision-timed offensive against the Abu Ghraib prison facility in Iraq, injuring 44 American troops and 13 prisoners. The attack, for which Zarqawi claimed responsibility, was the first to use direct-assault tactics against an American installation.
 
April 26: The U.S. announced that it had nearly captured Zarqawi near Ramadi earlier in 2005. U.S. forces were tipped off about a meeting Zarqawi was planning to attend. A trap was set along the road, but Zarqawi apparently jumped from the pick-up vehicle under a highway overpass (to avoid being seen from the air) before the military could catch up. The chase did yield Zarqawi's computer, which reportedly contained a "treasure trove" of information, including telephone numbers and pictures.
 
May 21: Zarqawi was reportedly injured during fighting with U.S. troops in Ramadi. The terrorist group was said to have named one of his lieutenants to lead the group while Zarqawi was incapacitated. Subsequent reports on Islamist Web sites claimed Zarqawi was in good health and leading operations.
 
July: AQI abducted and later murdered several high-ranking envoys in Baghdad, including the Egyptian ambassador and two Algerian diplomats.
 
Aug. 19: Militants fired Katyusha rockets at U.S. warships in the Jordanian port of Aqaba and across the border at the Israeli port of Eliat. Zarqawi's group later claimed responsibility for the incident. One rocket in Aqaba narrowly missed the U.S. ships, striking a warehouse and killing a Jordanian soldier.
 
September: In an audiotaped recording, Zarqawi vowed to continue the war against Iraqi troops and the government in Baghdad. He also declared a "full-scale war on Shi'ites all over Iraq, wherever and whenever they are found."
 
Sept. 25: Acting on information from an Iraqi citizen, American and Iraqi forces killed Abu Azzam, AQI's operational commander in Baghdad. The soldiers trapped Azzam in an apartment building in Baghdad and he died in the ensuing shootout. Azzam was believed to be Zarqawi's second-in-command, as well as the man in charge of AQI finances.
 
2006
March: U.S. and Iraqi forces captured Mohammed Hila Hammad Obeidi, a senior aide to Zarqawi and former chief of staff of intelligence in Saddam Hussein's government. Obeidi was wanted for a variety of terrorist acts while leading Al-Qaida in Iraq in Babil province.
 
April: Reports surfaced that Zarqawi may have been replaced as leader of Al-Qaida in Iraq. Huthaifa Azzam, an Iraqi Islamist whose father was a mentor of Osama bin Laden, said Zarqawi was forced to step down as the leader of a coalition of Iraqi militant groups because of discontent over his tactics. Some analysts speculated that if there had been a change, it was designed to put an Iraqi face on the insurgency.
 
April 25: Zarqawi released his first video statement as leader of Al-Qaida in Iraq, urging Sunni Muslims to resist the Iraqi government. "Any government that will be established in Iraq today, whoever is in it, whether they are the rejecters [Shi'ite Muslims] or the secular Zionist Kurds or the agents who are Sunnis in name, it will be a puppet government that will owe its allegiance to the [Western] Crusaders," said Zarqawi.
 
June 8: Zarqawi was killed by U.S. air strikes in the town of Hibhib near Baqubah, Iraq. U.S. forces, relying on what was deemed reliable intelligence, dropped two 500-lb bombs on Zarqawi's hideout. The terrorist was critically wounded and died shortly after being found by American troops.
 
June 12: Via a Web site statement, Al-Qaida in Iraq said there was a successor to lead the group named Abu Hamza al-Muhajer, an apparent nom de guerre.
 
June 15: The United States military identified the group's new leader as Abu Ayyub al-Masri, an Egyptian who had been linked to Al-Qaida's second-in-command. Al-Masri was believed to be an explosives expert who was trained in Afghanistan. A spokesman for the U.S. in Baghdad said that al-Masri was the same man previously identified with the nom de guerre Abu Hamza al-Muhajer.
 
Nov. 23: At least 215 people were killed and more than 250 wounded in a series of car bombs and mortar attacks in Sadr City. The attack, which included six car bombs and two mortar rounds, was the deadliest sectarian attack since the beginning of the Iraq war. AQI was believed to be responsible for the attack.
 
Dec. 12: An alleged AQI member blew himself up in a Shia neighborhood in Baghdad, killing at least 63 people and wounding more than 200. The bomber lured construction workers onto a pickup truck by offering them jobs.
 
2007
Jan. 17: A car bomb and suicide bomber killed at least 70 people and wounded more than 170 at the entrance to a Baghdad university just inside SadrCity. To carry out the attack, the suicide bomber blew himself up at the back entrance of the school, while a parked car exploded at the main gate. AQI was believed to be responsible for the attack.
 
Jan. 22: A suicide car bombing killed more than 85 people and wounded approximately 170. The attack occurred in a crowded market place in central Baghdad, in the Shia district of al-Shaqi. AQI was linked to the attack.
 
Feb. 3: An alleged AQI member detonated a large truck bomb in the center of Baghdad, killing at least 135 people and wounding hundreds more. The one-ton bomb destroyed at least 10 surrounding buildings.
 
Feb. 12: Two nearly simultaneous car bombs in the center of Baghdad killed at least 75 people and wounded at least 150. AQI was believed to be responsible for the attack.
 
March 6: Two suspected AQI members blew themselves up in a crowd of Shia pilgrims, killing 120 people. The attack took place in the town of Hillah, approximately 60 miles south of Baghdad.
 
March 27: More than 150 people were killed in a truck bomb attack in the northwestern town of Tal Afar. The attack, which targeted a predominantly Shia area, was believed to have been coordinated by AQI.
 
April 12: A suicide bomber blew himself up in the cafeteria of the Iraqi Parliament, killing eight people, including three legislators. The cafeteria was located in the highly fortified Green Zone in Baghdad. Islamic State in Iraq -- a Sunni umbrella organization believed to have been created by AQI -- claimed responsibility for the attack.
 
June: The U.S. military launched a major offensive with 10,000 troops against AQI in the region northeast of Baghdad.
 
Aug. 15: Four AQI suicide bombers blew up fuel tankers in the Sinjar district near Mosul, killing more than 500 people. The attack targeted the Yazidi community, a Kurdish sect. The coordinated attacks occurred in the Sinjar district 70 miles (113 km) west of Mosul in an ethnic Yazidi community.
 
November: The top U.S. commander in Baghdad announced that the military had cleared AQI from all of the capital's neighborhoods.
 
Nov. 9: Members of the rival Sunni militant group Islamic Army ambushed and killed 18 AQI members in Samarra. Fourteen other AQI militants were captured, according to the Islamic Army.
 
Dec. 27: Iraqi army troops captured senior Al-Qaida leader Ahmad Turki Abbas during fighting near Mahmudiya, 30 km (20 mi) south of Baghdad. Abbas was believed to be the "defense minister" of AQI's Islamic State in Iraq. Abbas sustained minor injuries in the clash, said an Iraqi government spokesman.
 
2008
Jan. 23: A massive explosion in Mosul killed 40 people and injured more than 200. The attack was blamed on AQI operatives who had relocated to Mosul.
 
Jan. 25: Iraqi security forces were sent to Mosul in what was billed as a "decisive" final offensive against Al-Qaida in Iraq.

February: The U.S. reduced the award being offered for AQI leader Abu Ayyub al-Masri to $100,000. The reward was $5 million at one time, but his "blatant ineffectiveness as a leader of AQI" made him unworthy of the higher price tag, said a U.S. military official.
 
Feb. 11: The U.S. military released parts of an internal document recovered from AQI indicating that the terrorist group had suffered major reverses in Anbar province where local tribes had resisted its presence. The document was found among the possessions of Abu Maysara, a former adviser to AQI's presumed leader, Abu Ayyub al-Masri, after Maysara was killed by coalition forces in November 2007.
 
Feb. 24: A suicide bomber killed at least 63 Shi'ite pilgrims near Iskandariyah in southern Iraq. Police blamed the attack on AQI.
 
March 13: The U.S. Joint Forces Command in Iraq released a report that was widely reported to indicate that the government of Saddam Hussein had no operational connection to the international Al-Qaida organization of Osama Bin Laden. This seemed to counter previous U.S. claims. The report noted that AQI developed as an indigenous group in Iraq and then sought support from the Bin Laden group. A closer reading indicated that the report said in part: "Saddam supported groups that either associated directly with Al-Qaida (such as the Egyptian Islamic Jihad, led at one time by bin Laden's deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri) or that generally shared Al-Qaida's stated goals and objectives." According to the study, Egyptian Islamic Jihad was one of many jihadist groups that the former dictator funded, trained, equipped and armed. The study, commissioned by the Joint Forces Command in Norfolk, Va., was produced by analysts at the Institute for Defense Analyses, a federally funded military think tank.
 
April 8: U.S. Gen. David Petraeus, commander of Multi-National Force-Iraq, reported that AQI's standing among the Iraqi population was beginning to erode, although the group still posed a major security threat. Local security groups, such as the Sons of Iraq, in combination with "relentless pursuit" of AQI, reduced the influence of the group, he said. Petraeus cautioned, however, that AQI's presence was still "lethal and substantial."

June 30: Coalition forces killed the senior AQI leader in an operation in Mosul. The target, Abu Khalaf, was known as the "emir" of Mosul.
 
Sept. 2: U.S.-led coalition forces handed security responsibility in Anbar province to the Iraqi government.
 
Sept. 7: The U.S. military reported that Al-Qaida's capabilities had been "greatly reduced." Brig. Gen. David Perkins noted that security forces had eliminated many AIQ operational bases and sanctuaries, and that AIQ's financial support had been significantly interrupted. Nevertheless, he said that AQI was still intensely committed to using violence to achieve its goals.
 
Sept. 9: Hadi Muhammad Husayn Darwish, also known as Abu Jassim, was killed during an operation near Kirkuk. Coalition forces asserted that Abu Jassim was the overall AQI leader of Tamim province.
 
Sept. 10: The U.S. military reported it had intercepted a letter in which senior Al-Qaida operatives revealed their discontent over AQI failures. The letter, dated March 6, 2008, was found on the body of Abu Nizar, the alleged intermediary between Al-Qaida's second in command, Ayman al-Zawahiri, and Abu Ayyub al-Masri. The letter criticized AQI for failing to keep up communication and for inadequate planning of attacks. The document also included criticism of AQI for lack of control over its operatives. Nazir was killed in Baghdad by coalition forces on April 24.
 
Sept. 14: Iraqi security forces detained 63 suspected AQI members in Ninewah province. The operation was conducted in response to the kidnapping of an Iraqi journalist and the murder of four other Iraqi journalists on Sept. 13.
 
Sept. 26: Insurgents ambushed a police convoy in Diyala province, killing 35. The attack was attributed to AQI.

2009
Aug. 19: AQI was blamed for a truck bomb attack near the Iraqi Foreign Ministry in Baghdad. Several other attacks also occurred at nearly the same time. At least 97 persons were killed and about 400 were injured.

Oct. 25: The Islamic State of Iraq, the Al-Qaida umbrella group in Iraq, claimed responsibility for double suicide bombings in Baghdad that destroyed the Ministry of Justice. At least 150 people were killed in the attacks and nearly 700 others were injured.

Nov. 17: Militants affiliated with AQI assassinated Hameed Khaleel al-Obeidi, the leader of the Sahwa council of the Bab al-Darb district of Baaquba, the capital city of Diyala province.

Nov. 18: AQI affiliates attacked Shaykh Houssam Ulwan al-Majmaai, the commander of Sahwa forces for Diyala province.

Dec.8: Militants killed 127 persons and wounded more than 400 in five separate attacks in Baghdad. The U.S. military shortly thereafter reported that three suspected Al-Qaida members had been arrested, including one implicated in these attacks.

Dec. 18: Iraqi and U.S. forces arrested two suspected members of an AQI cell believed responsible for making bombs and attacking government officials. During the operation, the joint security team discovered a fully assembled improvised explosive device (IED) and several components to make IEDs.

2010
Jan. 7: The U.S. military reported the arrest of an AQI operative suspected of building large-scale vehicle bombs. AQI militants in Baghdad continued to plan attacks to disrupt the political progress in Iraq, said U.S. authorities.

April 19: Iraqi and U.S. forces killed the top two leaders of AQI near Tikrit. Abu Hamzah al-Muhajir, also known as Abu Ayyub al Masri, was said to be responsible for facilitating attacks against Iraq and coalition forces as well as Iraqi civilians. Masri replaced Abu Musab al Zarqawi when the latter was killed in June 2006. Also killed was Hamid Dawud Muhammad Khalil al Zawi, also known as Abu Umar al-Baghdadi, who served as the leader of the Islamic State of Iraq.

June 4: U.S. Gen. Ray Odierno, commander of U.S. forces in Iraq, reported that 34 of the top 42 AQI leaders had been detained or killed in the previous three months.