2000 CE - 1421/22 AH

June 10 - Hafez al-Assad, Syria's longest serving president dies.

July 10 - Bashar al-Assad is confirmed as Syria's leader in a national referendum.

July 11-  Israel's prime minister Ehud Barak and PLO head Yasser Arafat meet at Camp David, but fail to reach an agreement.

September 28 - Ariel Sharon visits the Temple Mount, protected by a several-hundred-strong Israeli police force. Palestinian riots erupt, leading into a full-fledged armed uprising called the Al-Aqsa Intifada.

2001 CE - 1422/23 AH

January 26 - An earthquake hits Gujarat, India, causing more than 20,000 deaths and destroying most of the historical city.

February - Iraq disarmament crisis: British and U.S. forces carry out bombing raids, attempting to disable Iraq's air defences network.

June 20 - Pervez Musharraf becomes President of Pakistan after the resignation of Rafiq Tarar.

September 9 - Suicide bomber wounds Ahmed Shah Massoud, military commander and a terrorist of Northern Alliance in Afghanistan. He dies September 14.

September 11 – Some 2,602 are killed in the September 11, 2001 Attack on the World Trade Center in New York City, The Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, and rural Shanks Ville, Pennsylvania.

October 7 - The United States invades Afghanistan, with some participation from the United Kingdom.

The USA ‘War on Terrorism’ starts.

2002 CE - 1423/24 AH

April 2 - Israeli forces surround the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem.

May 20 - Oil rich East Timor is formed following the UN-sponsored act of self-determination, Indonesia relinquished control of the territory, which achieved full independence, becoming the first new country of the 21st century. With the Philippines, East Timor is one of only two predominantly Roman Catholic countries in Asia.

May 21 - US State Department releases report citing seven State-Sponsors of Terrorism; Iran, Iraq, Cuba, Libya, North Korea, Sudan and Syria.

September 19 - Ivorian Civil War starts in Côte d'Ivoire, a predominantly Muslim country.

2003 CE - 1424/25 AH

January 30 - Iraq disarmament crisis: The leaders of Britain, Spain, Italy, Portugal, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Denmark, and the Czech Republic release a statement, The Letter of the Eight, demonstrating support for the United States' plans for an invasion of Iraq.

February 15 - Global protests against Iraq war - more than fifteen million people protest in over 600 cities worldwide, the largest war protest to take place before the war occurred.

March 17 - Iraq disarmament crisis: U.S. President George W. Bush gives an ultimatum: Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein and his sons must either leave Iraq, or face military action at a time of the U.S.'s choosing.

March 19 - First American bombs dropped on Baghdad, Iraq. President Saddam Hussein and his sons do not comply with President Bush's 48 hour mandate demanding their exit from Iraq.

March 20 - Iraq war: Land troops from United States, United Kingdom, Australia and Poland invade Iraq.

March 22 - The United States and the United Kingdom begin their shock and awe campaign, with a massive air strike on military targets in Baghdad.

April 3 - U.S. forces seize control of Saddam International Airport, changing the airport's name to Baghdad International Airport.

April 9 - U.S. forces seize control of Baghdad, apparently ending the regime of Saddam Hussein.

August 11 - NATO takes over command of the “peacekeeping force” in Afghanistan, marking its first major operation outside Europe in its 54-year-history.

October 31 - Mahathir Mohamad resigns as Prime Minister of Malaysia after 22 years in power.

December 13 - Saddam Hussein, former President of Iraq, is captured in Tikrit by the U.S. army.

December 26 - A massive earthquake devastates south-eastern Iran. Over 40,000 people are reported to have been killed in the city of Bam.

2004 CE - 1425/26 AH

February 1 - A hajj stampede in Mina, Saudi Arabia, kills 251 pilgrims.

February 3 - The CIA admits that there was no imminent threat from ‘weapons of mass destruction’ before the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

March 15 - The new Spanish government announces that it will withdraw Spain's 1,300 troops in Iraq.

March 21 - The 2004 Malaysian general election takes place. The incumbent Barisan Nasional party wins 198 out of 219 seats in the Malaysian Parliament.

March 22 - Palestinians protest in the streets after Israeli helicopter gunship fires US supplied hellfire missiles at the entourage of Sheikh Ahmed Ismail Yassin who was a partially blind and paraplegic, in Gaza City, killing Yassin and 8 others, injuring more then 20.

April 17 - Israeli helicopters fire US made hellfire missiles at a convoy of vehicles in the Gaza Strip, killing the Gaza leader of Hamas, Abdel Aziz al-Rantissi.

April 28 - Abuse of prisoners at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq is revealed.

May 9 - Chechen President Akhmad Kadyrov is killed by a landmine placed under a VIP stage during a World War II memorial parade in Grozny.

June 30 - The preliminary hearings begin in Iraq in the trial of former president Saddam Hussein, for war crimes.

July 22 - The Old Bridge of Mostar in Bosnia-Herzegovina is reconstructed and reopened after being destroyed by Bosnian Croat forces on November 9, 1993. The Stari Most "The Old Bridge" is a 16th century bridge it was originally commissioned by Suleiman the Magnificent in 1557 to replace an older wooden suspension bridge of dubious stability

September - Iraq war, 100,000 excess deaths - estimated in the September 2004 Lancet survey of mortality before and after the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

October 10 - Abdullahi Yusuf is chosen as the new transitional president of Somalia.

November 11 - Yasser Arafat, leader of the Palestinian Authority, dies in a Paris hospital. Reports later emerged that Arafat was allegedly poisoned by Israel.

December 26 - One of the worst natural disasters in recorded history hits south-eastern Asia when the strongest earthquake in 40 years hits the entire Indian Ocean region. The massive 9.3 magnitude earthquake, epicentre just off the west coast of the Indonesian island of Sumatra, generates enormous tsunami waves that crash into the coastal areas of a number of nations. The official death toll in the affected countries stands at 229,866 with 186,983 dead while more than 42,883 people are still missing.

2005 CE - 1426/27 AH

January 9 - Mahmoud Abbas is elected to succeed Yasser Arafat as Palestinian Authority President in the Palestinian election.

January 20 - George W. Bush is inaugurated in Washington, D.C. for his second term as the 43rd President of the United States.

April 9 - Hundreds of thousands of demonstrators marched through Baghdad denouncing the U.S. occupation of Iraq, two years after the fall of Saddam Hussein.

April 26 - Facing international pressure, Syria withdraws the last of its 14,000 troop military garrison in south Lebanon ending its twenty nine year military domination. Later on this move will prove to be devastating for Lebanon as Israel will wage its longest ever war, to reoccupy south Lebanon.

August 1 - King Fahd of Saudi Arabia dies, succeeded by his half-brother Abdullah of Saudi Arabia.

August 3 - Mahmood Ahmadi-Nejad (Ahmadinejad) born October 28, 1956 is elected the sixth president of the Islamic Republic of Iran.

August 31 - A crowd crush on the Al-Aaimmah Bridge in Baghdad kills over a thousand civilians.

October 8 - An earthquake in Pakistan, India and Kashmir kills about 80,000 people and leaves over a million homeless.

December 6 - An Iranian C-130 Hercules airplane crashes into a ten-story building in a civilian area of Tehran, the capital of Iran, killing all 94 people aboard and 34 residents of the building - a total of 128 people.

2006 CE - 1427/1428 AH

January 5 - A hotel in Makkah, Saudi Arabia collapses, killing 76 pilgrims visiting to perform hajj.

January 25 - Hamas wins the majority of seats in the Palestinian Legislative Council elections.

February 22 - A blast heavily damages the Al Askari Mosque, a Shiite holy site in Samarra, Iraq, causing a wave of protests and counterattacks across Iraq.

March 11 - Slobodan Milošević, former Yugoslav president, dies of a heart attack in his prison cell in The Hague, Netherlands.

June 10 - President Mahmoud Abbas sets July 26 as the date for a national referendum in Palestine.

11 October Iraq war - The second survey by The Lancet, estimated 655,000 deaths related to the war, or 2.5% of the population since the March 2003 military invasion of Iraq. Read the full article.

29th December 2006 - 9th Zulhijjah 1427: Hajj takes place on Friday, over 3 million worshippers participate, 23,000 from UK alone.

30th December - 10th Zulhijjah: Former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti صدام حسين عبد المجيد التكريت (B. April 28, 1937 - D. December 30, 2006) hanged by the United State backed Iraqi government at 6am Iraqi dawn. He ruled Iraq from July 16, 1979 until April 9, 2003, when he was deposed during the United States-led 2003 invasion of Iraq.
(Related article on this event: "The two natives of Tikrit and the fall of Baghdad")