Feb 5 (Reuters) - The first anniversary of the launch of a pivotal U.S.-Iraqi security crackdown in Baghdad falls on Feb. 14. Operation Imposing Law was seen as a last-ditch attempt to pull Iraq back from the brink of all-out civil war.

Following is a chronology of key events in the past year.

Jan. 10, 2007 - U.S. President George W. Bush announces the "surge", his plan to send thousands of extra troops to Iraq.

Feb. 3 - A truck bomb kills 135 people at the Sadriya market in central Baghdad.

Feb. 14 - Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki launches Operation Imposing Law in Baghdad.

March 10 - U.S., Iranian and other officials attend a regional meeting in Baghdad where talks focus on stopping the spread of violence in Iraq.

March 27 - A truck bomb explodes in Tal Afar, close to the northern city of Mosul, killing 152 people.

April 12 - A suicide bomber sneaks into the heavily protected Green Zone compound, kills one lawmaker and wounds dozens of other people at a cafe in parliament in the worst breach of security in the capital's most secure area.

April 18 - Multiple car bombings kill 191 people around Baghdad. At the Sadriya market, one bomb alone kills 140 people.

May 28 - Iranian and U.S. ambassadors to Iraq meet in Baghdad to discuss the violence in the country. The talks end a three-decade diplomatic freeze between the two enemies.

June 13 - Militants blow up the two minarets of a revered Shi'ite mosque in Samarra. A bombing at the same shrine in February 2006 unleashed a wave of sectarian bloodshed.

June 15 - The U.S. military says it has completed its troop build-up to 160,000 soldiers. Around 30,000 extra troops have been sent to Iraq, mainly to secure Baghdad.

Aug. 1 - The main Sunni Arab bloc pulls out of Maliki's cabinet, plunging the government into crisis.

Aug. 14 - Truck bombings against the minority Yazidi community in northern Iraq kill 411 people, the government says. The Iraqi Red Crescent says the death toll could be more than 500. The bombings are the deadliest militant attacks in Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003.

Aug. 29 - Authorities say they have restored order after clashes in the holy Shi'ite city of Kerbala which killed 52 people and sent thousands fleeing from an annual ritual.

-- Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr suspends the activities of his Mehdi Army militia for six months after the gunbattles.

Sept. 3 - President Bush makes a surprise visit to a desert air base in Iraq, and raises the prospect of troop cuts in the wake of falls in violence.

Sept. 10 - The U.S. military commander in Iraq, General David Petraeus, recommends cutting U.S. troop levels by more than 20,000 by mid-2008 in testimony to Congress.

Sept. 13 - Sheikh Abdul Sattar Abu Risha, a Sunni Arab tribal leader instrumental in driving al Qaeda out of Anbar province, is killed in a bomb attack.

Dec. 16 - Britain hands over security in Basra province to Iraqi forces. A scaled-down British force remains at their base at Basra's airport.

Jan. 12, 2008 - Parliament votes to let members of Saddam Hussein's Baath Party return to public life, winning praise from Washington for achieving a benchmark step toward reconciliation. (Writing by David Cutler, London Editorial Reference Unit; Editing by Dean Yates)

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