Ayad Allawi - Fast Facts

Here's a look at the life of Ayad Allawi, Iraq's Interim Prime Minister from June 28, 2004, to April 2005.

Personal: Birth Date: 1945

Birth place: Iraq

Marriage: Thana (1987-present)

Children: Three

Education: Studied medicine/Neurology in Baghdad and Great Britain.

Religion: Shia Muslim

Timeline: 1960s - Joins the Ba'ath Party while in medical school in Baghdad.

1970s - In charge of Ba'ath organizations in Europe when he breaks from Saddam Hussein's regime and goes into exile in London.

1978 - Survives an assassination attempt by Hussein supporters. He is beaten with an ax and hospitalized for almost a year.

1991 - Co-founds the Iraqi National Accord, a group in opposition to the Saddam Hussein led Ba'ath Party, of which Allawi was a former member.

1996 - The Iraqi National Accord is involved in a failed, CIA-backed coup attempt against Hussein's regime.

April 2003 - Returns to Iraq when Baghdad falls to the Coalition forces.

October 2003 - Holds the rotating presidency of the Iraqi Governing Council.

April 2004 - Resigns from the Iraq Governing Council security committee when the Coalition refuses to give the committee authority over security issues in Iraq.

May 28, 2004 - Unanimously selected by the Iraqi Governing Council to be the interim prime minister of Iraq after the June 28, 2004, handover of power.

June 28, 2004 - Sworn in as the interim Prime Minister of Iraq. He is the first ruler other than Saddam Hussein to lead the country in more than three decades.

September 23, 2004 - Holds a press conference with President George W. Bush at the White House.

November 15, 2004 - Gunmen release his wife and pregnant daughter-in-law, who were kidnapped on November 9, 2004, along with a female cousin (who was released on Nov. 11, 2004).

Dec. 16, 2004 - Allawi announces his list of 240 candidates for the Iraqi National Assembly, and says security and national unity would be the top priorities of his slate. He turns down a chance to run on a ticket determined by Grand Ayatollah Sistani.

April 2005 - Steps down as interim prime minister.

July 2008 - Testifies before a U.S. House Foreign Affairs subcommittee about the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq.

March 26, 2010 - The results of elections on March 7th are announced. The Iraqiya coalition, led by Allawi, wins the most seats in Parliament.

December 16, 2011 - Allawi's Iraqiya bloc announces that it is boycotting parliament, a move that threatens to shatter Iraq's fragile power-sharing government.