Coalition Provisional Authority

Coalition Provisional Authority
Arabic: تحالف السلطة المؤقتة
2003–2004
Seal
StatusProvisional government under U.S. military occupation
CapitalBaghdad
American Administrator 
• 2003
Jay Garner
• 2003-2004
Paul Bremer
American Deputy Administrator 
• 2004
Richard Jones
President of the Iraqi Governing Council 
• 2003-2004
Mohammed Bahr al-Uloum (first)
• 2004
Ghazi Mashal Ajil al-Yawer (last)
LegislatureIraqi Governing Council
Historical eraPost–Cold War era
Iraq War
War on terror
April 21 2003
• Founding of the Iraqi Interim Government
June 28 2004
Preceded by
Succeeded by
Ba'athist Iraq
Iraq

Iraq came under United States military occupation following the invasion of the country on 20 March 2003 by U.S.-led Coalition forces that marked the fall of the Ba'athist regime led by Saddam Hussein. As a result, the U.S. formed the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) that served as the transitional government established in May 2003 under the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1483 (2003) and the laws of war, and vested itself with executive, legislative, and judiciary authority over the Iraqi government from the period of the CPA's inception on 21 April 2003 until its dissolution on 28 June 2004.

The CPA was admonished for its mismanagement of funds allocated to the reconstruction of post-invasion Iraq, with over $8 billion of these unaccounted for, including over $1.6 billion in cash that emerged in a basement in Lebanon. The CPA has been described as a puppet government of the U.S..