Coalition Provisional Authority

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 heavily criticized 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 bunker in Lebanon. The CPA has been described as a puppet government of the United States.