A year to the day after US forces overthrew Saddam Hussein, Iraq has descended into a state of near anarchy, with fighting between Coalition forces and insurgents in most major cities, the taking of foreign hostages and mounting casualties on both sides, writes Lara Marlowe
This week has seen an unprecedented eruption of violence across Iraq, in which several hundred Iraqis and three dozen US servicemen were killed. The US is now embroiled in a war on two fronts, and neither has any end in sight. To the west of Baghdad, marines are fighting Sunni Muslim insurgents in Falluja in what it calls "Operation Vigilant Resolve".
In Baghdad and the cities of the south, Lt Gen Ricardo Sanchez yesterday vowed a fight to the finish against the Mahdi army, a Shia Muslim militia loyal to Sheikh Moqtada al-Sadr.
Both battles appear to be open-ended. "We will continue to see this violence for some time, until Moqtada Sadr turns himself in or his militia is destroyed," Gen Sanchez said.
In Sadr City, a Shia slum in north Baghdad where two million people live, US forces destroyed al-Sadr's office with tank shells and helicopter-fired missiles early yesterday.
Gen Sanchez admitted that coalition troops have lost control of the southern cities of Kut and Najaf. "What is under control by Mahdi elements (in Najaf) is the inner part of the city, the police station and the government buildings," Gen Sanchez said.
Ukrainian troops who are part of the US-led coalition abandoned the southern city of Kut on Wednesday, but Gen Sanchez promised that "we will retake the city of al-Kut imminently." Nor can Falluja - which US marines from the First Expeditionary Force shelled for the fourth day yesterday is said to be under US control. Up to 300 people have been killed in the bombardment, according to Dr Rafi Hayat, the director of Falluja's main hospital, and at least 400 others are wounded.
Announcements from the loudspeakers of mosques in Falluja asked people to bring their dead to the sports stadium for burial. It is impossible to reach the cemeteries because of the US bombardment. "Yes, we have got Falluja under siege," Gen Sanchez said. The assault was launched to avenge the killing and mutilation of four US security contractors in Falluja on March 31st.
Some reports said that Kerbala, where Polish and Bulgarian Coalition troops fought Shia militiamen yesterday, was also in the hands of the Mahdi army. Four Iraqis were killed and 16 wounded there. Doctors in Kerbala reported that US forces killed three pilgrims participating in the "Arba'een" religious festival, in which hundreds of thousands of Shia Muslims march to the city where Imam Hussein was martyred.
A year ago, US authorities boasted that Iraq's Shia were able to celebrate "Arba'een" for the first time in decades because they had been liberated from Saddam Hussein. In a blow to US prestige, Gen Sanchez and the US administrator Mr Paul Bremer warned that the US could not provide security. "We caution all pilgrims that the holy cities are potentially dangerous places during this period," Gen Sanchez said.
Meanwhile, Al-Jazeera television showed a videotape of three Japanese hostages held by the previously unknown "Mujaheddin brigades", blindfolded and kneeling on the floor, surrounded by knife-wielding masked gunmen.
If Japan does not withdraw its 550 non-combat troops from Iraq within three days, the kidnappers threatened to kill the hostages. "We tell you that three of your children have fallen prisoner in our hands and we give you two options - withdraw your forces from our country and go home, or we will burn them alive and feed them to the fighters," the group said.
The Japanese hostages include a woman aid worker, Takato Nahoko, Noriaki Imai, a peace activist, and Soichiro Koriyama, a freelance cameraman. The Japanese government demanded their release and said it would not withdraw its troops.
Two Israeli Arabs from East Jerusalem, Mr George Yaakob Razuq, an employee of USAID, and Ahmed Yassin Tikati, were kidnapped by a group calling itself Ansar a-Din (Supporters of Religion).
The dramatic escalation of the war this week has prompted the Pentagon to suggest that soldiers who were due to leave Iraq might see their tour of duty extended. Yet Gen Sanchez rejected ever more frequent comparisons with the Vietnam war. Some 630 US servicemen have been killed in action in Iraq in the past year.
"I don't see any shadow of Vietnam here in Iraq," Gen Sanchez said. Referring to Sheikh Moqtada al-Sadr, Gen Sanchez echoed the words of the US Defence Secretary, Mr Donald Rumsfeld, saying "We will not let a small group of criminals and thugs control the destiny of this country."
But the siege of Falluja is uniting Sunni and Shia Muslims against the US. And it is making Moqtada al-Sadr popular. Until recent days the young sheikh was held in low esteem by all but the poorest and least educated Iraqi Shia. Now his photograph can be seen throughout the Sunni Triangle, especially in the embattled towns of Ramadi and Falluja. Several thousand Sunni and Shia gathered outside the Um al Qura mosque in Baghdad to show solidarity with Falluja and Kerbala.
Similar demonstrations were held in the northern towns of Mosul and Baqouba.
The Iraqi government is theoretically under US government control, but al-Sadr's picture has been posted throughout the health ministry. "Some of his supporters among the employees put it up," civil servants told me.
Many Iraqis were enraged by media reports that the US prevented vehicles carrying donations of blood, water and food for the residents of Falluja from entering the city. Arab journalists repeatedly and aggressively asked Gen Sanchez why US forces are bombing civilians in Falluja, do not allow humanitarian assistance to enter and damaged a mosque on Wednesday.
Aid convoys could reach Falluja if the "tactical situation" made it possible, Gen Sanchez said. Humanitarian workers would have to co-ordinate with the US commanders on the ground. How they would communicate without telephones, when US forces open fire on any vehicle that approaches them, was not made clear.
Gen Sanchez insisted that "the families are not considered enemies" and that "once the security situation in Falluja is stabilised, the citizens in Falluja will find no better friend than the marines of the First Expeditionary Force."
If the people of Falluja would only share the US vision of democracy and progress "then we will apply all the humanitarian assistance and resources to improve their economic structure... We have put millions of dollars into the city to help them. We will continue to do so once we're done," he said.
A year ago, the US promised to rebuild Iraq after the three-week bombardment that destroyed the country's telecommunications, power plants and other basic infrastructure. Those promises have not been kept, and even if the Iraqis could forgive the hundreds of lives lost this week, they're not likely to believe the US now.
