IRAQ: There is a certain grim irony in the fact that British troops may be deployed in the same place where hostage Kenneth Bigley was so gruesomely murdered a fortnight ago, report Jack Fairweather in Baghdad and Mohammed Fawsiin Latifiya
Should British soldiers go to Iskanderiya and the Latifiya area, they will find themselves at the heart of the insurgency.
Gone will be the flat barren deserts, soviet-style slums of southern Iraq and a pattering of small arms fire from Shia troublemakers.
They will find themselves amid the lush palm groves of the Euphrates river valley trying to defend one of the main supply routes of Iraq's insurgency.
They may even confront Mr Bigley's brutal murderers.
For several months, US commanders have identified the area as a "rat-line" along which insurgents in the rebel-held town of Fallujah bypass US checkpoints to supply Baghdad with men and bomb-making equipment.
When US and Iraqi forces conducted a sweep of the area a fortnight ago, they uncovered "huge" weapons caches, although few insurgents.
That doesn't mean they have gone away, according to the US military. "Troops are killed almost every day in the area," a US military spokesman said, but he would not comment on specific numbers.
"It's mostly roadside bombs and small ambushes. They want to hold on to some level of strategic control of the area."
The US sweep was the first comprehensive operation in Latifiya and Iskanderiya since the war - one of the reasons why insurgents have been able to take such firm control.
Iskanderiya is a largely Shia town of 100,000 people, where violence has been limited.
Residents of Latifiya however say the town, a collection of sprawling farms beside a tributary of the Euphrates, is still largely in the hands of Islamic extremists.
"Most of the local people have fled because they expect there to be fighting between US troops and the fighters," according to Safar al-Hajami (32), a taxi-driver.
As in other Sunni tribal areas in the shadowy world of Iraq's insurgency, no one group appears to have ascendancy in Latifiya.
Residents say foreign fighters had been stationed there by Saddam during the war and many have remained.
The town has also traditionally been the base for Iraqi Wahabis, the austere brand of Islam favoured by terrorist leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's Tawhid and Jihad group.
It is likely that Kenneth Bigley was held for most if not all of his three week captivity in Latifiya.
Al-Zarqawi's group, the most feared in Iraq, appeared to take exception to his British nationality.
British troops in Latifiya will be obvious targets for al-Zarqawi if and when American forces storm Fallujah.
"I am concerned for their safety," said one resident. "This is a dangerous area,"
Sa'ad al-Hadithi, Imam of Latifiya's largest mosque, said: "I don't care whether British troops come here or not. The fight against the occupation must continue.
"If the British do the same things as the Americans have done, they will find resistance. It is better for them to stay in Basra."
Tasir Ahmed (32), a farmer, said: "If the British troops come in peace they may be welcomed, but if they fight against the people, we will fight back."