Iraq still at war, one year after fall of Baghdad

A year after Saddam Hussein’s statue was toppled in a central Baghdad square, US Marines are battling Sunni Muslims west of the capital. Across central and southern Iraq, coalition forces try to put down a Shiite uprising.

Iraq remains a country at war.

More than 460 Iraqis, at least 40 Americans and two other coalition soldiers have been killed this week in fighting against Shiite militia loyal to radical anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and to quell a Sunni insurgency.

It’s a far cry from that defining moment on April 9, 2003, when US Marines surrounded by cheering Iraqis pulled down the black, bronze statue of Saddam at Fardous Square in central Baghdad.

The globally televised images gave Iraqis hope and were such a symbol of liberation that the first official act by the US-appointed Governing Council was to declare April 9 a national holiday.

Few celebrations were expected today. For Iraqis, Saddam’s tyranny has been replaced by the post-Saddam insecurity and fears over the future.

“We have lost the feeling of being safe to the extent that I cannot guarantee that my sons will return home everytime they leave to go to school,” said Qasim al-Sabti, a famous painter.

Faced with the heaviest fighting since US President George Bush declared an end to major combat on May 1, US military planners are considering sending additional troops to join the 135,000 already in Iraq.

The US-led coalition says only a “tiny” percentage of the population is taking up arms, while US commanders vow to crush a militia loyal to al-Sadr and thought to be behind the violence outside Sunni areas.

But some US officials in Washington say they fear Shiites outside al-Sadr’s sphere of influence may be joining the uprising in some instances. Officials do not believe it is at the stage of an outright Shiite revolt against the American occupation – but they are monitoring the situation.

Even if US forces succeed in putting the violence down, its fallout is likely to effect Iraq for long afterwards.

The fighting this week has revealed aspects of Washington’s predicament in the country as the Bush administration holds fast to a June 30 deadline to hand over sovereignty to Iraqis.

Anti-US sentiments still run deep a year after the US-led invasion toppled Saddam. Iraq’s security forces face many obstacles before they can assume responsibility for security and the country’s delicate ethnic and religious balance appear dangerously strained.

The US military has fought Sunni-led insurgents in the west and north of Baghdad for nearly a year.

The siege of Fallujah aims to do away with a bastion of the guerrillas after four American civilians were killed and mutilated last month, but resistance has proved stiff.

And fierce battles that have damaged mosques in the city raise resentment among Iraqis – even if they do not sympathise with the insurgents.

The Shiite uprising by al-Sadr’s militias also raises serious alarm since Iraq’s majority Shiites benefited most from the US-led invasion, winning instant political empowerment after decades of oppression.

The intensifying violence will also probably curtail the powers ceded by Washington to an Iraqi government this summer, a development that may rile many Iraqis and spark fresh unrest.

Despite the latest turmoil, however, many Iraqis acknowledge that it has not been all bad during a year of US occupation.

For example, government employees – the overwhelming majority of the work force – have seen their salaries rise from the equivalent of €4.50 a month under Saddam to €240.40 and more.

The rise in salaries and the lifting of import tax have sparked a wave of consumerism that has boosted the economy.

Unemployment is down by half since April last year, though still high at around 30%.

Recent opinion polls conducted on behalf of Western news organisations show that some 70% of Iraqis have high hopes for the future. They have also found that the biggest worries for Iraqis are jobs, security and basic services.

“Iraqis have not really enjoyed the taste of this economic improvement because of the security concerns,” said Talal Hussein al-Zawbaee, a political science lecturer at Baghdad University.