5 years since Saddam's fall
2008-04-09 11:06
Baghdad - Iraq has marked the fifth anniversary of the fall of Saddam Hussein's iron-fisted regime with the nation still wracked by violence and the capital under curfew.
Baghdad's streets were empty of cars and trucks after the authorities declared a 05:00 to midnight vehicle curfew to prevent car bomb attacks by Sunni insurgents on the anniversary of Saddam's ouster by US invading forces.
Saddam's hometown of Tikrit was also under a day-long curfew, an AFP correspondent said.
Sadr City, the eastern Baghdad bastion of radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, was also calm following three days of clashes between his Mahdi Army militia and the security forces which killed dozens of people and wounded scores.
Sadr had last week called for a million-strong anti-American demonstration in Baghdad on Wednesday but cancelled it on Tuesday "to save Iraqi blood".
Saddam regime toppled
It took US invading forces just three weeks to defeat Saddam's forces and topple his regime on April 9, 2003.
On that day, US Marines put a rope around the neck of a giant statue of Saddam in Baghdad's Firdoos Square, pulling it down in an act that symbolised the fall of the dictator's brutal regime.
A jubilant Iraqi crowd "insulted" the fallen statue by smacking its face with their shoes.
But five years later the American military and Baghdad's new Shi'ite-led regime are still battling to curb the bloodshed that has killed tens of thousands of people and displaced more than four million.
More than 700 people have been killed in a fortnight of clashes between Shiite militiamen and Iraqi and US forces in Baghdad, the southern port city of Basra and other Shi'ite regions.
Violence on the rise
Fears of an uptick in the violence are running deep after hardline Sadr, angered by attacks on his militiamen, threatened on Tuesday to end the truce his feared Mahdi Army militia has been observing since August.
US commanders acknowledge that the ceasefire was one of the factors behind a sharp drop in violence across Iraq in the second half of last year.
Although US President George W Bush insisted in March that toppling Saddam was the "right decision", his commanders are finding it difficult to bring stability to Iraq despite last year's strategy of "surging" an extra 30 000 troops.
The top US general in Iraq, David Petraeus, urged in testimony to the US Congress on Tuesday that further withdrawals of troops should be held off for at least 45 days after completing the withdrawal of the surge forces by July.
Petraeus said the surge had helped make "significant but uneven" progress in Iraq, while Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker warned that those achievements were "reversible."
Turmoil and bloodletting
For Iraqis, the five years since the ouster of Saddam has been a period of turmoil and bloodletting.
"When I saw the American tanks roll into Baghdad, I was happy and full of dreams... dreams of a prosperous Iraq, a developed Iraq. But since then it has become a nightmare of suffering and destruction," said Sarah Yussef, 25.
The war has killed tens of thousands of Iraqi civilians since the US-led invasion. Between 104 000 and 223 000 people died from March 2003 to June 2006 alone, according to the World Health Organisation.
More than 4 200 US and allied soldiers have also lost their lives in the conflict.
US now the enemy
The songs of joy that greeted the American tanks when they reached Baghdad have long since become cries of hatred.
Gone are the jubilant cheers of "Good, Good, Bush" praising the US president for ousting the regime. Angry chants of "Down with Bush" are a frequent background to daily violence.
On the streets of Baghdad, fear of Saddam's hated secret police has been replaced by a new terror. In the United States, the war is deeply unpopular and has emerged as one of the key factors in this year's presidential elections.
Majeed Hameed, a gift shop owner in Baghdad's northern Antar Square, said the American tanks rolling on the streets of Baghdad are now seen as "enemy" forces.
"We can't describe how savage these barbarians are whose promises were false and full of lies. They came to occupy and cause destruction. We got nothing but disaster," said Hameed.
"Five years of suffering are enough. I think it is really enough for us to understand that they (the US) must leave and not return. We should understand that they destroyed us. They looted us."
Critical situation
Last month, the International Committee of the Red Cross said the plight of millions of Iraqis who still have little or no access to clean water, sanitation or health care was the "most critical in the world".
The economy, the main concern of Iraqis after security, is also a wreck.
Unemployment is running at between 25 and 50 percent, according to government figures.
Oil exports, the country's main money-earner, are a key source of contention between rival political factions.
Public services such as water and electricity have yet to be fully restored, despite billions of dollars having been spent on often badly managed reconstruction projects.