Iraq's anxious anniversary

By Paul Wood BBC News correspondent, Baghdad

Twelve months on from the start of the war, there are still almost 124,000 US troops in Iraq. An operation with one US platoon gives the BBC's Paul Wood an insight in to the current military and political situation.

Easier than handover: A US soldier trades 'high-fives' on patrol

Children stood by the side of the road, waving and shouting "Hello Mister" at the column of Humvee jeeps and Abrams tanks as we rolled through Baghdad making a thunderous noise.

"They're smiling," said the US Army Captain next to me, "but I wonder if some aren't calling their friends to prepare a nasty surprise for us."

"The Bandits", the US 1st Armored 1-37, were raiding a neighbourhood known as "bomb central". Weeks earlier, a well-liked sergeant had been killed there by an IED, an improvised explosive device or roadside bomb.

What was most upsetting about this, his platoon told me, was how some Iraqis had come out to celebrate, dancing around the charred wreckage of his jeep. Like a lot of US soldiers, they thought they would just come to Iraq, liberate it, and go home.

"I thought it would be a lot more peaceful here because I believed that the Iraqi people all wanted to be free," said Sergeant Leecharde Bersamina, a medic with the 1-37.

Humvees and hip-hop

Today in Iraq, the Americans are in a fight no regular army ever wants: a guerrilla war, a war of car bombs and hit-and-run attacks by an enemy that never shows itself.

America is fighting an elusive, expert enemy

But morale in the 1-37 is astonishingly high. Many, including Sergeant Bersamina, told me they would sign up for another tour. They had come to Iraq to help the Iraqis and they wanted to finish the job.

We were in "bomb central" to try to arrest some of the men who make and plant the IEDs, taking part in an operation called "Iron Promise".

Tanks parked across the road. A Humvee with loudspeakers alternately played messages in Arabic - and loud hip-hop music. The Captain chewed on a cigar while a gunner on a "50 cal" kept a look out.

The tailgate of a flat-bed truck banged down and forty or more troops of the new Iraqi Civil Defence Corps jumped out. A year ago, some of these men were fighting the Americans. Now they are helping them.

We have freedom but there is no order in Iraq, it is chaos. They promised us things, the Americans, but they didn't deliver Shia man

The Iraqis had been rhythmically chanting an old nationalist song on the way: "With our blood, with our souls, we sacrifice ourselves for our homeland."

You often heard this in the old Iraq, but with "Saddam" instead of "our homeland". The slightly unnerving resonance was compounded as the men wore old Iraqi army helmets along with US uniforms.

Security with sovereignty

The Iraqis and the Americans started going house to house. Previous raids in this area had yielded quite sophisticated devices, including bombs hidden in concrete breeze blocks.

Anti-insurgent operations have made US forces unpopular

They also had six names. But it quickly became clear none of the six would be caught. This was exactly what the Americans were expecting: someone knew they were coming.

"The Iraqis were briefed two days ago. There's no way this didn't leak," one US officer said.

We also learned later that local people accused some of the Iraqi troops of stealing mobile phones and $100 from homes they searched. A whole platoon had to be strip searched.

Increasingly, the "boots on the ground" in Iraq are Iraqi. Local forces are taking over more and more security duties. They will be in charge after 30 June, when the US and Britain hand over sovereignty.

The problem then for US troops is that they will still be ultimately responsible for security, but without being in charge.

"After June 30th we'll continue to work with them. There's still a long way to go in terms of building up an Iraqi security force," was how the senior officer there, Brigadier General Mark Hertling, diplomatically put it.

Barrier to progress

Although the six names on the list were all former Baath party members, not foreign fighters, General Hertling insisted the US would stay precisely because Iraq was in the frontline of the war against al-Qaeda.

Doubts hang over how Iraqis will take charge of security this year

"They know they've got a lot to lose if they lose here. That's why this fight is so important," he said.

The implication of that, says the coalition's top officials, is that there are "dark days ahead" in the run up to the hand-over to a sovereign Iraqi government. There are already 400 dead in bombings since February but everyone is expecting much more violence.

The political upheavals of the past year are reflected in the changing landscape of Baghdad. A year ago, "The Picture," Saddam's official portrait decorated every office, every home, and every street corner.

Now, if Baghdad has a new emblem, it is the blast barrier, the thick, reinforced concrete walls which guard prominent buildings against suicide bombers. They are one sign that things have not exactly gone according to plan for the Coalition.

Fixing the mess

Another sign came in Paradise Square in central Baghdad the other day, at a demonstration by religious Shiites to protest against the occupation.

Almost a year ago, the world watched as Saddam's statue fell in Paradise Square. Joyous crowds pressed flowers onto US Marines who had spent the past three weeks in a lightning march on Baghdad. There is nowhere more symbolic of American hopes for Iraq.

Many young Iraqis want to see an early end to the US occupation

Today is different. "No, No, No to America," rose the chant from the front of the square, packed with Shiites, the people - above all - the Coalition came to Iraq to liberate.

I asked one of the organisers, Sheikh Laith Majid, if this wasn't a bit ungrateful. After all, the Coalition had rid them of Saddam. "The Americans are occupiers," he told me. "We all know that everything the US has done here, they did for themselves."

That demonstration was called to demand an Islamic constitution. Of course, there are many Shia opinions. But the loudest voice is the one rejecting Coalition plans for Iraq.

Away from the protest, another Shia man told me: "We have freedom but there is no order in Iraq, it is chaos. They promised us things, the Americans, but they didn't deliver."

He added: "We want them to rebuild Iraq. We're thankful for them [liberating us] but the bridge near my village is still broken - and we need them to repair it."

That is the kind of remark you hear most often from Iraqis. They are glad that the dictator who once terrorised them is gone. But they think Iraq is a mess - and that it's the Coalition's job to fix it.