Baghdad is now effectively a dozen different cities; they are all at war. On walls there are slogans in black paint saying 'Death to Spies'. A Shia caught in a Sunni district will be killed and vice versa. Each side has its checkpoints: armed men in civilian clothes demand identity cards from drivers, and wave to one side those they suspect of being of the opposite religion; these people are then interrogated, tortured and killed. The checkpoints are difficult to avoid: they spring up without advance warning. Between thirty and fifty bodies, often mutilated, are picked up by the police every day.

LRB 22 February 2007 | PDF Download