Patrick Cockburn

A series of deadly bomb attacks in and around the city of Basra this week has undermined the British Army's claim to have largely kept southern Iraq free from the violence engulfing the rest of the country.

As he completes another tour of duty in the chaos of Iraq, award-winning reporter Patrick Cockburn charts how Bush and Blair's 'winnable war' turned into a mess that is inspiring a worldwide insurgency.

A year ago the supposed handover of power by the US to an Iraqi interim government was billed as a turning point in the violent history of post-war Iraq. It has turned out to be no such thing

American officials are talking to negotiators from the anti-US resistance in Iraq, whom they have denounced in the past as foreign fighters and remnants of Saddam Hussein's regime.

American generals in Iraq triumphantly announced at the weekend that they had successfully taken over Samarra and killed 125 insurgents. They failed to mention that this is the third time they have captured this particular city on the Tigris river north of Baghdad in the past 18 months.

Iraqi officials demanded to know yesterday why so little international attention was being given to their numerous dead as the US mourned the death of 1,000 soldiers since the invasion of Iraq.

The American death toll in Iraq reached 1,000 last night, the White House announced after yet another day of heavy fighting in Baghdad

Against the odds, America has earned the hatred of ordinary Iraqis. In Baghdad Patrick Cockburn sees the battle for hearts and minds comprehensively lost

Shia leaders have warned there will be an explosion of anger among the 15 to 16 million Iraqi Shia if US soldiers enter Najaf, where Imam Ali, the founder of their faith, is buried in a golden-domed shrine.

Savage fighting raged across Iraq yesterday as at least 20 US soldiers were killed in attacks on the American-led coalition that reached a crescendo of violence not seen since the end of the war to overthrow Saddam Hussein.

Kurdish community claims it had more autonomy under Saddam

Our aging Russian-built helicopter flew into the Panjshir valley from the north, high over desolate, brown hills. At Changaram, a narrow point in the valley where lush, green fields and terraces cling to the sides of the mountains, we landed.