In the aftermath of one of the worst Iraq terror attacks the legacy Britain left here is difficult to see
In a city which has endured more than a decade of slaughter, a new dreadful low. One of the worst attacks Baghdad has ever seen.
The death toll spiralling towards 200, this the Islamic State’s perverse response to defeat in Fallujah - a lorry bomb that vaporised entire families enjoying a night out.
Now across Iraq there is one question: where’s next?
In the mostly Shi’ite Basra, morning markets are nervously surveyed by security forces of a country that continues to disintegrate 13 years after Saddam was toppled.
In two days, Sir John Chilcot’s will give his verdict on that seismic event.
But Zeinab Ali and her father Hamid have already reached theirs.
A US airstrike took her leg, her mother and two brothers.
As a young girl she came to Britain for treatment but is withering about Britain’s attempt to improve Iraq.
In a village nearby, the other effects of the western intervention.
Despite the millions spent, there is still not even the most basic healthcare - here a British charity fills the void.
This is the reality for many Iraqis, because the country is in such chaos.
The hopes of rebuilding Iraq have crumbled away after the invasion.
The legacy that Britain left here is difficult to see.
But for many Iraqis the real legacy of the invasion is found at funerals like this one in Najaf where yesterday’s victims are being laid to rest.
Victims who are part of the same tangled thread that started with the toppling of a dictator, and ended with the rise of ISIS – a fractured country reeling from 13 years of unintended consequences.
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