The state of Fallujah

Jack Fairweather examines the state of Fallujah in today’s Daily Telegraph. He quotes American officers calling it the safest place in Iraq, says that the insurgents who once controlled the city and used it as a springboard for violence elsewhere have gone and that roughly a fifth of the population, about 50,000 people, have returned to see if their houses were destroyed in the fighting. He quotes Hashem Mahmud, a contractor who employs 200 men in Fallujah repairing schools and clinics: "The insurgents are waiting for the people to reach a desperate point before moving back in," he said. "We've got to get people employed otherwise they will be reached by the other side and paid money to do something nasty."