But Nabil has decided it is time to leave.

These also were events that simply could not have happened until recently. "When there were attacks on Shia shrines, such as Samarra last year, they killed many Sunnis in the area in revenge.

We arrange to meet again in Baghdad the following week to see how the family are coping. But, he added, a comprehensive agreement with the Iraqi authorities to visit all detainees was still being negotiated. They are also investing in Suleimaniya and Dohuk.

That is the case, say senior commanders, because ordinary Sunnis have decided to turn against the insurgency. Things are good again thanks to Abul Abed," she said. People saw al-Qaeda doing terrible things. The group has diversified into air travel, bringing Kurdistan closer to the outside world. The bullet passed through his leg. Far away, a figure is seen running in the distance.

Every month for the last four years, more and more families poured across the border. You see many different marks on these bodies. Patrolling the Tigris River in Baghdad As a diver, the river represents love and sweetness to me, because I have spent all my life working in it.

Insurgents displaced from their former strongholds in Anbar province and parts of Baghdad are now thought to be in Diyala, says our correspondent.

None of the village men have ever seen him before. And some of them will leave.

And with the clock for US troop withdrawals ticking ever more loudly in Washington, it is a race against time.

"With all due respect, the presidency council is an honorary body only. When you can't provide for your family, it's disturbing. "Forget about the Iraqi police, they're either Mehdi Army in uniform or professional thieves, or both," said a Sunni living in a largely-Shia area.

The casualty figures are down, but people are still being killed every day.

The fact that it did not has stirred a tense row between the US embassy and Prime Minister Nouri Maliki's administration.

The often massive, indiscriminate bomb attacks for which they were blamed, and which used to hit Shia areas on a daily basis, have now become a rarity.

"Forget about the Iraqi police, they're either Mehdi Army in uniform or professional thieves, or both," said a Sunni living in a largely-Shia area.

Most of the children I see are bedwetting.