As we drove into the market in al-Dora in southern Baghdad the driver announced: “Welcome to the swamp.”

The place reeked of violence. It was April 2007 and the Americans, after years of unsuccessfully fighting the insurgency sparked by their invasion of Iraq, were striving one last time for some sort of victory.

Tens of thousands of extra troops were going in - the Surge.

Back in 2007, death stalked the streets of al-Dora. One reporter dubbed it “the most dangerous place in Iraq”.

When we arrived early one evening the place was deserted. The few market traders still there opened for just a couple of hours each morning.

For the rest of the day and night local inhabitants cowered in their homes while the militant Sunni opposition tried to kill both Americans and other Iraqis.

Shia death squads, meanwhile, targeted the Sunnis that made up most of the local population, aiming to force them out.