Southern Iraq: British troops in southern Iraq are finding that all is not as it seems on the surface. Jack Fairweather reports from az Zubayr
They were thought to have been the bastions from which an evil regime terrorised its people.
But yesterday at a local Baath party office - occupied now by British troops - the debris left behind by Saddam's fleeing henchmen seemed to suggest a community centre planning the next village fete rather than an outpost bent on repressing the local community.
Against a poster of Saddam, a British soldier dozed after a long night patrolling the still-restive population.
Little heart-shaped messages were pinned to the picture of a grinning leader with rifle in hand.
"We love Saddam. Please take care of us," read one message, written in childish Arabic that appeared to have been composed by a pupil at the local school.
In another room was the material for a jamboree: hand-painted placards, festive ribbons and floral wreaths.
"It looks like they were organising a party when the bombs began to fall," said one bemused British soldier.
It was only in one small antechamber of the modest concrete building constructed after an abortive uprising by the local population in 1991 that any indication was given of some of the office's more sinister activities.
Files containing the names and pictures of local Iraqis lay scattered on the floor, left in haste as the Baath party activists fled.
An attempt had been made to burn them, and the room's incongruous curtains - printed patterns of chrysanthemums - were blackened around the edges.
On one file the words "To be watched", above a picture of a frowning old housewife.
When asked what had happened to the Baath party members, a local truck-driver called Hamid laughed and said: "They were terrified. You should have seen them. They ran all the way to Basra a week ago when the fighting started."
Questioned further, however, he revealed the startling fact that Baath party members had gone into hiding and were being protected by their local communities.
"Most of them are here in the village now where they have their families," said Hamid. "They don't mean any harm, and we must look after them. They are our people. Please don't tell anyone or they will be captured."
Another Iraqi man who would not give his name said: "This is a very bad situation for us.
"We don't know if the British are here to stay so we cannot say anything. Maybe the Baath will come back and they will surely be angry with us if we have helped the British."
His sentiments highlight the uphill struggle faced by British forces as they attempt to win over the hearts and minds of the local population.
Sir Galahad, a relief ship carrying 240 tonnes of aid docked at the port of Umm Qasr yesterday, but judging by the well-fed inhabitants of the town of az Zubayr, it is not food and water that they need.
Jasim Sarbah, an employee of the local oil company, described how two days ago a British soldier shot his neighbour as he took his tomato crop to market.
"We are very scared. We just want to be able to go about our jobs in peace," said Sarbah. "After the man in the village was shot we had a meeting and decided we can have the British here for a few weeks, but if they stay longer we will become angry."
That already appears to have happened in the town of az Zubayr where, although the local Baath party headquarters was destroyed by an airstrike several days ago, local militiamen continue to gather, with a number of enemy contacts reported by British forces last night.
Iraqis also talk with fear about what they call "British prisons", the handful of prisoner-of-war camps that have been built in southern Iraq.
Originally intended for the thousands of expected Iraqi deserters, they are now slowly being filled by militamen and looters in an effort to bring a semblance of order to the area, although they have greeted with scepticism by local Iraqis.
A British sentry at a road-block tried to explain to an Iraqi man caught with a stash of army batteries and gun-cleaning equipment why he had to go a nearby POW camp.
"We just need to take your name and make sure you have found these things by the roadside. You will be fed, given water and cigarettes. Do you understand?"
The man nodded but then briefly tried to struggle as he climbed into the back of a jeep before he was finally taken under escort to the camp.
"This is getting very frustrating," said the sentry> "We just want the Iraqis to co-operate with us."
At the camp itself, a large open enclosure with food and sleeping tents surrounded by earthen ramparts, Iraqi POWs drifted around listlessly in the sun. "We must go back to our families now," said one.
"It's got to the stage where we don't know who's a civilian and who's an enemy. All we can do is stay focused on our task, which is liberating Iraq," said a British sergeant.
But back at the still-intact Baath party office the irony of the British occupation of the building was not lost on the local residents.
"They have come to free us, but instead they move in where the Baath party used to live," said one. "We are going to tell them they should knock that building down."