As Iraq’s US-backed transition from dictatorship to democracy approaches the end of its third year, the lucrative contracting trade by both foreign and Iraqi companies has moved behind the perimeters of US-built military installations.

Anecdotally, American and other companies left in droves after a mob in Fallujah, the Sunni-dominated hotspot west of Baghdad, lynched four US private security contractors from Blackwater Corp in April 2004 as anti-US resistance mushroomed.