An Iraqi man stands in his house destroyed by a US air strike in 2008 as the US army was fighting radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi militia in Baghdad's Sadr City on December 10, 2012. A US-led coalition invaded Iraq in 2003, toppling dictator Saddam Hussein and beginning a conflict that cost the lives of tens of thousands of Iraqis, thousands of Americans and hundreds of billions of dollars. Almost 10 years later and after that the last convoy of American armoured vehicles rolled across the border into Kuwait on the chilly morning of December 18, 2011, many Iraqis still lack basic services such as consistent electricity and clean water, and though levels of violence are down, insurgents continue to carry out bombings and shootings almost every day.
{"Image ImageDescription": "TO GO WITH AFP STORY BY MOHAMAD ALI HARISSI\nAn Iraqi man stands in his house destroyed by a US air strike in 2008 as the US army was fighting radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi militia in Baghdad's Sadr City on December 10, 2012. A US-led coalition invaded Iraq in 2003, toppling dictator Saddam Hussein and beginning a conflict that cost the lives of tens of thousands of Iraqis, thousands of Americans and hundreds of billions of dollars. Almost 10 years later and after that the last convoy of American armoured vehicles rolled across the border into Kuwait on the chilly morning of December 18, 2011, many Iraqis still lack basic services such as consistent electricity and clean water, and though levels of violence are down, insurgents continue to carry out bombings and shootings almost every day. AFP PHOTO/AHMAD AL-RUBAYE        (Photo credit should read AHMAD AL-RUBAYE/AFP via Getty Images)", "Image Copyright": "2012 AFP"}