Much of Baghdad was under curfew Wednesday as Iraqis quietly marked the fifth anniversary of the fall of Saddam Hussein to US troops.

Baghdad resident: “The curfew will have a bad effect on people. In the curfew, we cannot go outside to buy food. We cannot use our cars, and we cannot take patients to hospitals. So it has a very bad effect on people. It will also
have a bad effect on those who have jobs.”

The curfew was imposed ahead of a planned anti-occupation march by supporters of Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. The march was called off amid fears of violence against demonstrators. A Baghdad resident said five years after US occupation, life in Iraq is no better than under Saddam.

Baghdad resident: “Five years after the fall (of Saddam’s regime), nothing has been changed. The situation is the same, the same suffering. We were living in darkness, and now we are living in more darkness. The situation is not good, no services, no gasoline, no petrol and nothing. The situation is bad.”