A British soldier looks through the scope of his weapon while manning a checkpoint, as an oil refinery burns off gas nearby, December 16, 2005 on the outskirts of Basra, Iraq.
April 2003: Saddam Hussein is on the run, and the sky over Baghdad is choked with black smoke as looters ransack and torch government buildings. But in one district, U.S. Marines stand guard on the steps of a large modern building, their weapons trained on the street and the footbridge outside. It is the Ministry of Oil. Let this treasure chest burn, the thinking goes, and Iraq goes with it.
Through more than four years of catastrophic violence in Baghdad, the building has survived intact. But a far quieter battle now rages inside its walls, one that could ultimately prove as...
