As political and security tensions rise before the parliamentary elections, fighters in the Western al-Anbar province say they are even prepared to protect voting stations from those loyal to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, leader of al-Qaida in Iraq.

Despite the continuing hostility, this shift in attitude is encouraging for the US, which hopes to engage Sunni Arabs in a policy of peaceful politics in order to defuse the fighting.

But Saddam loyalists have turned against al-Zarqawi, originally from Jordan, whose fighters travel to Iraq from across the Arab world.