Iraqis arming for ethnic bloodbath

The trade in black-market weapons is flourishing in Baghdad as Iraqis prepare for a bloody aftermath if Saddam Hussain is overthrown.

Even middle-class Baghdadis who have not previously kept weapons in their homes told The Sunday Telegraph they now have bought Kalashnikovs to protect their families in the days after the fall of Saddam. They believe Iraq will be riven by ethnic bloodletting, mob violence and mass looting.

Foreign diplomats, aid workers and Iraqi civilians all said that the illicit arms trade has reached new peaks in the last few weeks.

The lucrative trade is focused on Saddam City, a district in eastern Baghdad.

The volume of weapons has soared in recent months. Some have been smuggled in; most have been sold by tribal chiefs who were given the guns so they could fight the Americans. Saddam City could be critical to Saddam's plan to drag American forces into bloody street fighting in Baghdad.