Life in claustrophobic Baghdad 'jail ....

Thousands of volunteers - all Sunni Arabs - have been stepping forward and offering to protect their own neighbourhoods. Some are former insurgents who have switched sides.

Others are young unemployed men who have had enough of the violence.

It is a remarkable turn-around that so many now want to co-operate with the Americans, the very people they had previously been trying to kill.

The Americans have been eager to sign them up and give them contracts - 20,000 apparently so far.

In the Sunni district of Baghdad we went to, the volunteers are filling a void because there are no regular police there as the police are mostly Shia.

While the Americans are enthusiastic about this growing force, the majority Shia population is becoming increasingly alarmed.

They fear that a Sunni militia of dubious loyalty to the government is being created across the Sunni heartlands.

And if the Americans hand responsibility to them and then pull back, it could be they have created the perfect recipe for all-out civil war.

Life In Claustrophobic Baghdad 'Jail'