Insurgents targeted convoys of the Iraqi interim government's ministers of environment and education in two separate bomb attacks in Baghdad today. Neither of the ministers was hurt, but at least five people were reported dead. Three weeks too long."On this at least, these soldiers from Texas and elsewhere across the US, aching to get home, or at least to Baghdad, from this cemetery which seems to encapsulate all the torments of Iraq, would agree with the extended family of the three Salmans, innocent victims of a continuing war "I do not know who is controlling Iraq," said Mr Latif "We call on Allah to provide security and stability.". What can I do?"When we returned to the washing rooms, the US Cavalry had set up a checkpoint to search all vehicles, including the coffins themselves, for weapons.

Specialist Brian Phillips stood on the roof of a minivan as an Iraqi carried out orders to open the coffin and show what lay inside; as the Iraqi uncovered the corpse of a man who may have been a Mehdi fighter, the side of its face blown through by a bullet, the American soldier exclaimed: "Oh my Jesus Christ, it's a young boy." He stood for a moment examining the body and then jumped from the minibus and ran some 20 yards before vomiting on to the ground Nobody laughed at him. The grandmother, beside herself with grief, covered her face with sand and at one point sought to climb into her son's grave, while her daughter cried out for her dead brother from one of the minibuses. Before they finally laid his son, wrapped in cloth, in the freshly dug grave, the children's grandfather, half out of his mind at his bereavement, wailed: "Tonight I will prepare a dinner for him. They are human beings and we don't care if they are Christian or Muslims. They should treat us as human beings."As if on cue, three US Cavalry Humvees drove into the car park of the block of washing rooms and offices where the cemetery is currently run by a tiny staff.

They did not behave like beasts, but it was evident they had not been here before; two of the soldiers, finding a door locked, kicked it open to check for any hostile presence, while their dismounted comrades watched the scene warily and the children's grandmother continued to cry out imprecations to her own dead mother. But when the family asked us through our translator to tell the troops the mourners wanted to drive to the graves, they waved us through.In the loneliness of the chosen burial place in the huge expanse of this cemetery of a million souls, you could see a row of Humvees on the near horizon patrolling in the hunt for insurgents, as the warplanes flew above and the explosions continued to resound, one alarmingly close. We tried to get into the house because we could hear people screaming But we couldn't because of the shooting. Normally we would take the bodies to the shrine first but we knew we couldn't do this because of the war. Of course we were worried about coming here but we had no choice."Another cousin and close neighbour of the Salman family, Abdul Khadim, was angrier at what had happened in the early hours "The Americans are beasts.