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Samarra unleashed an even more brutal wave of sectarian killing.
By the end of 2006, according to the United Nations, more than
34,000 Iraqi civilians had been killed. The country threatened to
spiral into complete chaos.
There were some positive signs by the end of that year, however.
In late 2006, Sunni leaders in the western province of Anbar had
decided to stop fighting American forces. In return for monthly cash
payments, the Iraqi Sunnis joined American soldiers in fighting for-
eign terrorists. This development, called the Awakening movement,
gradually spread to other parts of Iraq.
In January 2007, the Bush administration announced a troop
“surge.” By September an additional 40,000 American soldiers had
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Iraqi Police and U.S. Marines watch a line of Iraqi citizens waiting to cast their ballots at a polling sta-
tion in Fallujah during Iraq’s historic election in January 2005.