Umm Jassem and her three brothers watched the Iraqi general announce on state television that displaced families were heading home.

The news was too good to be true. Like the tens of thousands kicked out of their old homes, the young Shia woman’s family longed for their old life in the western Baghdad neighbourhood of Ghazaliyah.

The new Baghdad security plan has raised hope that the carving up of Baghdad into Shia and Sunni enclaves by extremist groups can be reversed. More than 1,000 families have been resettled since February 14, when the surge plan began, according to General Qassim Atta al-Mussawi. The campaign to save the mixed neighbourhoods of Baghdad could well determine whether Iraq will remain a nation of Sunnis, Shias and Kurds or splinter along religious and ethnic lines.

“The Government is concentrating on this because it thinks the mixed neighbourhoods are important for creating an atmosphere of tolerance and reconciliation,” Ahmed Shames, a spokesman for Nouri al-Maliki, the Prime Minister, told The Times.

The policy relies on the Iraqi military and police repairing communities that have been destroyed by the open sectarian war raging since the February 2006 bombing of a Shia shrine in Samarra. Iraqi commanders in Baghdad’s ten security sectors are bringing together Sunni and Shia sheikhs to convince them to protect displaced people who want to return home. The heavy presence of Iraqi and US forces in districts serve as a guarantee for those who venture back.

So far people have returned to neighbourhoods such as Ghazaliyah and Dura, which have been front lines in Baghdad’s sectarian war. But it is an uphill battle. There have been more than 8,000 displaced families living in Baghdad since February 2006.

It is not clear if the Iraqi security forces can really protect those who wish to return. Dana Graber, an official from the International Organisation for Migration, which monitors displacement in Iraq, said the group’s case workers believed that people were hedging their bets and mainly visiting their properties briefly to inspect them.

A survey of Baghdad and its outlying areas by The Times revealed mixed stories. In Salman Pak, south of Baghdad, the bolstered army and police presence had encouraged Salamah, a 60-year-old Sunni farmer whose son was killed by Shia militia four months ago, to return. His old neighbours had phoned him and urged him to give it another try. “We have a good future,” he said, even as he said that he still felt pain about his son’s death.

But the story was different for Umm Jassem. She had watched the news and heard of friends heading home. She and her three brothers decided to do the same. On her first night back the family received a death threat letter — and they fled again.

Surging ahead

— Before the US November midterm elections four out of five voters said that if the Democrats won Congress US troop levels in Iraq would fall

— After the Republican defeat President Bush instead announced in January plans for extra troops. “America will change its strategy to help the Iraqis carry out their campaign. This will require increasing American force levels. So I've committed more than 20,000 additional American troops to Iraq"

— 21,500 extra US troops are being deployed in Iraq, embedded with and alongside Iraqi forces, mainly in Baghdad

— Democrat-controlled Congress has not withdrawn funding for the extra troops, but passed a resolution disapproving of the President’s decision to deploy more than 20,000 additional US combat troops to Iraq

Source: New York Times, White House, Congress

Times Recommends

• Experts baffled by vanishing sea lions
• CIA caught in a dirty and secretive war
• Double life of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab