M. al-Saraj signed up to work for the British in Basra on March 21, 2003, two days after the invasion. It makes him, he believes, Britain’s first and longest-serving interpreter in Iraq.

More than four years on, his dream of helping to build a new Iraq has turned into a personal nightmare thanks to an escalating campaign of terror against him and his family by anti-British militias.

“I waited for the British Forces to come to Iraq,” he said. He deserted the Iraqi Army under Saddam Hussein and has a degree in English literature.

“When they arrived I went to them and said that I want to work for the British Forces against Saddam. They told me that I was crazy, but since that day I have worked for them.” A talented English-speaker, Mr al-Saraj — not his full name — rose through the ranks to become a senior member of the linguistics team, but at a price. Tactics of intimidation, allegedly by al-Mahdi Army, the dominant Shia militia in Iraq, forced him to leave his family and move on to a military base three years ago.

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Militiamen, however, continued to threaten his wife, 35, and two children, a daughter aged 3 and a son aged 5, telling them that they would kill Mr al-Saraj, 46. Ten months ago, a gang even kidnapped his son. “I used my tribe to force the Mahdi Army to release him . . . He is now scared of everything,” Mr al-Saraj, a cultural adviser to the British military, said. Since then, his family has been confined to their house in Basra. His wife’s parents bring them food. No one can leave the house for fear of being killed. His children are unable to go to school.

The situation is particularly harsh at the moment because of the hot summer. Their house has no running water or electricity and they are too scared to open the front door, Mr al-Saraj said. Some interpreters want to move to a new life in Britain. Gordon Brown has promised to review the plight of the 91 working for British forces and officials.

But Mr al-Saraj said that Iraq is his country and he is willing to stay and work despite the dangers. He wants the Government to help his family, though, to move to Britain or a third country such as Kuwait.

The United Nations announced yesterday that it would expand its mission in Iraq, despite opposition from the organisation’s staff body.

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