Sitting in a Baghdad park last week, Amal Nadhim recalled the day she saw a giant American military truck plough down a busy street, crushing cars that stood in its way. The Iraqi driver of one of the cars was “crazy with anger” after his vehicle was destroyed, but he dared not challenge the US soldiers.

“Images like these will remain in our minds for ever,” said Amal, a 33-year-old childminder who, like many Iraqis, does not know whether to cheer or dread the planned withdrawal of US forces from Iraqi cities by Tuesday’s deadline.

It is the first big step in a phased draw-down of American troops that is due to be completed by December 2011.

After a spell of comparative calm, a wave of bombings has raised questions about the readiness of Iraqi forces to take over security duties from US combat troops.

It is also provoking contradictory emotions as Iraqis, desperate for the Americans to leave, begin to fear that whatever follows may be worse.

“I am really concerned for these kids,” Amal said as she watched over a group of children in the Zaiuna district in eastern Baghdad.

“The violence is increasing as the Americans withdraw and, whatever the reasons behind it, we will be its victims.”

Several prominent Iraqi insurgents warned that the spate of bombings that killed more than 200 people last week was merely a prelude to fresh attacks aimed at US military and Iraqi government targets.

“The resistance will not subside,” warned Sheikh Harith al-Dhari of the Association of Muslim Scholars in Iraq. He said: “I expect the insurgency to increase in both strength and ferocity, at least until the total withdrawal of the \ occupiers. Logic dictates that as long as there is fire under the pot, then the pot will continue to boil.”

US officials remain outwardly confident the home-grown forces they have been training over the past six years will be up to the task of containing the violence. Nouri al-Maliki, Iraq’s prime minister, has already declared the impending US withdrawal a “great victory” for his country.

The Iraqi government is pressing on with its first sale of oilfield development rights tomorrow, and Tuesday has been declared a public holiday to celebrate the troops’ withdrawal.

Yet officials on both sides acknowledge the continuing danger of factional rivalries that could undermine the government’s fragile authority.

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