Better Off Without Saddam

Basra turned into a battleground between warring Shiite factions vying for control of the country's oil-rich south after the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003. Basra's streets teemed with Shiite militias armed with weapons, mostly from Iran, according to the Iraqi forces and the U.S. military

For four years after the invasion, Basra was under the control of British forces, but they were unable to contain the violence and withdrew in September last year.

Women bore the brunt of the militias' extremist ideologies. The militants spray-painted threats on walls across Basra, warning women to wear headscarves and not to wear make-up. Women were sometimes executed for the vague charge of doing something "un-Islamic."

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Inside her rundown home, Sabriya's watery eyes peer out from under her robe. She points to the first photo of one of her sons on the wall.

"This one was killed because he was drinking," she says.

She draws her finger across her neck and gestures at the next photo.

"This one was slaughtered for his car."

"This one the same," she adds, looking at the third.

Her three sons, her daughter and her sister were all killed by the hard-line militia. Her sister was slaughtered because she was a single woman living alone, Sabriya says.

"They came in at night and put a pillow on her face and shot her in the head," she says.

  CNN