“We’ll give it another week. If it doesn’t improve, we’ll have to leave,” says Trevor Holborn of the Amman-based Shaheen Group, one of hundreds of foreign workers who have suspended their operations and headed for shelter inside the walls of the Green Zone, the heavily fortified enclave where the occupation has its headquarters.

“We still have people in Iraq, but we may not able to work on a day to day basis,” said a contractor with a big US energy company. “Right now Iraq is not a safe place to work, and the safety of our staff comes first.”