The Iraqi Red Crescent also reports that the country’s number of internally displaced fell for the first time in October, when 110,000 people returned to their homes.

However, this represents only 4 per cent of the over 2m people the organisation says fled their homes after the 2003 US-led invasion – evidence perhaps that many Iraqis still distrust their neighbours.

At least this distrust seems to be balanced by a shared horror at what the invasion has unleashed.

Both Sunni and Shia Muslims complain that their respective militias, initially welcomed because they deterred raids by gunmen from the other sect, quickly alienated people by imposing a harsh version of Islamic law.

Some Baghdad citizens say they have begun to defy the militias – women, for example, have shed the heavy black robes, or abayas, that they wore to avoid tangling with religious puritans, and now go out in jeans and a simple headscarf.

Militia members themselves apparently feel compelled to go on a charm offensive, portraying themselves as Iraqi nationalists rather than sectarian killers.

"Hassan", a 34-year-old member of the Shia Mahdi Army, says he is now trying to woo Sunni refugees to return home.