Ten years after the US-led invasion of Iraq, former Dutch Ambassador to that country Robbert Gabrielse tells Patrick Cooke about life during some of the worst years of sectarian strife.

“The main danger for us was not attacks from the streets but incoming rockets, mortars and bullets. Mostly they would be trying to hit the American Embassy or the British Embassy nearby, but they could land anywhere. This happened every day, especially in 2007,” he says.

But life was far more difficult for ordinary Iraqis.

He said that although there was a sense of safety in the Green Zone, with relatively few ordinary Iraqis living or working there “it lacked the normality of a city.”

See parts of the interview above.

Full text in The Sunday Times.