The war in Iraq

Five years after the United States and its allies launched the invasion of Iraq against the wishes of a majority of the United Nations members, no one knows how many Iraqis have died.

The world knows that more than 2 million have fled the country. Another 1.5 million have sought safety elsewhere in Iraq. It knows that the combined horror of car bombs, suicide attacks, sectarian killing and disproportionate US counter-insurgency tactics and air strikes have produced the worst humanitarian catastrophe in today's world.

Five years on, the war has nearly vanished from the media, be it newspapers and TV screens.