The increase in attacks against occupying forces comes despite - or possibly because of - a massive US operation aimed at eliminating what central command describes as "Ba'ath party loyalists, paramilitary groups and other subversive elements".
Speaking after sentence was passed, Peter Clarke, the head of the Metropolitan police's counter terrorist command, described Barot as "a full-time terrorist".
Inspector Allen Davis, of the Met police's sexual offences and child abuse command, described it as a "structured, intelligence-led operation" that allowed police to raise awareness, rather than being aimed specifically at identifying those who might have been cut.
An officer in one of the 38th's infantry battalions, who met Cubitt in early June, shortly after he took command, described him as "a very large and fierce-looking major-general, with two rows of ribbons, and a gleam in his eye", who proceeded to interrogate a subaltern about the exact type and position of his unit's trench latrines, apparently something of a pet topic.
The American military command described the push as the largest "air assault" since the invasion in 2003.
The command described the strike as "a self-defense measure in response to Iraqi hostile threats and acts".
An army major whose regiment is positioned near the Anbar operations command described the situation as critical and said the militants had taken control of the only major supply route into the city.
The attack in Bayji on Monday also wounded seven American soldiers, though a spokesman for the American military command described the injuries as "minor". The spokesman said two car bombs struck a joint American-Iraqi security station in Bayji, followed by small-arms fire.
In a rare public rebuke of the American military, the Iraqi armed forces general command described the American soldiers' actions as crimes "committed in cold blood".
His NWMP command was described as a "model to the Force", while his police career had been described to have "won the confidence and respect of the public to an exceptional degree".
