He discovers evidence of atrocities perpetrated by the old regime and reports on how some Kurds are taking revenge on their former oppressors as ethnic rivalries threaten to make Iraq ungovernable.



Iraq's Kurds suffered more than any other group at the hands of Saddam Hussein. In one year alone, 120,000 men, women and children were murdered and another 100,000 'ethnically cleansed' as they lost their homes and farms to Saddam's "Arabization" campaign of replacing Kurds with Arabs from the south of Iraq.



But despite living in refugee camps for a decade and a half, the Kurds have always clung to their dream of returning to Kirkuk. They claim the city as their capital. They want its oil fields to finance an independent state.



When Turkey blocked American troops from opening a northern front in Iraq, the Americans were left with little choice - they were forced to use the Peshmerga as their front-line infantry to break the Baathist grip north of Baghdad.



Dispatches reporter Sam Kiley spent two months with the Kurds as they prepared for battle and then swept into Kirkuk to take control of the city's oil fields. He comes across extraordinary scenes in which American Special Forces try to keep the lid on Kirkuk by settling land disputes on the spot, amid shocking scenes of ethnic bloodletting.



But with blood and revenge in the air, how long can the Americans keep Iraq together?



Dispatches - The War We Never Saw: Blood and Revenge broadcasts on Channel 4 June 1, 8pm