Basra rises from the ruins of Saddam Hussein's reign In a city in the grips of ruthless extremists, any behaviour that smacked of decadence was forced underground. As Basra finally undergoes regeneration, old suspicions have given way to optimism. New bridges are being built across the river. Five star hotels have opened. The mullahs who run the city speak enthusiastically of the benefits "petrodollars" will deliver. Instead of one Corniche we will have many. We will have splendid palaces of spas and five star hotels. We are already building bridges across the river, a sports city and a resort island," said Sheikh Ahmed al-Sulaiti, the deputy speaker of the provincial parliament. With oil, ports and railways, Basra can be the economic capital of Iraq. Zuhair al-Muthra is one of the unexpected beneficiaries of Basra's rebirth. A former interpreter for the British Army, he gained a visa to live in Britain in 2009 after suffering death threats. After six months in Manchester, he returned to his wife and son having been unable to find a job. "The only bit about Manchester I enjoyed was that I was able to watch every United game on the television," he said. Leaving Britain meant returning to a city where he had been a hunted man. We would leave the base and see the cars following behind us. One time I drove around for five hours not wanting to go home because I knew they were after me. But two years after his return, his circumstances are solid and respectable. He earns £3,000 a month with an oil company and he is planning to send his son to Basra's leading fee-paying college, which has a tradition of producing cabinet ministers and top executives. My son wants to be a pilot. For my family that is a big dream because my elder brother was a pilot who was shot down and there is not a day in her life my mother does not think about him. It would make her happy to see her grandson taking up his dream. Basra produces more than four fifths of the 2.5 million barrels a day of crude oil from Iraq. The city has poor relations with the Baghdad government but it has secured a deal to take a dollar from every barrel for its reconstruction. Security improvements that allowed the British garrison to complete its withdrawal two years ago have been sustained and sectarian tensions abated. "We can live together now because we know that the security forces will deal with a problem on the basis of fault not religion," said Abdulkarim al Khazari, the leader of the Sunni Muslim minority in the Shia city. An influx of foreigners is already under way but it is predominantly engineers and technicians who head straight for the oilfields from the airport. Royal Dutch Shell and BP are among the biggest investors and each employs hundreds of workers. One foreign executive based in the city centre worries the boom could benefit a tiny elite. "The main problem we face today is that Basra has many plans but nothing for the huge numbers unemployed in their twenties," he said. How do they get access to the work that we bring when they have no skills? Karim al-Tamimi, the leader of the city's largest political faction, said the pressure from the streets for jobs, housing and electricity after decades of deprivation was opening it to the world. "The frustration is still for local Basra people that they are not getting the fruits of their oil wealth," he said. Lots of people have bad memories of the British occupation but that time is gone.