Iraqi ambush of Americans made a mockery of 'Mission Accomplished'

FILE PHOTO: FILE PHOTO: An Iraqi man looks at a Mitsubishi Pajero on fire after an attack in the restive town of Falluja, Iraq March 31, 2004. REUTERS/Salman Amer/File Photo

DUBAI (Reuters) - A year after President George W. Bush launched the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, four U.S. civilian security contractors in SUVs took an ill-fated turn into the Iraqi city of Falluja.

Their assignment was to protect a convoy of catering trucks. It would be their last, and what happened to them would prove a defining moment in a conflict that -- far from being "Mission Accomplished" as Bush had declared less than a year earlier -- had only just begun.