Abu Ahmad cleans his eyes from the dust left by cars zigzagging across the metallic jungle of army carcasses dumped in the desert wasteland along the main highway at the capital's southern entrance.

"They are dumped by Iraqi contractors who made deals with the Americans to collect Iraqi army vehicles or equipment left on roadsides across Baghdad" since the April 9 fall of Saddam's regime to the US-led forces, he said.

Abu Ahmad, unshaven and sleepy-eyed, is hard at work scavenging in this improvised junkyard. His nails are black from the grease, he wears a blue overall, is leaning over the engine of a tank and is using a hammer to break the cover of some metallic part.

"I am a taxi driver, but I am here because people don't have money to pay for taxis and, above all, there is a fuel crisis," he said.

And he is just one of the dozens of Iraqis who rush every morning to remove still-intact parts of the dumped vehicles or pull out precious materials to sell them for recycling.

"Sometimes we find some parts on vehicles that we sell to mechanics as spare parts, but we mostly take out everything made out of aluminum and copper and then we take them to companies that recycle them," he said.

"My friends and I take out about 50 kilograms of materials per day. We each earn about seven dollars a day which is better than the 3.5 dollars I used to earn as a taxi driver," he said.

Besides the blinding dust, the blazing sun and the hazards of using sharp tools, the men also face the hazards of unexploded ordnance.

"The other day, a rocket exploded in a tank just across from here, but thank God nobody was hurt," said Shaker Abu Ahmad, also a former taxi driver.

"We know that what we are doing is dangerous, but at this point, missiles are less dangerous than hunger," added the man. "I reject accusations that we are thieves: I work the entire day under a burning sun to feed my nine children."

To give directions to first-time comers, the man shouts: "At the first rocket-launcher, turn right then continue to drive until you see a Russian tank. Take a left and stop when you see an Austrian anti-aircraft gun."

At a main "roundabout," there is also a fake missile made of fiberglass that Saddam's army once meant to use as a decoy. Now, Saddam's army -- once said to be among the world's mightiest -- is no more.

Besides the major devastation suffered during the US-led war, the Iraqi army was dealt a fatal blow when the US overseer in Iraq, Paul Bremer, abolished the country's military along with Saddam's network of security services on May 23.

"Our army was the keeper of our dignity. We all feel humiliated because Saddam ordered the army to surrender," said Mohamad Hassan, referring to Baghdad's sudden fall to US forces.

Hassan, a former worker at the military industrialisation ministry, jumps on a big tank and, in a theatrical gesture, invites all to see that "this tank is all clean, it did not participate in the war."

"Every time I take out a part of one of the tanks, I feel angry because I am participating in the destruction of the army," he said, before adding: "I also feel ashamed: Is this what we want our children to see?"

Among the army of men keeping up a metallic rhythm with their hammers, six-year-old Allawi flashes a broad smile as he swings with stretched arms from the long barrel of a tank.

"If nobody's using it now, can I take this tank home?" the child shouts to his worried father.

WAR.WIRE