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U.S. troops make progress in Iraq's Diyala province

Apr- 2-2008 » Filed Under: 4/2 SBCT

Nice long article re: 4/2 SBCT's recent operations in Diyala. Via FOB Tacoma and J Calhoun.

By Steve Lannen, McClatchy Newspapers

KHAN BANI SA’AD, Iraq --
GIs call it “KBS” or “the Khan,” and for most of the past two years, this agricultural town of 100,000 in Iraq's Diyala province was the site of fierce fighting between Sunni and Shiite Muslim extremists.

After a firefight Feb. 25 that killed at least nine insurgents, however, the Iraqi and U.S. militaries declared that al Qaida in Iraq had been pushed out of the area.

Diyala remains one of the most dangerous provinces in Iraq, but in the past month, thousands of people who'd fled the region, fearing fighting between the armed forces and insurgents, have returned to villages near the Diyala River. Local Sunni militias are forming in villages that Sunni insurgents occupied a few months ago, with the U.S. military paying recruits $10 a day.

In a small village north of KBS, the loudest sound one recent morning came from a rooster. As a platoon leader negotiated with a tribal leader, U.S. Army Staff Sgt. David Schlueter of Rome, N.Y., held his weapon in both hands and knelt in the yard. “As boring as it gets, it’s a good day,” Schlueter said.

“No contact, no Strykers getting blown up, no getting killed. It’s a good day,” agreed Staff Sgt. Darrell Sammons of Doe Run, Ga.

Iraq remains a dangerous place, as the outbreak of fighting between government forces and the Mahdi Army militia of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al Sadr in southern Iraq underscores. In some other places, however, the American military’s shift to counterinsurgency, the creation of U.S.-funded local militias and a cease-fire by Sadr's forces have helped reduce the violence.

In Khan Bani Sa’ad, instead of kicking in doors, the soldiers of Troop B, 2nd Squadron, 1st Cavalry Regiment, 4th Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division from Fort Lewis, Wash., are trying to manage the growing U.S.-backed militias and build relationships with sheiks and village leaders who not long ago were allied with the Sunni insurgency.

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