Word: diyala
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American troops operating in the Samarra area are combing the countryside day by day in a counter-move against an expected influx of insurgent fighters, a shift expected in the wake of U.S. gains made against guerrilla forces in the neighboring provinces of Anbar and Diyala. U.S commanders say up to 80% of the insurgent leaders thought to be in Baqubah, the capital of Diyala province, fled ahead of the ongoing U.S. offensive there. And already signs are emerging that some of the insurgent leaders who've escaped the massive U.S. assault in Diyala have come here...
...Luong says insurgents move from village to village, rarely staying anywhere long for fear of being found by U.S. forces. Luong's troops are now staging two and three air assaults per week in an effort to keep insurgents from settling in the Samarra area as they did in Diyala in the months before the ongoing U.S. drive to retake that region...
...news from the battle was good. That was no surprise: in a guerrilla war like Iraq, every engagement that can be described as a "battle" is inevitably won by the superior force, which is part of the frustration. Baquba, the capital of Diyala province just northeast of Baghdad, had been infiltrated by al-Qaeda over the past year-between 400 and 500 al-Qaeda fighters were estimated to be in the city when the U.S. forces attacked on Monday, and now those who remain are surrounded, in a slowly tightening cordon. These sorts of operations have taken place multiple times...
...Iraqi Army and local police have been pretty unreliable in Diyala-riddled with Shi'ite militia elements, incompetence and corruption. "They replaced the commander of the 5th Iraqi Army," Odierno told me. "He had a pretty clear Shi'ite agenda. The new guy says the right things, but we just don't know yet what he's going to be like...
...Will Petraeus' plan work? The ferocity of his fighting force - and of his own resolve - is not in doubt. Nor is there any question that al-Qaeda is at large in Diyala. The province, northeast of Baghdad, has become the main hideout of jihadi fighters driven out from the Iraqi capital and from Anbar province. U.S. forces there have had almost daily encounters with al-Qaeda amid the orange groves that line the Euphrates valley south of Baqouba...