Word: diyala
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...insurgents took control of the Diyala River Valley outside Baqubah almost as soon as the Americans deployed elsewhere in Iraq. That was back in November 2006. The streets of Diyala province then became deadlier than ever, as the string of placid farming hamlets nestled among dense palm groves shuddered with violence. The province and its capital, Baqubah, which lies 30 miles north of Baghdad, unraveled. The once mixed villages have become sectarian enclaves; banks, stores and markets have shut down for fear of murder and bloodshed. But at the end of February, the U.S. began patrolling the valley again...
...Bush Administration's buildup of U.S. forces in Baghdad has yielded some tentatively encouraging results: sectarian violence in the capital has decreased in the past month, and some displaced residents have started to return home. But in places like Diyala, the surge is having the opposite effect. The increased U.S. presence in Baghdad has pushed many Sunni and Shi'ite fighters out of the city into areas where they have found roles in ongoing battles, launched new assaults on U.S. and Iraqi troops and infected the civilian population with sectarian hate. Colonel David Sutherland, commander of U.S. forces in Diyala...
...wasn't always this way. When U.S. Captain Mike Few was stationed outside Baqubah in November, tensions between Shi'ites, who make up 30% of the population of Diyala, and Sunnis were being held in check by tribal leaders. "It was manageable in the beginning," says Few. "The sheiks were working it out." But as the U.S. began shifting military resources to Baghdad, sectarian tensions erupted. Late last year the largely Shi'ite government of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki choked off supplies of food and fuel to the predominantly Sunni province. Tribal violence, which has long been...
...hard to find any Iraqis--Sunni or Shi'ite--who openly embrace the presence of U.S. troops four years after the invasion. But the situation in Diyala shows why the vast majority--as many as 70%, according to a poll released on March 20--don't want them to leave. With the assault on Qubah, U.S. forces have killed roughly 70 suspected insurgents since re-entering the river valley on Feb. 27. They estimate that perhaps 100 more remain in the village of Zaganiyah, where some stragglers from Qubah may have fled and which U.S. commanders say they must eventually...
...gunmen in a house a short distance away, the soldiers came across a white burlap sack hung on a door; it contained a human head. There was no sign of the victim's body, which may very well have joined other decapitated corpses periodically seen floating down the Diyala River...