Iraqis returning to Diyala province

McClatchey-Tribune/Houston Chronicle:

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 thousands of people who had fled the region, fearing fighting between the armed forces and insurgents, returned last month 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 Khan Bani Sa'ad, the loudest sound one recent morning was a rooster's cackles. As his 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.

...

Overall, though, the American military's shift to counterinsurgency, the creation of U.S.-funded local Sunni militias and a tenuous cease-fire declared by al-Sadr's forces have helped reduce the violence around KBS.

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 village leaders who not long ago were allied with the Sunni insurgency.

...

Diyala is where the insurgents went when chased from Baghdad early in the surge. They have now been chased from there and the remnants are trying to hold on around Mosul now. The return of the Iraqis speaks for the success of the counterinsurgency operations as well as the conversion of the locals to a government supported militia. Those who still want to lose in Iraq will have to find other excuses now.

A group calling itself the US Institute of Peace is releasing a study today complaining about the lack of political progress in Iraq in hopes of undercutting Gen. Petraeus' report to Congress this week. Those responsible for the report show no comprehension of counterinsurgency warfare or the progress actually made by the Iraqis on the political front particularly at the grass roots level.