Iraqi forces move into Diyala fight

LA Times/Houston Chronicle:

Singing and cheering, Iraqi soldiers rolled through snow and sleet in open trucks Friday to set up a base on the outskirts of the reputed nerve center of Sunni militants who had forced the northern Diyala River Valley into their self-styled Islamic caliphate.

The two companies from the 1st Iraqi Army Division that arrived from Anbar province were the first Iraqi forces to penetrate the former militant stronghold in more than a year.

U.S. commanders hope the Iraqis can take over security responsibility there quickly to free up their forces, which launched a nationwide push this week against the Sunni militant group al-Qaida in Iraq.

U.S. intelligence indicated about 200 insurgents previously were holed up in the Diyala valley, some of them displaced by U.S. operations in Baghdad and the provincial capital, Baqouba. As U.S. soldiers went from village to village, residents identified Hembis as the base from which the militants enforced their rigid brand of Islam on surrounding villages.

But by the time the soldiers of Company I, 3rd Squadron, 2nd Stryker Combat Team took control Wednesday, most of the fighters had melted away.

Local leaders told the American soldiers that the insurgents began relocating after a number of them were killed in a U.S. air assault last month.

U.S. soldiers found a car bomb-making factory around the corner from the mosque and three booby-trapped houses surrounding a nearby courtyard. The sites were destroyed with controlled explosions that echoed across the town.

U.S. forces believe some insurgents remain hidden among the population. Two freshly planted bombs were found Friday along one of the major roads through the valley, which U.S. forces had cleared.

Backed by U.S. infantry, the Iraqi soldiers moved into an abandoned school on the outskirts of Hembis, a muddy town inhabited by orange, pomegranate and date-palm farmers.

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The movement of the Iraqi troops was telling for two reasons. Besides the obvious effect of Iraqi's moving to the tip of the spear in the last bastion of al Qaeda, the fact that they came from Anbar tells a lot about how far we have come in that province. The fact that the enemy melted away like the falling snow is also an indication of their inability to defend their sanctuaries. It is also pretty clear that the Iraqi troop morale is pretty high.