The capture of Falih came amid an intensification of operations against
Al Qaida by Iraqi and U.S. forces. On Nov. 12, nine Al Qaida cell commanders
were arrested in an underground torture chamber in Diyala. In another
operation in the province, five suspected Al Qaida operatives were killed.
Diyala has been a leading Al Qaida stronghold in Iraq. Officials
said the Al Qaida network sent scores of suicide bombers from Diyala for
attacks in Baghdad. On Nov. 12, at least 23 people were killed in a series
of
suicide bombings in the Iraqi capital.
Over the last six months, Iraqi forces, bolstered by the Sunni-dominated
Sahwa auxiliary police, have driven Al Qaida squads out of villages in
Diyala. In some villages, the Baghdad government has restored order and
established municipal councils to provide services.
"Sahwa walks hand and hand with the Americans and that's extremely bad
for us," a Sunni insurgent in Faluja told the Brussels-based International
Crisis Group. "There is no doubt we have been weakened. The surge was never
the problem. The Americans are not that dangerous. They have the technology,
but they don't know the topography. But we've been betrayed by our own
brethren."
Most of the anti-Al Qaida operations have been conducted by Iraqi
military and security forces. Officials said U.S. military units have been
quietly withdrawing from Iraqi cities, particularly in the Anbar province,
and redeployed in isolated bases.
"There's been a big effort to move all the Marine forces out of the
cities," Brig. Gen. Martin Post, deputy commander of U.S. forces in western
Iraq, said. "And so as you go throughout, from Faluja all the way up the
Euphrates River Valley, up to Al Qaim — where we used to have Marines
actually living in the cities — we've pulled them all out."
