units have alternately tried large-scale raids, search-and-seizure operations, handouts of soccer balls, monetary compensation for killings and, most recently, major crackdowns. Troops have ringed Auja, Hussein's native village, with barbed wire and are forcing all males over the age of 15 to obtain identity cards. In Baghdad, American forces have tried to carry out joint patrols with police but have largely abandoned them because of attacks.
U.S. Grip Loosens in the Sunni Triangle (washingtonpost.com): "American troops patrol less frequently, townspeople openly threaten Iraqi security personnel who cooperate with U.S. forces, and the night belongs to the guerrillas.



That is the reality in this little town 60 miles north of Baghdad, U.S. and Iraqi officials say, and it reflects a shifting balance of power in U.S.-occupied central Iraq."