For U.S. Troops: Tough Choices

On Monday night, he and three friends sat in the back of a pickup truck outside the neighborhood's Abu Hanifa mosque, Baghdad's most important Sunni religious center, while Iraqi soldiers, almost all Shiite, stood guard out front. "Having them there is more of an insult than having Americans," Muhammed said, raising his voice to a volume the soldiers could surely hear.

In Baghdad, a city of more than 5 million people, the Iraqi army is now in charge of more than 60 percent of the territory, according to the U.S. military. In sectors east of the Tigris River -- including thorny spots such as Sadr City, home base of the Mahdi Army, a Shiite militia -- one brigade of fewer than 3,000 U.S. soldiers is responsible for an area once patrolled by more than 10,000 U.S. troops.

U.S. military trainers say the Iraqi army's growth and improvement justify the transition. "They have gotten to the point where they can protect their citizens almost on their own," said Lt. Timothy Bullas, 25, of Pittsburgh, a Military Transition Team officer who works with Iraqi soldiers in northern Baghdad. "The vast majority of them are doing the right thing."

Still, in some potentially troublesome regions, the American military deployed additional forces.

"There was the sense from people at the Iraqi national level that they could use a few more good old U.S. troops," said Lt. Col. Brian Winski, 38, of Milwaukee, commander of the 1-61 Cavalry, whose Alpha Troop was transferred to Baghdad. "They were definitely in the lead, but it helped to have us here because, especially among the Sunnis, there's going to be some apprehension about the quality of the protection they will receive."

On Monday, as a three-day curfew imposed on the city drew to a close, members of the Alpha unit undertook a series of patrols in Adhamiyah and the Shiite enclaves that border it. Packed into four Humvees, the soldiers stopped frequently in crowded main streets and markets to talk to residents about the security situation.

In the Hai al-Banook, a mixed Sunni-Shiite neighborhood north of Adhamiyah, residents said that for days after the Samarra bombing, members of the Mahdi Army -- identifiable by their black clothing and masks -- blocked all the main roads, setting up checkpoints and spiriting away dozens of people. At least four people were killed, while two Sunni mosques were attacked by gunfire.

"If the Americans were here the first day, none of this would have happened. Maybe they wanted us to suffer," said Hadi Maliki, 45, an Oil Ministry employee seated on a stoop with two friends, watching the American riflemen walk past. "The men wearing black were in charge. No one else."

Others disagreed. "No matter what, it's better if it's our own army than an occupier," said Ahmed Alwan, 51, a local shop owner.

Some U.S. soldiers expressed frustration at the notion that American forces did not do enough. "The problem with their argument is, if we stepped in too much, we'd just get slammed for that, for doing everything," said Lt. Charlie Weaver, 24, of Portland, Maine. "Some of them don't realize that their own army has a lot of advantages over us. For one thing, we don't know all the neighborhoods and where the Sunnis are or the Shiites are."

The argument continued later outside Abu Hanifa mosque, a grand yellow structure lit at dusk by bright white lights. A day earlier, according to Sunni residents standing outside, a soldier on a nearby rooftop had shot an unarmed man in the hand as he approached the mosque talking on a cell phone.

"We feel safe when the Americans are here, otherwise, no, no, no," said Ussam Hamdi, 35, a laborer. "The Iraqi soldiers disrespect Sunnis. They kill you for nothing."

"Tell them they need to get behind the government, get behind the army," Mattingly implored of an interpreter. "That will keep them safe. It takes patience."