On Baghdad Patrol, a Vigilant Eye on Iraqi Police

More than a month after moving back into parts of central Baghdad, the 10th Mountain Division in recent weeks has put the mainly Shiite national police force in charge of all or part of two restive Sunni neighborhoods, Khadra and Ghazaliyah. Although there were predictions of disaster, Snow and some residents said the neighborhoods have become more peaceful. More neighborhoods are due to come under national police authority in coming weeks.

Iraqi and American authorities say they would like to see Iraqi police put in charge of much of central Baghdad within months and eventually pull U.S. forces largely outside the capital. To make that possible, each battalion of national police has an American adviser team, steering the Iraqis and keeping an eye on them, U.S. officials said.

The continued U.S. presence, more than anything, appears to reassure wary Sunnis about the Shiite-controlled police forces. In Dora last week, local leaders reached a pact that allows Iraqi security forces to raid places of worship only if U.S. troops are with them. The same deal was later extended to all of Baghdad, Sunni leaders said.

In Amiriyah, Snow's forces are pushing what he called a campaign of building trust by association.

The first weekend in May, about 400 of Snow's soldiers and more than 1,400 Iraqi soldiers, national and local police sealed off the Sunni neighborhood for what one 10th Mountain Division spokesman called a "cordon-and-survey" operation. Nominally about searching some suspected insurgent houses, Operation United Front was more about giving Amiriyah's residents an opportunity see Iraqi police working with U.S. forces, Snow said, and allowing U.S. forces to monitor how the largely Shiite police worked with the Sunni residents.

The Americans also used the operation to gauge the mood among residents and provide a chance for them to talk without fear of betrayal.

"We prefer to be detained by Americans instead of Iraqis," Ali Hassan, a white-haired homeowner, told Col. Bill Burleson in the driveway of Hassan's house after Iraqi police had wordlessly carried out a cursory two-minute search of the villa. "Second choice would be the Iraqi army. Last choice, Iraqi police."

"Why does the U.S. want to decrease the coalition force?" asked Hassan, who wore a white cotton robe with his eyeglasses tucked in the breast pocket. "They should increase it; there are people pounding on these sectarian issues."

American soldiers took on the role of poll-takers for the operation, surveying Sunni households. "In terms of security, it's mixed," Shields told Burleson later in front of another white-fronted, high-walled Sunni house.

"Two or three were positive," Shields said, studying the house-to-house polling results he had jotted down on forms strapped to his clipboard.

Shields put his clipboard down. "All the rest pretty much said they're really scared and they never go outside."

A Roadside Bombing

Shields's patrol the next night started the old-fashioned way: with the sudden snap of a roadside bomb.