U.S. Battalion Moved Out of Baghdad

Soldiers of the 6-9 squadron, 3rd brigade, 1st Cavalry Division, approach suspect house just outside Muqdadiyah, Iraq, 90 kilometers (60 miles) north of Baghdad, Monday, March 12, 2007. (AP Photo/Dusan Vranic) (Dusan Vranic - AP)

BAQOUBA, Iraq -- Some 700 American soldiers rolled into Baqouba, shifted out of Baghdad to help carry the security campaign against sectarian violence to a nearby volatile province where Sunni Arab insurgents fled ahead of the crackdown in the capital.

On Tuesday, the fresh troops from the Army's 5th Battalion, 20th Infantry Regiment _ equipped with Stryker armored vehicles _ joined 3,500 U.S. and 20,000 Iraqi soldiers already in Diyala province, where insurgents have stepped up attacks as violence appears to be ebbing in Baghdad.

U.S. commanders said they had been planning to fan out from Baghdad into communities around the capital, such as Baqouba 35 miles to the northeast, to go after insurgents and clandestine workshops that rig car bombs used in attacks in the capital.

"This is not a haphazard fire drill to save the house from burning," Maj. Gen. Benjamin Mixon, commander of U.S. forces in northern Iraq, told The Associated Press. "We began looking at this several months ago in support of the Baghdad plan. We knew the surrounding provinces would be in play."

The 5th Battalion's move occurred as more than 20,000 U.S. troops are pouring into Baghdad seeking to end the bombings, kidnappings and execution-style killings that paralyzed the Iraqi government and threatened the nation with all-out sectarian war.

As U.S. troops pressed the crackdown in the capital, two roadside bombs killed two American soldiers and wounded four others Tuesday, the military reported.

With sectarian bloodshed ebbing in Baghdad, attacks on U.S. troops in Diyala have risen 70 percent since summer, according to U.S. figures.

Over the weekend, gunmen believed to be Sunni extremists raided a farming community outside the Diyala city of Muqdadiyah, setting fire to at least 15 houses, slaughtering livestock and driving off the residents, the U.S. military said Tuesday. It quoted residents as saying they tried to defend their homes but fled after they ran out of ammunition.

U.S. officials attribute the rise to Sunni insurgents who fled the capital to areas where they have support from al-Qaida and loyalists of Saddam Hussein's ousted regime.

The former al-Qaida in Iraq leader, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, was killed in a U.S. airstrike in Baqouba last June. Since then, the Islamic State of Iraq, another group with links to al-Qaida, has claimed Baqouba as capital of its self-proclaimed shadow government.

For the soldiers of the 5th Battalion, the journey to Baqouba was another stage in a series of missions away from their home at Fort Lewis, Washington state.

"We embark on another journey, boys!" Sgt. William Rose told his platoon as their Stryker combat vehicle rumbled out of Baghdad at sunrise, one of about 100 vehicles making the journey.