U.S. Bolstering Force in Deadly Diyala

"Where we have really ramped it up, they're going to find ways to go where we're not," said Brig. Gen. Joseph Anderson, the chief of staff for the number two commander in Iraq. Diyala is "a place that didn't have a lot of boots on the ground."

The province is a microcosm of nearly all the problems encountered today in Iraq. Under Saddam Hussein, Diyala was a stronghold of Baath Party officials and military and intelligence officers, a group that has morphed into several Sunni insurgent organizations, including some that have recently battled al-Qaeda in Iraq. About 25 main tribes and 100 sub-tribes are vying for influence, Shiite militias are encroaching north from Baghdad, and Kurdish settlers are pushing south into the province from northern Iraq.

Diyala's 250-mile border with Iran is believed to be a major byway for weapons and funding to Iraqi fighters. Some of the largest caches of what U.S. officials believe to be Iranian-made explosives have been uncovered in the dense palm groves of Diyala.

"Everything in Iraq is in Diyala," Sutherland said, adding later: "I think there is an abundance of people who are willing to die."

Sutherland traces the province's deterioration to specific changes last year. In April 2006, he said, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, then leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq, declared Diyala the capital of the Islamic caliphate he hoped to create, attracting followers from the violent Anbar province in western Iraq. Five months later, the spigot of food and fuel rations to the province ran dry. The provincial government temporarily ceased meeting in October.

Around the same time, the Shiite-led Iraqi security forces conducted mass sweeps -- in one instance arresting nearly 700 people, all but two of them Sunnis, Sutherland said -- and created an environment of deep mistrust of the government. As the U.S. military shifted resources away from the province and into Baghdad, Diyala's residents looked to the armed groups for protection.

"When you perceive the government is not helping you, then you turn to others that will," Sutherland said.

Since then, the nature of the violence has shifted. In April 2006, authorities reported 85 murders and corpses discovered; last month they counted 31. But attacks against U.S. and Iraqi troops have spiked over the same time period: Soldiers encountered 267 roadside bombs last April, but 438 last month. Direct fire attacks more than quadrupled, from 52 to 220.

Soldiers say the most heinous crimes are committed by al-Qaeda in Iraq fighters, who have attacked hospitals, used female suicide bombers, raped and tortured. They are said to inflict their hard-line religious beliefs in bizarre ways, such as prohibiting shopkeepers from putting cucumbers (considered male) and tomatoes (female) in the same bins.

"Baghdad was chill compared to this," said Pvt. Steven Smith, 20, a member of the Stryker battalion from Newport News, Va. "These guys just dress up in black suits and masks and say, 'Let's go kill everybody.' Every day out here, you don't know if you're going to make it back."

Hassan Alwan Said, the mayor of Buhriz, a violent village on the southern edge of Baqubah, said the persistent insurgent power in the city led many residents to fear that al-Qaeda in Iraq and the Americans were secretly colluding.

"They think, 'Why can't the coalition kick out al-Qaeda?' " he said.