The US military, which routed Saddam Hussein's troops in three weeks in 2003, is five years later trying village by village to dislodge a far more resilient enemy - al Qaeda in Iraq. "None of us has pretended that the enemy is gone. None of us is naive," Major General Rick Lynch, who commands some 20,000 mostly US troops in central Iraq, told AFP on a recent tour of Adwaniyah town south of Baghdad.
"The enemy is still out there, but it is reduced and suppressed." Lynch is on his third tour of duty in Iraq with the army's Third Infantry Division. His soldiers were the first to enter Iraq in March 2003 and also the first to reach Baghdad.
They returned in 2005, and again in 2007 when the "surge" of US forces was announced by US President George W. Bush. How do things look after five years? "We're making tremendous progress," said Lynch. US commanders say al Qaeda in Iraq is on the run after being chased out of Baghdad by the US troop surge in mid-2007, and it has relocated to northern provinces, particularly Nineveh and its capital Mosul.
Lynch and his troops are now clearing Baghdad's southern belts, where they say there are still "pockets of resistance". There is progress, the general says, but it is fragile. Most significantly, attacks on his soldiers have dropped from 25 a day in April 2007 to nearly zero.
Adwaniyah, in an area just south of Baghdad known as the "Triangle of Death" and recently liberated from al Qaeda, exemplifies the way US war planners hope to defeat the fighters. US-funded local self-defence forces are in charge of town security, modest amounts of aid from Washington help the local economy and American troops are based nearby if needed.
A convoy of armoured Humvees drives Lynch and a coterie of US officers past rows of palm trees and down Adwaniyah's dusty, bumpy streets to visit the US-funded projects. Iraqi men, some too young to grow beards, mount roadblocks and secure the area alongside US soldiers. They are members of a US-funded group called Sons of Iraq, though Iraqis prefer the Arabic name of Sahwa, or Awakening.
Two Iraqi men in dapper suits meet the Americans. Hazim Shakir al-Dulaimi is chairman of the Adwaniyah town council, and Riad Khader al-Dulaimi is the council's military liaison, the man who gets the US money and is responsible for staffing the self-defence force and work projects.
Lynch and the officers inspect the schoolhouse and the town clinic. The structures seems sound, paint is still fresh and workers are adding the final touches. The school will educate some 350 pupils, and the clinic will serve the town's 6,000 residents. Lynch takes off his helmet, whips out a fat cigar and between puffs fires off a series of questions. Where will the water come from? And the electricity? Will the classrooms have air conditioning? Are there enough desks? His interpreter works overtime.
"This is progress," Lynch proclaims as he surveys the school. "This is good progress. Well done." He and the officers then head to a home being used as the Sahwa headquarters. As Lynch enters the house he sheds his seven kilogram (16-pound) body armour. "It make us happy to see you take off your vest," says Khader.
The groups sit in a living room of bare walls and well-worn furniture, where they are joined by Hamzah Hassan Rodhan, the town sheikh, who stands out in his brown dishdasha robe and black checkered headscarf. The Iraqis talk about their needs - a building to serve as Sahwa headquarters, a petrol station. Irrigation canals have to be cleaned and agricultural fields desalinised. People returning after the recent violence also want compensation so they can return to farming.
Colonel James Adams intervenes. "We just issued 25,000 dollars to the Adwaniyah farming co-operative, and another 25,000 dollars for poultry farms," he tells Lynch. "What we're doing is trying to connect you with the government," Lynch tells the Iraqis. "All of these problems need Iraqi solutions, not Coalition solutions."
He adds: "What I worry about is al Qaeda coming back. That's what keeps me up at night." When al Qaeda in Iraq fighters took over the town last year they kicked out all the Shiite families. But Adwaniyah belongs to the Dulaimis, a mixed Sunni-Shiite tribe, and the locals were angry. With help from US soldiers they retook the town in November, clearing it house by house.
Sheikh Rodhan, whose four sons are Sahwa members, invited the Shiite families back and gave them weapons. "Now there is no difference between Shiites and Sunnis," Riad said. "Hand in hand with the coalition we'll free Adwaniyah from al Qaeda," said Shakir. "That's why we're here," said Lynch. "So this kind of thing won't happen again. And we'll stay as long as it takes. Some day, I'll come back here with my family." "Inshallah, inshallah," the three Iraqis said in unison. "God willing."