Iraq tribal units help security, but strains show
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TARMIYA, Iraq  - Six months ago, the Iraqi town of Tarmiya near Baghdad was a lawless al Qaeda lair, a springboard for launching attacks on the capital.
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SAQLAWIYA, Iraq -- The police outpost here is supposed to house 90 armed members of Iraq's National Guard. Their job is to keep watch over a stretch of six-lane highway, deterring insurgents from laying roadside bombs and trying to blow up a bridge over the nearby Tharthar Canal.
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A look at the difficulties some Iraqis can face in trying to escpape their violent homeland.
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A 'breakdown in discipline' among reservists in Iraq raises troubling questions
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BAGHDAD, Oct. 28 -- Eleven tribal leaders who had banded with U.S. troops to fight the Sunni insurgent group al-Qaeda in Iraq were kidnapped Sunday morning, the latest in a string of such attacks, fellow tribesmen said.
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AMMAN, Jordan -- As Iraq's bloodshed worsens, the tide of refugees fleeing the country is straining the region's resources and inflaming fears that Iraq's sectarian conflict might spread to neighboring countries.
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A diary and another document seized during U.S. raids show some al-Qaida in Iraq leaders fear the terror group is crumbling, with many fighters defecting to American-backed neighborhood groups, the U.S. military said Sunday.
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American commanders in southern Iraq say Shiite sheiks are showing interest in joining forces with the U.S. military against extremists, in much the same way that Sunni clansmen in the western part of the country have worked with American forces against al-Qaida.
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Militants in the country's tribal belt seem to be maneuvering for time and space, analysts say.
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The ability of Iraqi insurgents to  snatch foreigners from their guarded Baghdad offices  highlighted the country's poor security as U.S. officials  argued whether elections could be held in towns under rebel  control.
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FURAT, Iraq -- With a biker's bandan a tied under his helmet, the special forces team sergeant gunned a Humvee down a desert road in Iraq's volatile Anbar Province. Skirting the restive town of Hit, the team of a dozen soldiers crossed the Euphrates River into an oasis of relative calm: the rural heartland of the powerful Albu Nimr tribe.
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A lack of Iraqi government organization and the city's ethnic mix complicates preparations for suppressing the insurgency
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Efforts are underway to weed out up to  one-quarter of Iraq's national police who are thought to be sympathetic to militias involved in sectarian violence, a key U.S. general said.
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U.S. forces will turn over security to Iraqi authorities in the southern Shiite province of Karbala on Monday, the American commander for the area said, despite fighting between rival militia factions that has killed dozens.
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Private security contractors do indispensable work in Iraq, but the muscle-bound showiness associated with these hired guns, and lack of control over them, is drawing criticism.
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Iraqi forces, whose performance is crucial to securing January elections, are riddled with problems, say local U.S. officials.
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While attacks on U.S. soldiers remain fairly random and opportunistic, insurgent fighters are targeting places that Iraqis rely on for assistance, frustrating politicians, police and U.S. Army officers.