Iraqi Suburb Is More Secure, but Hemmed In

On Thursday, during a short, highly choreographed gathering at Tarmiya's town center arranged by the U.S. military, residents of the predominantly Sunni Arab town expressed gratitude to U.S. troops for driving out insurgents and beginning rebuilding projects that included water services, a hospital renovation, road construction and refurbishment of a youth center.
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Tarmiya is an example of a cordon strategy used in towns in Al Anbar province, including Tall Afar and Fallouja, in which U.S. troops clear areas of guerrillas, form a perimeter and develop Iraqi security forces in the hope that they will be strong enough to hold off the insurgency once American soldiers leave.

The military presented Tarmiya, a verdant, palm-shaded village along the Tigris River, as a good news story: a Sunni Arab community that welcomes American troops and dislikes the Sunni Arab-driven insurgency.

But townspeople also said that although active insurgents are no longer in their midst, they are unable to live normal lives because their freedom of movement is limited. Shiite militias have in effect cut them off from the capital.
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And U.S. military officials said they were not allowing journalists to travel with military units in Ramadi, an insurgent hot spot that has become one of the most deadly battlegrounds in Iraq, for an indefinite period. Military officials would not explain why they were stopping the practice.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-iraq26may26,0,6396389.story?coll=la-home-world