For U.S. Unit in Baghdad, An Alliance of Last Resort
By Joshua Partlow
Washington Post Foreign Service
Saturday, June 9, 2007; Page A01BAGHDAD, June 8 -- "The worst month of Lt. Col. Dale Kuehl's deployment in western Baghdad was finally drawing to a close. The insurgent group al-Qaeda in Iraq had unleashed bombings that killed 14 of his soldiers in May, a shocking escalation of violence for a battalion that had lost three soldiers in the previous six months while patrolling the Sunni enclave of Amiriyah. On top of that, the 41-year-old battalion commander was doubled up with a stomach flu when, late on May 29, he received a cellphone call that would change everything.
"We're going after al-Qaeda," a leading local imam said, Kuehl recalled. "What we want you to do is stay out of the way."
"Sheik, I can't do that. I can't just leave Amiriyah and let you go at it."
"Well, we're going to go."
........SNIP"
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/08/AR2007060802879.html?hpid=topnews