Iraq:A partnership between Iraqi community leaders and the US army is beginning to pay dividends, writes Karen McCarthyin Baquba.
An historic peace accord was signed between 25 Sunni and Shia tribal leaders this week after they reclaimed the city al-Qaeda once declared its headquarters in Iraq.
The same day the first ever meeting of community leaders, concerned locals and the Iraqi and US military took place to establish a political forum in the Sunni-dominated province.
Their joint initiative to take charge of their security and rebuild the city may be one of the few pieces of good news coming out of Iraq.
When Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the al-Qaeda leader in Iraq, proclaimed Baquba their centre of operations last year, they found it a fertile recruiting ground for Sunni males plagued by 70 per cent unemployment and lacking basic services such as fuel and the food aid from Baghdad on which they had depended since Saddam Hussein's rule.
But by March this year, al-Qaeda began to alienate the local population with their strict interpretation of Sharia law and the fear and intimidation tactics that locals say included the binding and execution of groups of non-compliant males.
The first effort of Baquba's citizens to take back control of their city happened in March this year. In the Buhriz district, a group calling themselves concerned local nationals fought al-Qaeda for eight days until they ran out of ammunition and turned to the Iraqi and US armies for help.
Capt Ben Richards, the US commander in the area, said they arrived to find locals pointing out al-Qaeda members, improvised explosive devices (IEDs) and even pulling explosives out of the ground.
"Children were cutting the command wires in IEDs that were buried around their school," he said.
The rest of the city remained an impassable fortress of al-Qaeda fighters, booby-trapped houses and deeply buried IEDs. A 10-day US combat operation called Arrowhead Ripper routed the terrorists with the help of former al-Qaeda members calling themselves the Baquba Guardians. With security significantly improved, Operation Arrowhead Ripper has now moved into a reconstruction phase, working closely with local leaders to create functioning political and economic systems.
Lieut Col Fred Johnson, who heads up the effort to restore the political authority and basic services such as food aid, fuel, clinics and schools, worked tirelessly to facilitate this week's meeting of local leaders or muqtars.
But the administration of aid and services is mired in miscommunication, ineffective administration, sectarian discrimination and layers of bureaucracy established by a welfare-type state under Saddam Hussein.
Last month, the newly elected mayor, Abdullah Ahmad, a small man with a quick smile and a genuine interest in taking care of people, went to the food warehouse just outside the Shia-dominated Sadr City. The manager refused to release the food aid Baquba has been receiving for years.
Col Johnson took six Stryker vehicles, 16 flatbed trucks and aerial support to Sadr City to liberate the food and prove it wasn't going to an al-Qaeda stronghold. After much haggling, excuses, extortion and what Gen Mick Bednarek, deputy commanding officer for US forces in Northern Iraq, called "sheer force of will", they succeeded.
Last Saturday, as Col Johnson was doing his weekly tour of the neighbourhoods to talk to locals, update them on developments and listen to what they need, he found a large supply of kerosene had failed to arrive at the local warehouse. A few hours, later 85 trucks of food, cooking oil and powdered milk for babies showed up unannounced.
Despite bad communication and organisational chaos, political wheels are slowly grinding into motion. For now there is enough visible progress to encourage Shia and Sunni sheikhs to publicly swear on the Koran that they will protect their neighbourhood from al-Qaeda and be a constructive part of Iraq's future.
There is enough potential for the muqtars to gather around a table, articulate needs and suggest solutions to security, food, power and unemployment problems.
The first such meeting needed coaxing from Col Johnson but he is optimistic that Mr Ahmad will assume authority to continue the work after US military might is gone. "As long as the mind is open, there's a solution in Baquba," he says.
Karen McCarthy is embedded with US forces in Baquba.