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Length: 3:12
WOLF BLITZER: In Iraq,
meanwhile, as terrorists move so do U.S. and Iraqi
forces. Right now troops are on the move in one
dangerous area trying to take their fight right where
some of Iraq's most feared and hated insurgents
operate.
Joining us now our correspondent in Baghdad, Michael
Ware. Michael, you've just been embedded with U.S.
military forces, what, for nine days. Give us your
impressions. What's going on?
MICHAEL WARE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, where I
went is to the province called Diyala. Now this is
just north of the capital, Baghdad. There I saw the
face of the new front line against al Qaeda, or
indeed it's the old front line made new again.
What we've witness happen over the past six to nine
months is a migration of the al Qaeda fight, its
operational focus, from al Anbar province to the west
of the country where it's coming under pressure as
U.S. forces have unleashed the Baathist insurgents,
the nationalists who don't share the al Qaeda agenda
and the tribes against al Qaeda. Then we've seen in
the last eight or nine weeks the surge, the influx of
American troops targeting the capital. That's caused
a further displacement of al Qaeda to Diyala
province, and so now what we're witnessing is America
confronting them there to the north of the capital.
It's the new cutting edge against al Qaeda.
BLITZER: So how are they doing? Is there progress
being made in Diyala?
WARE: There is in Diyala province, Wolf, an
extraordinarily aggressive fight currently underway.
We have a brigade of American troops, approximately
5,000 men and women, there in that province. Now they
have only been there five months, but already they
have lost 44 people. Now, previous brigades there
have lost 19 or 20-odd. That's a sign of what is
going on.
That's how much this new brigade is taking the fight
to al Qaeda. They are looking for al Qaeda safe
havens. They are looking for areas where U.S. forces
have not had a permanent presence before and they are
going in there and they are staying there. This is
yet another stage in the evolution that we are
currently observing in U.S. strategy, that we first
saw emerge in the northern town of Tal'Afar.
We then saw reapplied in the western city of Ramadi.
Now we're seeing it again through Baghdad and
ultimately in Diyala where American troops just don't
go in and fight and clear and withdraw, but they
leave a small presence behind, and this is where it's
happening right on the edge in Diyala province.
BLITZER: And we've been showing our viewers, Michael,
some of the extraordinary video that you and your
team shot during these nine days of this embed in the
Diyala province. Michael Ware, our reporter joining
us. Thanks, Michael.
WARE: Thank you, Wolf.