The security dynamics in Diyala Province demonstrate the continued need for Coalition forces to clear, control, retain, and rebuild the provinces to defend against al Qaeda in Iraq (AQI). U.S. and Iraqi forces launched their counter- offensive against al Qaeda in Iraq in June of 2007, driving the organization from its safe havens around Baghdad. Working together they cleared Baqubah, once a major AQI stronghold, in June and July of 2007. Consequently, AQI leaders and fighters fled north up the Tigris River Valley and northeast up the Diyala River Valley to cities and villages that they had previously used as bases for their terror campaign.

By December 2007, AQI held terrain and had freedom of movement in the remote Hamrin Ridge where the organization attempted to re-infiltrate Diyala. Friendly forces had retained control of Baqubah throughout the second half of 2007, forcing AQI to focus its violence on Muqdadiyah, the Diyala province’s second city, and on the rural, tribal areas west of the Diyala River. AQI thereby tried to regain a toehold from which to launch spectacular attacks, rearm, undermine the tribes’ rejection of al Qaeda, and re-establish safe havens in Diyala.