Next job: keeping rebels out

"Get back, get back!" shouted Cpl. Sean Thompson after poking at the suspicious mound of rocks during a marine patrol to look for insurgents' improvised explosive devices.

"Daisy chain, daisy chain here, don't nobody go off the road!"

Thanks to the corporal from Seminole, Fla., the "daisy chain," explosives linked together, never went off.

But they illustrate the difficulty of keeping insurgents permanently out of New Obeidi and the other towns in Anbar Province, along the Syrian border. Marines of the 3rd Battalion of the 6th Regiment have fought to wrest control of these towns from insurgents over the past three weeks in Operation Steel Curtain.

This region of Iraq is home to supply lines, incoming foreign fighters, and insurgent bases. Throughout Steel Curtain, insurgents have typically resisted then melted away rather than confront the Marines' fire power. At least 11 marines have been killed since the operation began.

More than 100 insurgents have been killed and several hundred have been arrested.

Resting in the bend of the Euphrates River, New Obeidi, located next to Obeidi, is a microcosm of the challenges and pitfalls of the broader fight against insurgents. It was the last city taken by the marines in Steel Curtain. Fighting ended last Thursday, and the battle has turned to ensuring that insurgents don't return.

A day after the bullets stopped flying here, marines began 24-hour foot patrols through the streets. Residents come forward to point out weapon stockpiles by day while insurgents plant IEDs by night. Children wave and some men shake hands with the marines. Others hang back offering only hard stares.

"These guys smile and shake your hand today, but you kill one of their brethren ... you make your own enemies if you're not careful," says Sgt. Antonio Farmer, of Wilson, N.C., as he walks through a dusty field. "It's hard to know when to turn it on and to turn it off, the aggression."

The scars of the battle are all around him and makeshift white flags fly from rooftops, car windows, and residents' hands as they walk the streets.

As the patrol makes it way through the grid of streets in this community that was planned around a fertilizerfactory, residents emerge to watch, and children cautiously test the playfulness of the marines.

The marines have been told by their commanders that a positive climate here is essential to keep insurgents away.

One marine approaches a man standing alone and offers a handshake, but the man pulls his hand away, offering instead a stern nod of acknowledgement. At the next house a group of men and boys wave. "Good, good!" they shout.

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