Marines face last insurgent stronghold in Iraq's Anbar Province

The marines of India Battery of the 3rd Battalion, 11th Regiment jokingly referred to the first half of their deployment to Anbar Province as a "desert spa" experience.

After serving early in the war as the insurgency's engine, the largely Sunni province seemed to have been tamed after the US helped turn tribal leaders against Al Qaeda in Iraq elements there.

It was a success story that Gen. David Petraeus held up as a "model" for the country in congressional hearings last September. And on Tuesday, as General Petraeus returns to Washington, he is likely to be asked about recent turmoil in Iraq's Shiite south – not the relative calm in its western Sunni heartland.

But as the marines of the 3/11 have learned since their deployment shifted to Anbar's desolate western reaches, all is not yet tranquil in the province.

Early last month, the Twentynine Palms, Calif.-based artillery battery moved into an outpost of sandbags and concertina wire where marines are fighting what they call the last insurgent stronghold here.

"We're in the wild Wild West," says Lt. Hamilton Ashworth after his unit arrived at the post near the border trading town of Rutbah, where highways from Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and Syria converge before heading to Baghdad and other parts of Iraq.

The local police station here bears fresh scars from rocket attacks, young men still hide grenades in the streets, and civic leaders continue to be targeted by hit squads.

The marines are now in a scramble to oust insurgents tied to Al Qaeda in Iraq. The mission's priority was underscored by a recent visit to the outpost by Maj. Gen. John Kelly, commander of all multinational forces in western Iraq. General Kelly and his staff traveled by heavily armored convoy to Rutbah to meet with city leaders in hopes of understanding why the insurgency hasn't yet fizzled.

Inside a dimly lit, thick-walled building, Kelly sat a table across from the mayor and police chief. Outside, marines and Iraqi police stood guard.

"How are the people doing? Are the schools open for children?" Kelly asks, after removing his helmet and flak jacket. "How's the economy?"

The mayor of this town of 50,000, who goes by the name Qasim, fingered the gold watch hanging from his wrist, offered a pained smile and says, "The economy? We don't have one."

The town is withering from both the Al Qaeda in Iraq-backed insurgency and the Coalition-led traffic checkpoints, Qasim says. The checkpoints aimed at snagging fighters and bomb-building supplies have stifled the town's few-remaining legitimate business.

As the general's aides scribble notes, Qasim tosses his hands in the air and says Rutbah is faced with an impossibly sticky situation. "There could not be an economy if there is no security."

Much of the rest of Anbar has calmed because of last year's surge in US forces, combined with a massive hiring spree of Iraqi police officers, Kelly says. A year ago, about 6,000 Iraqi police patrolled the huge province. Many didn't have weapons and were easy targets for both bribes and bullets, Kelly says.

Today, about four times as many police serve in the cities of Anbar, but the surrounding desert remains largely lawless.

In coming months, about 10 percent of the 25,000 marines serving in Anbar are scheduled to return home, but two Iraqi Army brigades will move in to the region, which should help maintain the tenuous security, Kelly says.

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