WP: U.S. unit allies with ex-insurgents - washingtonpost.com Highlights - MSNBC.com

WP: U.S. unit allies with ex-insurgents - washingtonpost.com Highlights - MSNBC.com: "BAGHDAD, June 8 - The worst month of Lt. Col. Dale Kuehl's deployment in western Baghdad was finally drawing to a close. The insurgent group al-Qaeda in Iraq had unleashed bombings that killed 14 of his soldiers in May, a shocking escalation of violence for a battalion that had lost three soldiers in the previous six months while patrolling the Sunni enclave of Amiriyah. On top of that, the 41-year-old battalion commander was doubled up with a stomach flu when, late on May 29, he received a cellphone call that would change everything.

'We're going after al-Qaeda,' a leading local imam said, Kuehl recalled. 'What we want you to do is stay out of the way.'

'Sheik, I can't do that. I can't just leave Amiriyah and let you go at it.'

'Well, we're going to go.'" Read complete post here.