For more a year, the U.S. military in Iraq, with its reinforcements, has been on the offensive in an effort to wipe out insurgents from their strongholds. The Bush administration claims "the surge," as the reinforcement was called, has helped reduce violence around the country.
One key area of focus, just south of Baghdad, was once known as the "Triangle of Death."   VOA's Deborah Block went to a village there with the U.S. Army's 2nd Battalion, 502nd Infantry, 101st Airborne, on a mission to find suspected al-Qaida militants.