In this dusty agricultural market town, in what is still one of Iraq's most restive regions, that means breathing life back into the al-Aruba souk (market) district where al-Qaida, Shiite militias and Iraqi Security Forces all battled for control from 2004 to late 2007.

A year ago the legacy of conflict was everywhere in the district of two-story buildings centered around and radiating from a traffic circle. There were the expected bullet-holed walls, blown-out storefronts and collapsed roofs. But they were inconsequential to the biggest legacy: Al-Aruba, once the city's center of commerce, was a ghost town.

"It's been like this a long time now," Hassan Abbas Mahmoud, the only shopkeeper open for business, said then. "There are no people shopping. I don't know why no one comes."

No one came because sectarian battles sent most nearby residents of the predominantly Sunni area fleeing for safety elsewhere. No one came because no stores were open. No stores were open because the district was once so dangerous, their owners closed and moved if they still had goods or money to do so after al-Qaida looted them.

Today al-Aruba is on the mend.

"It's made a resurgence," said Army Lt. Col. James DeMoss. "We've put a lot of work into bringing it back. It's one of our biggest projects."

DeMoss is commander of the 3rd Battalion of the 21st Infantry Regiment, which operates in the Muqdadiya area. He said U.S. forces, in partnership with the local government and Iraqi Security Forces, have focused on al-Aruba since September when the troops arrived in the area.

About $800,000 has been earmarked so far for revitalizing the area, he said, and the funding is coming from the government of Iraq and from other sources through the U.S. Agency for International Development.

None has been spent yet, but already residents and shopkeepers are returning on their own.

"There are a lot of shop owners committed to reopening," said a U.S. military officer. "As we see it, it's a cornerstone for bringing the whole area back. Just about the time we transitioned in (to Muqdadiya), there was a swell of sentiment for reopening from shop owners and the government."

In al-Aruba today street vendors hawk vegetables, fruits, meat and grains from Diyala's nearby "breadbasket" region. A few storefronts have opened in the past four months and sell everything from clothing to rugs. More are in the process of opening. Shoppers, albeit in the hundreds rather than the thousands of the past, have returned.

Khalil Ibrahim Hussein borrowed money from family and friends four months ago to reopen the sundry shop his father had run for 20 years. Ahmad Kareen Sahan is reopening a flower shop, and Fawzi Gaib's resurrected Rahman restaurant once again has become a favorite meeting place for al-Aruba's elderly men.

"It's very safe now. We can walk in the streets," said Abdul Azziz Ibrahim Naser, who sells foam mattresses. "Before it was too dangerous to do that. Al-Qaida is done and Jaish al-Mahdi (a Shiite militia) is done, so everything is getting better."

U.S. troops and Iraqi Security Forces indicate "safer" rather than "safe" may have been a better word for Abdul to have used. Al-Qaida, said to be few in number, still operate in Diyala; Sunni nationalist extremists such as Ansar al-Sunna also remain, as do extremist Shiite militias. Many of those Shiite militiamen are believed to have filled the ranks of local police and for months have been suspected of engaging in sectarian intimidation.

Adding to the volatile mix are terrorists and insurgents arrested earlier and imprisoned at Camp Bucca, a U.S. detention center near the Kuwait border. Under rules of the new U.S.-Iraqi Strategic Framework, previously called the Status of Forces Agreement, prisoners at U.S. facilities are being released.

"These people are being released, so maybe it will be back to their old tricks," said Ali Essa abu al-Rahman, a lieutenant with an Iraqi Police Emergency Response Force unit in al-Aruba.

Muqdadiya's government and police force, like elsewhere in Diyala province, are dominated by Shiites, although Sunnis are the region's majority population. The situation is the result of Sunnis boycotting elections in 2005 to protest U.S. occupation and because of al-Qaida intimidation. Shiites gained provincial power, which includes appointing the province's police chief, who in turn appoints others to the force. New balloting last month will change that -- there was no boycott this time. Existing sectarian tensions could well be stoked as a result.

"It's not a place where you can let your guard down," said DeMoss. "Things are improving, but we're not out of the hot water. There's a lot of tension here."

Late last week Shiite gunmen -- some believed to be police -- reportedly went into Sunni neighborhoods near the al-Aruba market, fired their weapons in the air and warned residents they would be killed if they didn't abandon their homes, according to U.S. military sources. An improvised explosive device last week injured a prominent Shiite sheik from a village outside the town. This month so far nine Iraqi Security Force personnel have been killed in and around the town by bombs.

Shiites have told U.S. troops a known al-Qaida operative had recruited 10 men to commit suicide bombings.

Under terms of the Strategic Framework, American forces cannot hunt down and detain suspected terrorists on their own. U.S. soldiers can only carry out such missions in conjunction with Iraqi counterparts who are in the lead.

Information gathered at courtesy calls to sheiks and other leaders, such as the al-Qaida bomber recruitment tip, must be turned over to the Iraqis for their follow-up, which includes obtaining warrants for the arrest of suspects. U.S. troops, however, still perform presence patrols in places like the al-Aruba market or Hayy Mulamem, the market that burgeoned in a Shiite area of Muqdadiya after al-Aruba collapsed.

"Now operations have mainly shifted to the diplomatic angle," said Staff Sgt. Bryan Eull, who served in Mosul in 2005. "Before it was hunting down bad guys, now it's talking to sheiks, finding out people's needs and helping with security when needed."

No major attack has been made against U.S. forces here since Christmas, when a suicide bomber set off his vest and some mortars in the car he was driving near soldiers walking back to their vehicles after visiting police headquarters in the town of Dali Abbas, about 10 miles from Muqdadiya. No soldier was killed and the sole injury was minor.

Muqdadiya is a mixed-sect market community north of the provincial capital of Baquba. Sectarian violence erupted in 2004 when al-Qaida entered the area on the heels of Sunni refugees fleeing fighting between insurgents and U.S. forces in Anbar province.

Shiites formed militias to check al-Qaida and other Sunni groups. By 2006 Muqdadiya was totally transformed. Sunnis in mixed neighborhoods had fled to all-Sunni neighborhoods; Shiites did the same. Surrounding villages were purged of one sect or another. And the battles raged.

Al-Aruba was, and still is, a predominantly Sunni area. With its narrow streets and a large palm grove nearby for quick exit, al-Qaida used it as a stronghold. Draconian "laws" were imposed, shops looted of goods, people on the street parted from their money.

Some surrounding villages remain empty, their people hesitant to return. One is Chichon, about 7 kilometers south of Muqdadiya. Only a handful of poor Shiites remain. The majority population fled to Baghdad and elsewhere after al-Qaida invaded the village and then began slaughtering nearby Shiites. The name Chichon derives from Chechen. U.S. and Iraqi officials say those who fled to escape a reprisal attack by Shiite militias were the descendants of people who migrated to Iraq from Chechnya in Eastern Europe 150 years ago.

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