Parks and playgrounds are built, roads repaired, water treatment plants upgraded and grants provided to expand small businesses to meet community needs and create jobs, for example.

Roving military medical teams also treat civilians, soldiers deliver school supplies and in cold weather distribute heating oil, heaters and blankets to displaced persons.

Each effort is considered vital and has its place in the counterinsurgency strategy to win the support of the populace, which means denying it to extremists.

For months, the outreach has been almost exclusively American, but Iraqi Security Forces have gotten involved as well.

"I'm here to tell you how you can help secure our country," National Police Maj. Mortada Bahar Abdullah recently told students at an elementary school outside Baghdad. "We are out here to protect you and your families from evildoers.

"When you see your Iraqi Security Forces, don't be afraid, but have faith (in us)."

Mortada made the appeal as part of a program called Junior Hero, which aims to dampen children's fear of Iraqi Security Forces and gain their cooperation in the war against terrorists and sectarian extremists.

For the National Police, achieving that goal is not easy. The central government's 41,000-man NP force is about 90 percent Shiite. During Iraq's sectarian bloodletting of 2006-2007, in which tens of thousands of Shiites and Sunnis died in reprisal killings, National Policemen were suspected of having joined in the slaughter.

"When we took over this area eight months ago, the people were afraid of us because they heard rumors that we are sectarian people," said Mortada, a commander with the NP 1st Battalion, 2nd Brigade, 1st Division. "I think a lot of people here now have changed their minds. We came to capture the bad guys, not to make sectarian trouble."

Mortada's unit operates northeast of the capital in part of Baghdad province. The eastern portion of its sector is predominantly Shiite; the western section is primarily Sunni. Qudas, between the two, is a mixed-sect community.

The NP battalion shares a base -- Joint Security Station Istiqaal -- with the U.S. Army's 1st Battalion, 27th Infantry Regiment. The two conduct joint operations to keep extremists from using their area -- a geographical transition from suburb to farmland -- as a hiding place, storage area for weapons or transit point into and out of the capital.

Part of the American forces' operational brief is to help Iraqi Security Forces -- who do not come from the area -- build a positive relationship with the population.

"One of the biggest things we're trying to do right now is to get them to win their own hearts and minds in this country, to be supportive of the population," said Sgt. Ryan Davis, who is involved with the battalion's psychological operations. "They're doing a great job now because of programs like this."

Junior Hero is American-designed and -supported. U.S. forces produce the program's Arabic-language leaflets, its comic books that portray Iraqi Security Force successes against terrorists and its small stickers that children can put on clothing. The Americans also give the NPs the backpacks, pencils and notebooks given schoolchildren as part of the program.

In keeping with the intent of putting an Iraqi face to the endeavor, U.S. troops stay in the background during school visits.

"We've done something like this before with coalition forces," Mortada said of the program. "We gave humanitarian items to people in Baghdad and got a good reaction from the community. As Iraqi forces, we can't just work to catch the bad guys, we have to do other things -- we have to talk to the people, we have to be close to the community and the area city councils to do a lot of things to help the community."

But Mortada said Iraqi government funding wasn't yet available for such outreach programs as Junior Hero. Until it is, units such as his will have to depend on U.S. help for the materials needed.

At al-Rend Elementary School in Qudas last week more than 100 girls stood in a courtyard for a Junior Hero ceremony. No boys were present because al-Rend, like many schools, lacks classroom space. Female pupils at al-Rend get their lessons in the morning; males in the afternoon.

The girls, taught about the program by their teachers, sang the national anthem. Then they raised their hands and promised to be loyal to their parents and country, to treat all persons with respect, to honor Iraq Security Forces and to report crimes that hurt their community.

"I am a Junior Hero," they intoned in conclusion, "and the future of Iraq."

At that point, Mortada and his men handed out backpacks containing Junior Hero materials.

"This is new for them and very good," Principal Antisar Ali Ahmed said. "They'll know the National Police here and the coalition forces are looking out for them, and they'll feel safe."

She was speaking about her pupils. But part of her observation also could be applied to the nearly two dozen Iraqi police officers gathered inside the compound. As the morning wore on, as they watched the children and began talking to them, the officers' aloof and hard-edged demeanors visibly softened, replaced by smiles matching those of the children.

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