The battle for Baqubah

From the LA Times:

"Honestly, I thought this operation would never be successful because I had information that Al Qaeda had big guns and RPGs," rocket-propelled grenades, said the Iraqi army commander who provided only one name. "We thought that all the people here are terrorists and everyone is bad, even the women and children."

To his surprise, many of the Sunni Arabs welcomed the Iraqi soldiers who followed U.S. infantrymen through the dusty, bomb-scarred streets, which shimmered in the blazing heat. One man offered them glasses of water on a tray, and a woman wept at the sight of them.