BAGHDAD (Reuters) - U.S. forces claimed success on Saturday in establishing their influence and denying al Qaeda fighters control of Iraq's Diyala River valley, one of the main targets of an American offensive over the past several months. "We influence the entire Diyala River valley," Lieutenant-Colonel Andrew Poppas, commander of U.S. forces in the valley north of the town of Baquba, told journalists in a video conference. "We have forces throughout the Diyala valley in key critical nodes. We cross any line of communications, deny the enemy any freedom of movement. Everything they do is watched," he said.
The Diyala River, which joins the Tigris near Baghdad, is one of the three main fertile areas of northern and western Iraq, alongside the Euphrates and the Tigris itself. U.S. forces have focused on the religiously mixed Diyala province following a crackdown in Baghdad that preceded a larger push in areas around the capital.
Poppas said al Qaeda fighters had fled into the river valley from Baquba after a U.S. offensive there, and attempted to take control of towns and villages but had failed to do so. "We have found the enemy. We fix him by isolating him and then we have the ability to destroy him," he said.
Washington claims substantial success against al Qaeda over the past several months, especially after Sunni Arab tribal leaders joined U.S. troops to fight militants in their main stronghold, Anbar province stretching west from the Euphrates River valley. U.S. forces now say that nearly three quarters of attacks on them come from Shi'ite militias, rather than Sunni Arab insurgents and al Qaeda, which U.S. President George W. Bush had described as "public enemy number one" in Iraq.
Poppas also said he had found no foreign fighters in the Diyala valley since he took command in the area in March. U.S. commanders have said in the past that al Qaeda's Iraq branch was led by foreign fighters, who brought suicide bombing tactics -- and bombers -- into the country, mostly through the Euphrates Valley from Syria. They have said they hoped success in Anbar would limit access by foreign militants.