 “It serves as an integration center that will coordinate all activities in Diyala – the police, the army and Coalition Forces from Task Force Lightning.”

“The key significance, though, is getting the Iraqi ministries engaged to provide fundamental goods and services, such as food, fuel, displaced persons support, and education,” Bednarek continued.“The governor will have oversight and the people will start to see improved basic services which will build the trust and confidence of the people not only in the provincial government, but in the central government as well.”

Throughout the clearance operations in Western Baqubah one trend continued to occur.The local population were overjoyed to be, as they put it, "liberated" by the American Forces.