Iraqi Security Forces, with American troops providing logistical and communications support, are continuing with Operation Bashaer al-Kheir (Promise of Good), an offensive launched at the end of July by as many as 50,000 soldiers and special Emergency Response Force police units that sweep cities, towns and villages to root out al-Qaida in Iraq (AQI) cells and other extremist gunmen.

Local police, meanwhile, stage raids in their jurisdictions to round up extremist suspects. They do so with warrants issued by the courts after citizens have filed formal, corroborated and sworn complaints with government prosecutors, something unheard of just a few months ago.

"There are pockets in Diyala where there are some insurgent groups that are able to operate or some militia groups that are capable of operating, but not with a whole lot of freedom and not with much reach," said Lt. Col. Rod Coffey, commander of the 3rd Squadron, 2nd Stryker Cavalry Regiment, adding: "Their position has really been undermined."

"You really don't see AQI attacking people of any stripe in this sector any more. But we do see some organizing, some recruiting effort, but it [AQI] certainly doesn't have any strength here," he said.

Coffey's troops are based near Muqtadiya, a market town north of the provincial capital of Baquba. Baquba was the capital of al-Qaida's self-proclaimed Islamic State; Muqtadiya and the nearby agricultural region known as the "bread basket" was its headquarters for training and storing weapons. Successive U.S. military operations late last year and early this year drove senior AQI leaders and many cadre out of the Muqtadiya and bread basket areas north toward Mosul in Nineveh province and also east over the Hamrin ridge to the more desolate and sparsely populated sectors next to the Iranian border.

It's from the border area that AQI operatives are trying to re-infiltrate the Muqtadiya area to visit close family or start new cells.

"The low-level players who have ties to the area are starting to come back in ones or twos," said 1st Lt. Steve Saxion, a platoon leader with 3/2. "They don't have a lot of time to stick around. Normally if they cross back they're around for about a week before we get them."

U.S. detentions of AQI and other extremists number between seven and 10 per week, according to Lt. Col. Coffey. Iraqi detentions are higher - at least 1,600 suspects have been detained by Iraqi troops and police in Diyala province since the end of July, according to U.S. and Iraqi commanders.

In a small, concrete cell of the police headquarters in the town of Dali Abbas recently two men accused in warrants of being members of an AQI kidnap and murder squad are awaiting trial. Iraqi Police col. Mahmoud Tayeh Mahmoud said the two were grabbed after they slipped back into the area to see their families. Both had been active in the Dali Abbas area during 2006-2007 sectarian battles and had warrants out for their arrests.

In August, he said, his station – working with Iraqi Security Forces – had arrested eight al-Qaida suspects who were believed to be trying to organize a new cell.

"They are not very active now, but we have to continue to have operations everywhere," he said.

The number of al-Qaida in Diyala province at any one time is not unknown. Many are believed to have fled north into Tamin province or farther north to Mosul, one of the last urban redoubts of AQI; others are believed to have slipped across the Iranian border, where they are said to have sanctuaries.

Coffey and Lt. Col. Douglas Sims II, deputy commander of the 2nd Stryker Cavalry Regiment, say figures for the number of hardcore Iraqi AQI cadre in the province are difficult to ascertain but they believe it is between 50-60 men – " enough to fill three or four minivans." The number of foreign al-Qaida fighters could be about half that number.

Iraqi Army Operations in Diyala province are being conducted by elements of the 5th Iraqi Army Division, which fought Shiite gunmen in the southern city of Basra in the spring and which later took control of northern Sadr City in Baghdad.

Their securing of Diyala province will be a serious blow to al-Qaida. In the past Diyala had been a main transit route for extremists into and out of Baghdad.