US troops: inside the surge
Updated on 10 September 2007
The vast majority of extra US troops involved in the surge have been deployed across Baghdad.
Their aim - to bring calm to the capital and stop its neighbourhoods fracturing still further along sectarian lines.
At the beginning of the surge in March of this year, Channel 4 News went to two areas of Baghdad - Ghazaliyah which was a violent hotbed of Sunni insurgency, and the relatively peaceful Shia district of Shu'la.
Six months on, our foreign affairs reporter Nick Paton Walsh has returned - embedded with US troops of the 2nd infantry division.
He's found a completely different picture - the extra US forces combined with political discussions with local Sunnis have brought comparative calm to Ghaziliyah, while the Shias have turned against the Americans - making Shu'la is now a no go area for US troops.
