Meanwhile, in the Belts

YOUSIFIYA, IRAQ — U.S. troops had nicknamed the suspected insurgent "George Clooney" because of his handsome mug, but he wasn't so pretty after members of his own Sunni tribe shot and wounded him, then turned him over to the Americans. U.S. forces say the tribe's act was an example of the payoffs from practicing the counterinsurgency techniques preached by Gen. David H. Petraeus as he enforces President Bush's troop "surge." But unlike the 28,500 newly arrived troops, soldiers here have been at it for nearly a year. <...> "To take guys who just got here and throw them out there and say the surge isn't working, or the surge is working — it's not an educated assessment," said Lt. Col. Michael Infanti, commander of the 4th Battalion, 31st Infantry Regiment, or 4-31. "It takes time to work into an area." It is a message that U.S. military leaders have been sending since additional troops began arriving in Iraq in February, but it is not a message many politicians in Washington want to hear. They are awaiting a September progress report on the war, which if negative will increase pressure on Bush to begin withdrawing troops. <...>

"Let's face it, 95% of the people in Qaraghul are not terrorists," Capt. Shane Finn said. "Really, what it comes down to is people here are sick and tired of living in terror."

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Soldiers say locals approach them with information and sometimes turn down the financial rewards, from about $30 to as much as $200, that are offered when tips pan out.

The shooting death of the soldier July 17, the killing of an imam who had cooperated with U.S. forces in Qaraghul a few days earlier, and the beheading of a local man who had shown support for the U.S. presence underscore the perils that remain in the region.

So did the arrival at a patrol base of a man who led soldiers to a nearby house, where they found a 17-year-old with welts and lacerations on his ankles and wrists. The teenager said he had been abducted by men in a black sedan who grabbed him as he took a smoke break from tending his family's fields.

He told soldiers he was beaten and then taken to a torture house and suspended by his wrists from the ceiling while his captors punched and slapped him. They berated him for smoking, saying it violated laws imposed by Islamic militant groups active in the area.

The boy eventually was released, but soldiers say the incident is a sign of things to come if troops pull out. "I think the insurgents will come and mess with people who've worked with us," Merlin said.