BAGHDAD: The knock on the door came before dawn in the darkened and violence-ridden city, but when the embattled residents of Baghdad warily opened it to see US soldiers outside, alarm turned to relief.

“We are happy you are here,” said a woman in a yellow nightdress, turning on a light and opening the door of her house in the Iraqi capital’s Mansour district to some 15 infantrymen of a US army Stryker Brigade.

“We feel safe when the Americans are around,” she added, as heavily armed troops go from room to room searching for weapons and insurgents.“Security is such an issue here in Baghdad,” she said, as her husband, a retired police general, joined her in welcoming the soldiers into the house. It is just after 5 am.

“We want peace, no more bloodshed,” said the woman, asking the soldiers if she can sit down as she has heart problems.

“I can’t even go to hospital here as it is too dangerous and in any case all the good doctors have left,” she said. “I have just come back from Dubai where I now have to go for treatment.” Captain Isaac Torres, heading a Stryker mission to flush out insurgents and thwart car bombers in raids that include house-to-house pre-dawn searches -- asked if she had any specific security concerns.

“We need security in every area,” she replied. “We are even too afraid to drive our cars. We are tired of this war.” Torres explained that Operation Fardh al-Qanoon (Imposing the Law), a massive security crackdown involving some 90,000 Iraqi and US troops, was launched to do exactly that -- bring stability to every area of the capital.

The troops filed out into the night and rattled the gate of a house farther down the road, even as others were doing the same in different parts of the upmarket neighbourhood.

A man in a knee-length dark blue shirt opened the door and troops swarmed in.

Children sleeping on the floor in the living room woke up bewildered. As soldiers fanned through the house, occupants of bedrooms spilled into the living room in their nightclothes, looking startled.

The man in the blue shirt said security was indeed a big headache and that two months earlier he received a telephone call warning him that his right hand would be cut off unless he stopped his work as a security agent. He did so immediately.

He said that he, too, was happy the American troops were in the streets but worried that as soon as they go the gunmen who arrive by night in search of more victims in Baghdad’s bloody sectarian war will return.

Farther down the road, now crowded with Stryker armoured vehicles bristling with weaponry, another man, who gave his name as Mohammed, tried to put up a brave front.

“No, everything is fine here — it is a safe neighbourhood,” he said, nervously.

“That’s not true,” said his wife, clad in a black chadar. “You are frightened even to go to the market.” Mohammed came clean. “Yes, we in fact are afraid here,” he admitted. “Very afraid. Many strangers come in and out of the neighbouring suburb. They have taken over the empty houses. We don’t know who they are or what they are up to.” A soldier asked Mohammed if he could identify any of the houses or point out some of the strangers.

“I can’t,” he answered. “But there are people on the streets who know every little detail of what’s happening out there.” After spending about four hours in the suburb raiding homes mainly of professionals, bureaucrats and business people, Torres called a halt.

Though they had found no weapons nor any insurgents, he was satisfied that they had managed to reassure residents.

The troops climbed back into the Strykers and the vehicles headed off in convoy to their next assignment -- discussions with factory owners concerned for their safety.

As Torres drank tea and chatted with one owner, the crackle of gunfire interrupted their conversation.

The factory owner jumped to his feet shouting: “You see what I mean!” “Yes we see what you mean,” said Torres. “That’s why we’re here. But don’t expect things to happen overnight. This is going to be a very long operation.”—AFP