THE TENSION: Combat Camera: Coalition Forces Begin Clearing Outskirts of Baqubah

Lt. Gen. Raymond Odierno, commander of Multi-National Corps � Iraq, visits Soldiers of the 5th Squadron, 73rd Cavalry Regiment Reconnaissance (Airborne), from Fort Bragg, N.C., at a patrol base near Balad Ruz, Iraq, April 29. (U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Armando Monroig, 5th Mobile Public Affairs Detachment)

A Soldier from Troop B, 1st Squadron, 14th Cavalry Regiment, 3rd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division, Fort Lewis, Wash., scans the road while riding in a Stryker vehicle for an operation in the village of Abu Karuum, southeast of Baqubah, Iraq, May 6. The operation was a joint effort by Troop B, which is attached to 5th Battalion, 20th Infantry Regiment, and Iraqi soldiers of 4th Battalion, 2nd Brigade, 5th Iraqi Army Division, to locate weapons caches and clear the town of insurgents. (U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Armando Monroig, 5th Mobile Public Affairs Detachment)

Soldiers from 4th Battalion, 2nd Brigade, 5th Iraqi Army Division, pulls security before an operation in Abu Karuum, a small farming community three miles southeast of Baqubah, Iraq, May 6. The operation was a joint effort by the Iraqi soldiers and U.S. Soldiers of 1st Squadron, 14th Cavalry Regiment, 3rd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division, from Fort Lewis, Wash., to locate weapons caches and clear the town of insurgents. (U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Armando Monroig, 5th Mobile Public Affairs Detachment)

A soldier from 4th Battalion, 2nd Brigade, 5th Iraqi Army Division, pulls security before an operation in Abu Karuum, a small farming community three miles southeast of Baqubah, Iraq, May 6. The operation was a joint effort by the Iraqi soldiers and U.S. Soldiers of 1st Squadron, 14th Cavalry Regiment, 3rd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division, from Fort Lewis, Wash., to locate weapons caches and clear the town of insurgents. (U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Armando Monroig, 5th Mobile Public Affairs Detachment)