The change of tack is aimed at consolidating security gains in a province where remnants of Al-Qaeda and other insurgent groups have yet to be subdued despite six years of US military engagement.

Shoring up popular support for the new Iraq is key, the US military says.

"I'd describe it as unstable peace. The Iraq and US governments realise that it could go either way at any point," Captain Jared Nichols of the US Army's 1st Cavalry Division, 12th Battalion, told AFP.

"It's a fight for the will of the people -- to legitimise and support the government of Iraq and Iraqi security forces," added the 27-year-old, recalling how quickly Iraq fell into chaos after the US-led invasion of 2003.

The men of 12th Battalion have not fired a shot since their arrival in the town of Al-Hadr nearly four months ago -- attacks are down to about two a week compared to 20 this time last year.

But the battalion commander, Lieutenant Colonel Michael Fadden, says insurgents are probably continuing to infiltrate arms and men across the porous desert border with Syria.

"We believe Al-Qaeda in Iraq and other insurgents may be getting some cross-desert movement," Fadden told AFP.

He said it was often difficult to distinguish between insurgent arms trafficking and the traditional smuggling that has been a lifeblood of the area's economy for millennia.

The regiment's base lies close to the site of ancient Hatra, a UNESCO world heritage site that was once the hub of a major trading network across the desert between the Mediterranean and what is now Iraq.

The area is also rife with a whole raft of socio-economic challenges that could rapidly turn the clock back.

The issues that Nichols and his men from Charlie company face are manifold -- poverty, unemployment, drought, poor education, crime, lack of government funding and an Iraqi police force that is still learning the ropes interweave with complex tribal rivalries that can make equitable solutions hard to find.

A couple of large tribes dominate local politics in Al-Hadr, leaving their smaller rivals vulnerable to manipulation by insurgents, Fadden said.

Nichols and his team are in town several times a week to meet with officials and accept applications for grants of up to 2,500-dollars from a micro-grant assistance programme for small businesses. They have collected 70 so far.

Locals pepper them with questions, many believing that the US army is still handing out money without any strings attached, as it did in the past.

"It's almost like give us the blue helmets," said Nichols, referring to UN peacekeeping missions around the world and the UN humanitarian assistance that often accompanies them.

"We handle problems on a case by case basis. One solution is not going to work here. It's that sort of fight of where it's how you handle each problem's particulars."

For Al-Hadr mayor Ali Salih Mahdi "the number one problem we have is the lack of water."

The town's sedentary population of 7,000 people has been swollen by dozens of Bedouin families driven in from their usual nomadic existence in the desert by a lack of water or pasture for their flocks and herds.

"During the previous regime we used to get government subsidies for the herders, but not any more. We are not wealthy enough, so getting support to the farmers and herders is a priority," he said.

Hearing about the problem from the mayor, squads from Charlie company stepped in to acquire and distribute 4,000 bags of animal feed to some of the district's worst affected villages.

"Doing this kind of work was certainly not on my radar," said Lieutenant Joshua Swartsel, who arrived in Iraq for the first time this year.

"But that's the nature of counter-insurgency work. It's much more from a non-lethal perspective."

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