战火与暴力充斥下的伊拉克

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"Watch him."

 For US soldiers in this part of Iraq, there's been no let-up in the fight.

 "I got eyes on these over here."

 Six years on, Baghdad is calmer. But the city of Mosul is now the most dangerous place in the country. And this night-time raid is especially important. The soldiers believe this man and his nephew may be behind the car bomb attack five weeks ago that killed their battalion commander.

 "He is a...what a High Value Target Number One." 

What you can’t see here are the Iraqi soldiers who captured the suspects, then handed them over to their US counterparts. They asked not to be identified for fear of being killed.

There are now 600,000 Iraqi security forces, almost double the number two years ago. These days, the Iraqis take the lead on every mission, says the new battalion commander here.

 "These are brand-new security forces that are learning the hardest lessons that they could possibly learn under fire."

It’s not been easy coming into lead under these circumstances.

"This has been kind of a hot, hotbed of insurgent activity."

Tom Cipolla was brought in to replace Lieutenant Colonel Gary Derby. His death hit the soldiers hard. But every day is hard here where the fight, Cipolla says, is mostly against al-Qaeda.

"They have taken advantage of the opportunities that they've been given."

Opportunities created by the focus on Baghdad during the surge. That allowed the terrorist group to entrench their hold on Mosul.

"This place is not a place to joke, and you stay focused."

US soldiers put up wanted posters as they patrol, covering up the old ones that have been spray painted by insurgents marking this as their territory.

It's so deadly now for US troops that even rebuilding work has to be done at night. The difference for these US soldiers is that the clock is ticking. Come June 30th, they are supposed to be off the streets with the Iraqi forces fully in charge. This incident shows not all Iraqi soldiers are there yet. An interrogation quickly escalates,  and a US soldier's forced to intervene. But the Iraqi forces have come a long way. This street cleanup project is theirs. It employs young men to keep them from being recruited by terrorists, a new soft approach, for an army used to using only force.

All over Iraq, US troops are preparing to leave. But it's places like Mosul that make commanders cautious about declaring victory just yet. Maggie?

Lara Logan. Thank you, Lara.

Glossary

 let-up also let up American English [singular, uncountable]: when something unpleasant stops or becomes less difficult, severe etc

battalion [countable]: a large group of soldiers consisting of several companies

take the lead (in doing something): to be the first to start doing something or be most active in doing something

hotbed: a place where a lot of a particular type of activity, especially bad or violent activity, happens

hit hard: to be badly affected by something that has happened

entrench [transitive]: to place in a position of strength; establish firmly or solidly

spray-paint [intransitive and transitive]: to cover, mark, draw, or write with spray paint.

escalate [intransitive and transitive]: if fighting, violence, or a bad situation escalates, or if someone escalates it, it becomes much worse

cautious: careful to avoid danger or risks; cautious about (doing) somethin