Sunni Arab militant groups suspected of ties to Al-Qaeda in Iraq established training camps east of Baghdad that turned out well-disciplined units willing to fight American forces in set-piece battles.

Sunni Arab militants there belong to the fundamentalist Wahabbi strain of Islam and are believed to be led, at least in part, by a man known as Abu Abdul Rahman, an Iraqi-Canadian who moved from Canada to Iraq in 1995 after marrying a woman from Turki.

Senior US commanders training Iraqi Army units said other rural areas of eastern and central Diyala where American forces had little oversight were transformed into camps similar to the one at Turki.

The battle at Turki began after Lt. Col. Andrew Poppas, commander of the 5th Squadron, 73rd Cavalry, a unit of the 82nd Airborne Division, and other soldiers flew over the area on a reconnaissance mission on November 12.

From the helicopters of C Co. 1/150th Aviation of West Virginia, crewchiefs spotted a white car covered by shrubbery and a hole in the ground that appeared to be a hiding place.

Officers said that in this battle, unlike the vast majority of engagements in Diyala, insurgents stood and fought, even deploying a platoon-sized unit that showed remarkable discipline and that one captain said was in "perfect military formation."