GORGA CHAL: When the US army ends its Iraq combat mission this week, Captain TJ Tepley will stay on the frontline -- keeping the peace at the centre of what commanders say is the country`s biggest challenge.

The 27-year-old leads a company made up not only of US troops, but also of Arab and Kurdish soldiers whose job is to patrol a disputed tract of land in oil-rich Kirkuk province in the north, trying to abate ethnic tensions.

While thousands of fellow Americans have packed their kit and headed home as part of plans to reduce the US military presence in Iraq to 50,000 troops, Tepley and his comrades will remain in the field on a separate mission.

"Overall, big picture, sure -- things have changed. We went from more than 100,000 soldiers to 50,000 in a few months," said Tepley, from Cleveland, Ohio.

"But on September 1, the CSF (Combined Security Force) is still going to be here," he said as his heavily armoured MRAP (Mine Resistant, Ambush Protected) vehicle rumbled towards the tiny village of Gorga Chal, north of Kirkuk city.

Tepley`s company, and several others like it, are key to efforts to end a long-running dispute between the central government in Baghdad and the north`s autonomous Kurdistan region, over the 650-kilometre (400-mile) strip of land.

Dubbed the "trigger line" because of fears that tensions could eventually spill over into armed conflict, the disputed area spreads across Iraq from Syria to Iran.

The tripartite security force which Tepley is part of was inaugurated in January after first being mooted by the top US commander in Iraq, General Ray Odierno, a year ago.

But in a nod to the withdrawal -- all American troops must leave Iraq by the end of next year, under the terms of a Baghdad-Washington security pact -- US generals are aiming to reduce American involvement and re-configure the force.

"What I would like to see happen is they go from tripartite to bilateral," US Major General Anthony Cucolo, referring to the patrols, told AFP in Tikrit.

The plan could see Americans supervise the Iraqi army and Kurdish Peshmerga fighters currently working alongside US soldiers, Cucolo said, but eventually the patrols would have to be by police or disbanded altogether.

For now, though, US troops in Tepley`s company remain firmly in the lead: in a meeting with Gorga Chal`s village chief Ramadan Mohammed at the local school, only he and Lieutenant Daniel Spurrier, 23, spoke to the "mukhtar."

Only after prompting from Tepley towards the end of the meeting did the lone Iraqi soldier present, Sergeant Arif Safa Hussein Abdul Ali, eventually speak to the mukhtar.

The territorial dispute stems largely from the so-called "Arabisation" policies of Saddam Hussein. Human Rights Watch estimates the dictator forcibly removed 120,000 Kurds from Kirkuk between 1991 and his ouster in 2003.

After the US-led invasion seven years ago, Kurdish forces advanced south and west, staking a claim over what many in Kirkuk and the nearby provinces of Nineveh and Diyala say is Arab land.

In the years since, both sides have traded allegations of attempting to deliberately increase their own ethnic populations, in a bid to secure the province`s energy resources and resulting income.

The mistrust and consequent lack of cooperation between Arab and Kurdish forces has left what US commanders label a "seam" that has been exploited by criminal and insurgent networks.

Since the joint forces began operating checkpoints and conducting patrols in January, however, Gorga Chal chief Mohammed says he has seen security improve.

"When the US leaves, I can only hope they will stay together and continue to provide security -- together," the 40-year-old told AFP.

While senior American commanders insist relations are good on the ground between Arabs and Kurds, comments by Mohammed show that tensions remain and memories linger.

"This was the problem -- under Saddam, we were moved north to Kurdistan," Mohammed told Tepley and Spurrier during their meeting. "But I am from Kirkuk."

Tepley admitted that he often struggles to grapple with the complexities of the region and its history.

"Some of these things are hard to grasp," he noted, adding later: "When you hear about Iraq in the United States, it`s usually about the Sunni-Shiite situation," alluding to the conflict between rival Muslim sects that killed tens of thousands of people after the 2003 invasion.

"But then you get here, and now you`re dealing with Kurds and Arabs."

With no new government yet formed in Baghdad since elections nearly six months ago, the prospect of a deal between Arabs and Kurds seems a long way off.

"All we need is for the government to form and, inshallah (God willing), everything will be fine," Lieutenant Spurrier said during the meeting with Mohammed.

"Patience is hard, I know, but we have to let it play out."

Mohammed replied: "Yes, we must wait. I`m sure if you look at every country in the world I challenge any of them to be as patient as Iraqis."

BDST: 0929 HRS, August 29, 2010