MAHMUDIYA, Iraq – Just a short drive south of Baghdad, Highway 8 plunges into a 20-mile corridor of criminality.

There’s Mahmudiya, where charred cars dot the roadside, serving as grim reminders of dozens of killings, carjackings and kidnappings.

Off to the west is Yusufiya, where masked men staged public executions in the middle of town this fall, beheading people they accused of collaborating with U.S. forces.

Next are Latifiya and Iskandariya, where insurgents recently blew up the local police station and city council building, respectively.

Though closer to the capital than well-known insurgent strongholds such as Fallujah and Ramadi, this area of northern Babil province has been largely overlooked by U.S. forces in the last year. In absence of any real authority, the area – dubbed the “Death Triangle” by locals – has become one of Iraq’s murkiest, most dangerous and least understood hot zones.

“This area is in chaos,” said Khalid Rasheed, a construction engineer who is among the few residents who remain in Yusufiya. Many fled when Marines moved into town this month, taking over the old police headquarters, which had been bombed by insurgents, and a grade school for their base. “There is no law.”

The Marines who are now trying to establish a stronger presence in the area say that unlike insurgents in other areas who are motivated by religious fundamentalism or anti-Americanism, the outlaws in this zone appear to have a much simpler incentive: money.

“I don’t see the religious factor here as strong as some other areas,” said Col. Ron Johnson, commander of the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit, which now oversees northern Babil.

Iraq’s ‘Gambino family’

Johnson and other military leaders describe the fighters here as a loose network of crime lords and “mini-bosses” who held privileged positions under Saddam Hussein’s regime but turned to crime when it collapsed. Johnson’s approach to crushing the insurgency borrows less from Rambo and more from the mob-busting book of Elliot Ness.

He and his unit have mapped the connections of local tribes and nearly 200 individuals on a 7-foot-long, color-coded diagram. “This is your Gambino crime family,” Johnson said, pointing to the chart.

The criminal enterprises include kidnappings, weapons-dealing, extorting local businesses and carjackings, officials say. Recent attacks on fuel tankers appear to be linked to efforts by tribes to extort money from transportation companies in return for safe passage, one intelligence officer said.

Johnson and other commanders are concerned that the outlaws in this mixed Sunni and Shiite region are increasingly forging links with insurgents, foreign militants and Islamic fundamentalists in places such as Fallujah. According to U.S. intelligence, insurgents from Fallujah take refuge in Yusufiya when the United States steps up bombing in the Sunni Muslim stronghold, and they have used Yusufiya as a smuggling route to bring weapons and foreign fighters into Fallujah.

“The pipe comes straight down from Fallujah,” Johnson said.

U.S. officials also say there are signs that people in northern Babil – particularly in Latifiya – are connected to the wave of kidnappings plaguing Iraq.

Intelligence officials suspect two abducted Italian aid workers were held in the area before they were freed, and there are reports that British hostage Ken Bigley’s body was dumped somewhere in Latifiya (it has not been found). Two French journalists missing since August were believed to have been nabbed off the road through town, as were two Russian contractors in May.

In mid-October, Iraq police reported breaking up a small kidnapping ring whose leaders admitted they were planning to sell hostages to someone in Latifiya.

Amid reports of million-dollar ransoms being paid, Iraqi and U.S. officials worry that locals are working closely with foreign militants, including Jordanian Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, to profit by trafficking in hostages.

“They’re exploiting every opportunity they can find,” said Col. Mohammed Essa Baher, regional commander of the Iraqi National Guard in Mahmudiya.

U.S. presence beefed up

Last month, a joint force of 3,000 U.S. and Iraqi forces began sweeping through northern Babil, arresting more than 200 suspects and beefing up the U.S. presence. About two weeks ago, a U.S. raid in Yusufiya netted Mahmoud Janabi, brother of Abdullah Janabi, who is believed to be a top insurgent leader in Fallujah.

But military officials said they’ll need additional troops to take more aggressive action, such as invading a vast area of palm groves in the southwestern portion of the province, known as Jafr Sakhr, where many tribal leaders are believed to be hiding. Past attempts to invade the area have met with heavy resistance.

“We don’t have the bodies necessary to go in there,” said Maj. Dan Whisnant, an intelligence officer in Mahmudiya.

Military responsibility for northern Babil has bounced to various Army and Marine units over the past year, some of which stayed only a short while and were called away to fight elsewhere, such as Fallujah.

“We’ve haven’t had a sustained presence in this area for a long time,” Johnson said. “It’s taking us a while to figure out who’s who.”

Another troop movement is in the works. On Wednesday, about 800 British troops who had been stationed in southern Iraq began moving toward Hillah, 60 miles south of Baghdad in Babil province. They were expected to relieve some of the Marines, who presumably were to head once again to Fallujah and neighboring Ramadi, where a standoff with insurgents may be coming to a head.

Ambushes common

Military officials said a lack of troops has made it impossible to secure Highway 8. Insurgents and criminals openly set up checkpoints along the corridor, attacking mostly Westerners and those who work with them.

Among those attacked include seven Spanish intelligence agents ambushed in December; two CNN staffers gunned down in January; and two Japanese journalists killed in May. Iraqi politician Ahmed Chalabi escaped an assassination attempt on the road last month.

In mid-October, the head of a major political party was killed on the road and nine Iraqi police recruits were shot as they returned from training. A day after the policemen were killed, Baher, the Iraqi National Guard commander, narrowly escaped an ambush in front of his compound.

‘They tasted the money’

U.S. officials say the attacks are chiefly designed to scare away outside forces that might attempt to interfere with the locals’ criminal enterprises.

“They tasted the money and now they are trying to protect it,” Whisnant said. “They don’t seem to care that much about (Islamic law). They care about driving nice cars and good clothes.”

Lt. Col. Mark Smith, commander of the 2nd Battalion, 24th Marine Regiment, said he suspects the highway attacks are a ploy to divert U.S. military attention toward protecting the roads rather than pushing into the palm groves and farmland where many of the tribal leaders live.

“The more Marines they see on the highways the happier they are,” Smith said, “because it means we’re not out chasing them.”