Ramadi, Iraq ? The commander of U.S. troops in Iraq wanted some sweets, and nothing was going to stop him. Not even tramping through a neighborhood that only days ago had been teeming with snipers and al-Qaida fighters who would love nothing better than to say they just shot Gen. David H. Petraeus.

With soldiers casting anxious glances along the desolate dirt road, the four-star general made a beeline for a tiny shop, and helped himself to a bite-sized, honey-coated pastry proffered by the owner.

Oblivious to the flies buzzing around his head, Petraeus chatted briefly with a man who said his cafe had been damaged in recent battles between U.S. forces and insurgents.

Then, after promising compensation for the cafe owner, Petraeus hiked on. “Tell him the next time I come back to Ramadi, we’ll eat his chow,” Petraeus said as he headed into the blazing sun.

Days ago, this might not have been possible, but in a brazen effort to show off what they say has been a shift of allegiance in Sunni insurgent territory, U.S. and Iraqi officials on Tuesday brought an all-star cast of military and political figures to Ramadi.

While Petraeus did his walkabout, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki visited with regional sheiks, his first stop here since becoming prime minister nine months ago, and part of a campaign to ensure loyalty from powerful Sunnis who once harbored insurgents.

The campaign gained momentum last fall when a group of sheiks from across Anbar province, whose capital is Ramadi, met with al-Maliki in Baghdad.

Just what led to their decision to work with the U.S.-backed, Shiite-dominated government after years of supporting Sunni insurgents depends on whom you ask.

U.S. military officials say the sheiks finally realized that by boycotting elections that brought al-Maliki to power last year and refusing to be a part of his government, they were missing out on valuable economic opportunities.

“This is part of joining the process,” said the commander of multinational forces in this region, Marine Maj. Gen. Walt Gaskin. “They realize that if they had taken part in the elections, well perhaps some of these sheiks would be the governor or the provincial chairman.”

Sunni leaders here have another version: they simply got fed up with al-Qaida’s brutality. They came to see the group, which touts itself as an Islamic force repelling foreign occupiers, as a terrorist group hellbent on taking over their lives, even if that meant killing innocent civilians.

Maj. Shabah Ahmed, an Iraqi army major in Ramadi, said the turning point for him, and for many Ramadi residents, came a little more than a year ago, when a suicide bomber walked into an abandoned glass factory that was being used as a police recruiting station and detonated his explosive vest, killing scores of young men.

“That’s when we realized that these people don’t distinguish between the sons of our city and the soldiers,” said Ahmed. “They just have an agenda to destroy.”

Whatever the reason, U.S. military officials in Ramadi say the switch has been crucial to enabling U.S. and Iraqi forces to make headway here after years of battling to drive out al-Qaida.

The region is part of what military officials consider the “belt” around Baghdad, and securing it is seen as key to making the latest U.S.-Iraqi security plan a success. “You have to secure some of these belt areas that feed into Baghdad, and the route along the Euphrates River valley is a dagger that goes right to the heart of Baghdad.”