RAMADI, Iraq — American and Iraqi troops have begun joint patrols as the final pieces of the massive security operation for the Jan. 30 elections begin to take shape.

On Wednesday, soldiers from the 1st Battalion, 9th Infantry Regiment and an elite Iraqi unit dubbed the Freedom Guard walked side by side through the markets and streets of the Tamim district of Ramadi, drawing smiles and stares from curious crowds.

“Iraqi, Ameriki,” some of the bystanders yelled, placing their two index fingers together in an Iraqi gesture meaning “together.”

The first joint patrol for the two units inaugurates a relationship U.S. commanders say will be crucial in achieving two goals: providing security for the vote, and creating an eventual exit for the 150,000 U.S. troops in Iraq.

“This is one of the best things we’ve done since getting here,” said 1st Lt. Judson Bennett, executive officer of unit’s Company A.

“The Iraqis are seeing a local face on the troops in the streets, and they’re giving it a good reception. It’s hard to beat,” said Bennett, 25, from Vancouver, Wash.

Indeed, when the patrol drove to the center of the main market in Tamim and emerged from American armored vehicles, the crowds of locals seemed a little confused. The Iraqi soldiers — many of whom fought alongside U.S. Marines in the November Fallujah offensive — quickly took up security positions and showed tactical discipline that pleasantly surprised the American soldiers.

Soon, the Iraqis and Americans were walking through the markets, mingling with growing crowds of men, women and children. The Iraqi soldiers, a bit tense in the beginning, began smiling and joking with the locals.

“This is what these guys can do that we can’t,” said Staff Sgt. Steve Mollnhauer, a 33-year-old infantry scout from Orlando, Fla. Mollnhauer and the rest of the battalion are among 3,500 2nd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division troops who deployed to Iraq from South Korea last fall.

The irony of joint American and Iraqi forces, which fought against each other in two wars over a decade’s span, was not lost on many.

“Man, this is downright strange,” said one soldier, as English and Arabic transmissions crackled across military radios.

The Iraqi soldiers’ presence made an immediate difference. When a group of children near a fruit stand in the market began screaming and crying after seeing the troops, an Iraqi soldier walked over, calmed them and bought them a bunch of bananas.

A few minutes later, a child from a different group of youngsters approached the Iraqi commander of the Freedom Guard — who goes simply by the name Lt. James — and said he knew where insurgents lived nearby.

“I held a few pieces of candy and said I’d give them to him if he pointed out the house. And he did,” Lt. James said.

It was an act nearly unthinkable, because of the language barrier alone, if the patrol had been made up only of U.S. troops.

The soldiers searched the house, discovering what the Iraqi troops called a “martyr’s room,” which they said had been used as a preparation site by suicide bombers. The room contained green banners, fundamentalist religious writing and a portrait of the presumed martyr.

While not a massive discovery, the find was a small example of what U.S. officials hope the joint patrols — and eventually, an Iraqi defense force capable of standing on its own — lead to.

The first major test for the Freedom Guard, and other similar Iraqi units, will come in less than two weeks. The American military, wary of appearing to influence the vote, is handing the Iraqis the closest line of physical security at the polling stations.

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