U.S. Marines to End Siege of Fallujah

[Trident-za]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20040429/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq&cid=540&ncid=1480


FALLUJAH, Iraq - All Marine forces will end the siege of Fallujah, pulling back to allow a newly created, all-Iraqi security force to move into the city starting Friday under a new agreement, a Marine commander said.
The new force, known as the Fallujah Protective Army, will be made up of up to 1,100 Iraqi soldiers led by a former general from the militart of Saddam Hussein (news - web sites), Lt. Col. Brennan Byrne said.



Not sure if this will work in the long-run, but I'm glad to see someone high up at least has the good sense to try something like this.... if the Marines ultimately have to assault Falluja, the fact that this was tried might prevent other Iraqi's from getting too pissed off.

[Spearin]

Probably a good move politically, I still am unsure whether it will be good militarily... we'll just have to see though.

[Lysander]

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=516306

The article talks about a second "mutiny" in the ranks of the new Iraqi army. It also mentions that the Iraqis willing to fight in Falluja are made up mostly of Kurds.

[Damian]

Very bad news :( :( :(

[Uncle Sam]

I can't wait to see this....... :|

[LordHalbert]

This move is just stupid.

The Marines should've finished the job weeks ago.

This smacks of weakness to the world and to the rebels. If the Marines pull back and leave, the rebels have won and the future of Iraq will be compromised.

the Marines that have already died in this effort deserve far better. If they are ordered to pack up and leave then their sacrifice was for naught.

They deserve victory.

[shooter0311]

I totally agree LordHalbert. The only end is Absolute Victory.

Fox News is reporting there is no pull out. Some Marine units are repositioning that's all. The enemy are moving their troops so we move to counter. The great chess board that is war.

The pool reporter from the LA times jumped the gun on reporting this. :slap:


Semper Fi
Shooter

[MEGR]

Hey. I guess this is good news. The marines aren't ending the siege, they are just repositioning troops. Here's the article ==>http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,118499,00.html

[Truthsayer]

Baghdad Bob: "It's not an retreat, it's an tactical assualt backwards."

[UkrainianAmerican]

Baghdad Bob: "It's not an retreat, it's an tactical assualt backwards."
shut the f*ck up, retard.

[seruriermarshal]

So bad message , lose those more soldiers , Now ......

[Truthsayer]

Baghdad Bob: "It's not an retreat, it's an tactical assualt backwards."
shut the f*ck up, retard.

How about you take your own advice, you criminal.

[MEGR]

This is what i'm getting from foxnews right now. Yes, they are trying to negotiate some sort of settlement, but troops right now are still just repositioning. The request to turn over heavy weapons if still in effect, but for some reason, they are turning over fighting positions and patrols to a former Repub Guard general and Iraqi troops.

[n_shanygin]

Baghdad Bob: "It's not an retreat, it's an tactical assualt backwards."

lol

[Bootneck]

Note the items in bold. This is a big mistake (on many levels) in my humble opinion.


U.S. Marines Hand Falluja to Former Saddam General

*******

By Fadel Badran

FALLUJA, Iraq (*******) - U.S. Marines handed control of Falluja to a former general in Saddam Hussein (news - web sites)'s Republican Guard on Friday but fresh clashes showed that a month of fighting with Sunni Muslim insurgents was not over.

In a reversal of Washington's previous policy of excluding members of Saddam's Baathist regime from power, Jasim Mohamed Saleh told ******* his new force would help police bring order and relieve a month-long siege that has cost hundreds of lives.

"We have now begun forming a new emergency military force," he said, saying the people of Falluja "rejected" U.S. troops.

Marine commander Lieutenant General James Conway told the New York Times that Saleh, who was greeted by cheering crowds in his home town, would lead about 900 former Iraqi soldiers.

Hours later, dozens of explosions shook Falluja as fighting erupted suddenly in the eastern outskirts, residents said.

U.S. officials have struggled to stamp out open insurrection in Falluja while avoiding more bloodshed that has cost more American lives in April than any other month in Iraq (news - web sites) and turned many Iraqis against them. They have begun to recruit some former Baath party members to help restore order and basic services.

President Bush (news - web sites), watching sliding poll numbers ahead of November's presidential election, gave commanders a free hand in Falluja this week and the Pentagon (news - web sites) sent more tanks.

But the improvised peace deal appeared to have averted an all-out assault on the city of 300,000 -- for the time being.

"This is a minute-by-minute, hour-by-hour, day-by-day proposition," one Marine officer said, as men and machines ground their way back from positions south and west of the city.

Since Bush declared an end to "major combat operations" a year ago on Saturday, 426 U.S. service personnel have been killed in action in Iraq, 125 of them in April alone. Fewer than 100 died in the three weeks it took to topple Saddam.

Winning over Iraqi opinion is important for Washington as it prepares to hand over formal sovereignty to an interim government in Baghdad on June 30 while leaving more than 100,000 U.S. troops in a country where many are clearly still hostile.

Washington suffered a public relations blow in that regard on Friday when Arab television channels broadcast pictures, first aired in the United States, seeming to show U.S. soldiers abusing Iraqi prisoners in Saddam's notorious Abu Ghraib prison.

EX-INSURGENTS "WELCOME"

The U.S. Marines around Falluja looked to have held onto strongpoints dominating the northern Golan district, where fighting has been fiercest. On Thursday evening, bombers pounded insurgent positions there.

It was unclear what influence the new Iraqi force in Falluja has over the estimated 2,000 or so guerrillas, some of whom U.S. officials say are diehard Saddam supporters in a city once fiercely loyal to his minority Sunni-dominated regime.

Some 200 foreign Islamic militants have also been active, U.S. commanders and Iraqi officials in Baghdad say. Local doctors say about 600 people died in fighting in Falluja.

The Marine officer said that if those who had been fighting in Falluja joined Saleh's force that would not be a problem for the U.S. forces: "It's not a bad thing because they're not on the wrong side," he told ******* near Falluja.

Hundreds of people, some waving the Saddam-era Iraqi flag, cheered the former general as he was driven into the center of his home town wearing his military uniform.

A relative of Saleh said he had been chief-of-staff of a brigade of the elite Republican Guard before transferring to a regular infantry division. Senior officers were expected to be members of Saddam's Baath party.

The U.S. occupying authority disbanded the 375,000-strong Iraqi armed forces after last year's war.

People who had fled homes in Falluja lined up at military checkpoints to return but troops let few pass into the town.

MIXED REACTIONS

Iraqis who suffered oppression by Saddam's armed forces had mixed feelings about the move in Falluja.

Mahmoud Othman, a Kurd on the U.S.-appointed Governing Council, said it was worthwhile to end fighting. But he added: "It's not a good precedent...As usual, the Americans, without consulting anyone at all, have gone ahead with a policy to replace an earlier, failed policy...I'm not crazy about coming back to make a deal with someone from the Republican Guard."

Further details of the accord remained elusive. U.S. demands that Marines launch joint patrols with Iraqi police inside town appeared to have been dropped. There was no word on a call to local people to hand over the killers of four U.S. contractors whose bodies were publicly mutilated, prompting the U.S. siege.

Ten deaths on Thursday meant nearly a quarter of the 534 U.S. combat deaths in 13 months in Iraq have occurred in April.

Around the southern holy city of Najaf, U.S. forces are tightening a squeeze on the Mehdi Army militia loyal to rebel cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, who has taken refuge among shrines sacred to Iraq's long oppressed Shi'ite Muslim majority. (Additional reporting by Michael Georgy and Akram Saleh in Falluja, Ghaith Abdul-Ahad and Gleb Bryanski in Najaf, and Tom Perry, Michael Battye and Joseph Logan in Baghdad)

[seruriermarshal]

It's a matter , but still need more information about this event ......

[MEGR]

The people in Fallujah rejected US troops? Wow, didn't think that would happen (sarcasm). The Marines were kicking arse and not taking names, and to hand over patrols to new Iraqi recruits for the sake of the people that burned and mutilated US dead is just plain strange.. There is some sort of motive backing this crap up.