HELEX
05-01-2004, 09:09 AM
Iraqis Celebrate Fallujah Pullout
FALLUJAH, Iraq — Scores of Iraqis took to the streets of Fallujah (search) on Saturday to celebrate the withdrawal of U.S. Marines (search), who turned most of their positions over to Iraqi security forces under part of agreement to end the monthlong siege of the city.
U.S. commanders, however, vowed that the troops would return if the Iraqis failed to maintain order.
In Fallujah, people gathered in the streets Saturday morning, some flashing "V" for victory signs and raising the Iraqi flag. Their numbers increased as the day went on.
Said Abide, who fled the city during the fighting, returned Friday to be reunited with his family.
"I'm happy to see my sons, my wife and grandsons again. I'm happy to see them alive," said Abide, a grocer.
Violence persisted, however.
On Friday, two Marines were killed in a car bombing and two sailors died in another incident, raising the death toll to 138 for April, adding to what was already the deadliest month for American forces since the war began in March 2003. Some 1,360 Iraqis have also died, according to a count by The Associated Press — more than in any month since Saddam Hussein's fall.
The two Marines were killed outside of Fallujah. There were no details on the deaths of the sailors, who were assigned to the Marine force in the region.
In the northern city of Mosul, a roadside bomb blast killed two foreign security contractors and wounded five other foreigners, the U.S. military and witnesses said. There was no immediate information on the nationalities of the foreigners.
Private companies provide security for top officials in Iraq and also guard supply convoys.
Members of the U.S.-appointed Governing Council praised the agreement to lift the siege of Fallujah, saying it spared the city an all-out Marine assault and would help reduce tensions that were inflaming anti-American anger throughout Iraq.
"The withdrawal is a good step to defuse the crisis and spare bloodshed," said Dara Nor al-Din, a Kurdish member of the council. "There is wisdom in that."
The United States was facing strong international pressure to peacefully resolve the standoff outside the city and many U.S. officials feared that attacking the city would be extremely bloody.
The security plan for Fallujah also marked a shift in U.S. strategy, which abolished the Iraqi army last year and called for marginalizing former members of Saddam's Baath Party.
Under the plan, a force of 600 to 1,100 Iraqis, many of them former soldiers from the Fallujah area, are to man checkpoints inside of the city. Marines will remain on or near the city's perimeter and at a later stage conduct their own patrols inside the city.
At the checkpoint at the main eastern entrance to the city, the commander of the Iraqi force, Maj. Gen. Jassim Mohammed Salih, shook hands with Col. John Toolan, commander of the 1st Marine Regiment, as Iraqi forces raised their own flag over a checkpoint that Marines turned over.
Salih — a burly ex-member of Saddam's Republican Guard with a Saddam-style mustache — arrived in the city to residents' cheers.
Convoys of U.S. troops and equipment could be seen heading out of parts of Fallujah, replaced by Iraqi troopers from the new force clad in red-berets.
"Initially it appears that the transition to the Fallujah Protective Army is working," said Marine. Lt. Col. Brennan Byrne. "It's a delicate situation. The Fallujah Protective Army is the Iraqi solution we've all been looking for in this area."
The Fallujah force will be under the ultimate command of the U.S. Marines.
Gen. John Abizaid, chief of U.S. operations in the Middle East warned that "it may be necessary to have a strong fight in there," if the insurgents don't cooperate.
Abizaid said the United States was sticking to most of the objectives outlined when the Marines stormed Fallujah on April 5 — mainly to seize men who killed and mutilated four American contractors and force foreign fighters to leave the city.
"Clearly, we will not tolerate the presence of foreign fighters," Abizaid said. "We will insist on the heavy weapons coming off the streets. We want the Marines to have freedom of maneuver along with the Iraqi security forces."
He appeared, however, to soften from initial demands that heavy weapons are turned over to security forces.
For Marine Pfc. Andrew Twocrow, the withdrawal was bittersweet.
One of Twocrow's buddies was killed in an ambush in Fallujah.
"After that I was upset. I wanted to stay there and fight it to the end," he said.
But Twocrow, from Ignatio, Colo. said the withdrawal also meant that he could finally take a hot shower.
"In a way it feels good, to actually take a shower and sleep in my bed rather than in the dirt," said Twocrow.
Negotiations were also taking place in the southern city of Najaf, where tribal leaders and police agreed to a three-day truce as part of a plan to resolve a standoff between soldiers and militiamen loyal to radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,118730,00.html
FALLUJAH, Iraq — Scores of Iraqis took to the streets of Fallujah (search) on Saturday to celebrate the withdrawal of U.S. Marines (search), who turned most of their positions over to Iraqi security forces under part of agreement to end the monthlong siege of the city.
U.S. commanders, however, vowed that the troops would return if the Iraqis failed to maintain order.
In Fallujah, people gathered in the streets Saturday morning, some flashing "V" for victory signs and raising the Iraqi flag. Their numbers increased as the day went on.
Said Abide, who fled the city during the fighting, returned Friday to be reunited with his family.
"I'm happy to see my sons, my wife and grandsons again. I'm happy to see them alive," said Abide, a grocer.
Violence persisted, however.
On Friday, two Marines were killed in a car bombing and two sailors died in another incident, raising the death toll to 138 for April, adding to what was already the deadliest month for American forces since the war began in March 2003. Some 1,360 Iraqis have also died, according to a count by The Associated Press — more than in any month since Saddam Hussein's fall.
The two Marines were killed outside of Fallujah. There were no details on the deaths of the sailors, who were assigned to the Marine force in the region.
In the northern city of Mosul, a roadside bomb blast killed two foreign security contractors and wounded five other foreigners, the U.S. military and witnesses said. There was no immediate information on the nationalities of the foreigners.
Private companies provide security for top officials in Iraq and also guard supply convoys.
Members of the U.S.-appointed Governing Council praised the agreement to lift the siege of Fallujah, saying it spared the city an all-out Marine assault and would help reduce tensions that were inflaming anti-American anger throughout Iraq.
"The withdrawal is a good step to defuse the crisis and spare bloodshed," said Dara Nor al-Din, a Kurdish member of the council. "There is wisdom in that."
The United States was facing strong international pressure to peacefully resolve the standoff outside the city and many U.S. officials feared that attacking the city would be extremely bloody.
The security plan for Fallujah also marked a shift in U.S. strategy, which abolished the Iraqi army last year and called for marginalizing former members of Saddam's Baath Party.
Under the plan, a force of 600 to 1,100 Iraqis, many of them former soldiers from the Fallujah area, are to man checkpoints inside of the city. Marines will remain on or near the city's perimeter and at a later stage conduct their own patrols inside the city.
At the checkpoint at the main eastern entrance to the city, the commander of the Iraqi force, Maj. Gen. Jassim Mohammed Salih, shook hands with Col. John Toolan, commander of the 1st Marine Regiment, as Iraqi forces raised their own flag over a checkpoint that Marines turned over.
Salih — a burly ex-member of Saddam's Republican Guard with a Saddam-style mustache — arrived in the city to residents' cheers.
Convoys of U.S. troops and equipment could be seen heading out of parts of Fallujah, replaced by Iraqi troopers from the new force clad in red-berets.
"Initially it appears that the transition to the Fallujah Protective Army is working," said Marine. Lt. Col. Brennan Byrne. "It's a delicate situation. The Fallujah Protective Army is the Iraqi solution we've all been looking for in this area."
The Fallujah force will be under the ultimate command of the U.S. Marines.
Gen. John Abizaid, chief of U.S. operations in the Middle East warned that "it may be necessary to have a strong fight in there," if the insurgents don't cooperate.
Abizaid said the United States was sticking to most of the objectives outlined when the Marines stormed Fallujah on April 5 — mainly to seize men who killed and mutilated four American contractors and force foreign fighters to leave the city.
"Clearly, we will not tolerate the presence of foreign fighters," Abizaid said. "We will insist on the heavy weapons coming off the streets. We want the Marines to have freedom of maneuver along with the Iraqi security forces."
He appeared, however, to soften from initial demands that heavy weapons are turned over to security forces.
For Marine Pfc. Andrew Twocrow, the withdrawal was bittersweet.
One of Twocrow's buddies was killed in an ambush in Fallujah.
"After that I was upset. I wanted to stay there and fight it to the end," he said.
But Twocrow, from Ignatio, Colo. said the withdrawal also meant that he could finally take a hot shower.
"In a way it feels good, to actually take a shower and sleep in my bed rather than in the dirt," said Twocrow.
Negotiations were also taking place in the southern city of Najaf, where tribal leaders and police agreed to a three-day truce as part of a plan to resolve a standoff between soldiers and militiamen loyal to radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,118730,00.html