Gunmen waved their weapons in Fallujah's streets and outside car windows Saturday, cheering what they called a victory as U.S. forces pulled back. But the Marines insisted they weren't going far and a new Iraqi force taking the front line will root out die-hard insurgents. The new "Fallujah Brigade," put together by Iraqi generals from Saddam Hussein's ousted regime, likely will include some former army soldiers who fought American forces over the past month, Marine Lt. Gen. James Conway said. He promised, however, that anyone who has "blood on their hands" would not be allowed to stay in the force. Another military official acknowledged that the United States didn't know who the individual members of the force were and that its fighters and commanders still had to be vetted to ensure that they are not connected to crimes of the Saddam regime. The force's leadership could be changed soon because of the screening process.
| Not a completely baked idea, eh? |
Scores of Iraqis gathered in the streets Saturday morning, some flashing "V" for victory signs and raising the Iraqi flag. Motorists drove through the streets, shouting "Islam, it's your day!" and "We redeem Islam with our blood!" Some were masked with kuffeyahs and raised automatic weapons, members of the insurgency that put up stiff resistance against the Marines. Some guerrillas drove through the city, honking horns and waving their guns out the windows.
| Demonstrates the superb discipline of Marine snipers -- I would have potted two or three of these jokers just on general principles. |
The new "Fallujah Brigade," led by Maj. Gen. Jassim Mohammed Saleh, fanned out and imposed a cordon around nearly the entire southern half of Fallujah, replacing Marines who were pulling back to set up a second cordon, some five miles from the city.
| Yep, let the FPA secure the area the Marines have already taken, so the Marines can get on with more important work. |
The willingness to install a relatively unknown armed force with ties to the ousted regime at the forefront of the Fallujah standoff was a sign of U.S. eagerness to find a way out of the siege, which raised an international outcry and angered many Iraqi leaders who supported the United States. A U.S. officer said the Fallujah model, though not a "hard and fast" policy, might be applied elsewhere.
| First see if it works here. I have my doubts... |
The force came about suddenly - a dramatic reversal less than a week after the United States was threatening to launch a new offensive into Fallujah. The former generals approached Marine commanders and offered to take over security duties in the city using their own former soldiers, the military official said.
| Who, keep in mind, are much better at ruthlessly suppressing the population than they are at fighting wars... |
Conway, commander of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, insisted that the U.S. withdrawal did not mean a let-up in the pursuit of the guerrillas. He said Saleh - who served in Saddam Hussein's Republican Guard and as a commander of the Iraqi army's 38th Infantry Division - has presented a plan to confront the city's hard-core militants. "They understand our view that these people must be killed or captured," Conway said. "They have not flinched. And their commander has said as much to his assembly of officers."
Conway said the Iraqi force will be made up of 1,100 fighters, mostly former army soldiers. Another senior U.S. military official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said about 700 fighters had been gathered under the force so far. Former Iraqi generals are putting together the force, and the ex-soldiers have been their "recruiting pool," Conway said. Conway said he was not concerned that the Iraqi forces, which will be under his overall command, might carry out atrocities or resort to unlawful methods in its hunt for insurgents. But he said Marines would be quick to stop them if they did. "We don't see any extremism in any fashion in this group of Iraqi general officers," he said. "We're not concerned about that at this point. ... There will be no horrific acts." By Saturday, all 700 Marines of the 1st Battalion, 5th Regiment had pulled out of the industrial zone in southern Fallujah, their main forward base in the city. If all goes well on Fallujah's south side, the Iraqi force will next replace Marines in the north within a few days, the official said. "We are not leaving, we will be right there behind them and will move in if things go wrong," the official said. |