Posted on 04/30/2004 12:13:23 PM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach
FALLUJAH, Iraq (AP) -
Iraqi forces took over positions from withdrawing Marines and raised the Iraqi flag at the entrance to Fallujah on Friday under a plan to end the monthlong siege of the city and shift security responsibilities to Iraqis led by a former general who served under Saddam Hussein.
Moves to end the siege, which drew strong criticism internationally and from America's Iraqi allies, began despite a suicide car bombing that killed two Marines and wounded six at a garrison on the outskirts of the city. U.S. officials provided no further details on the attack.
Negotiations were also taking place in the southern city of Najaf, where tribal leaders and police discussed a proposal to end a standoff between soldiers and militiamen loyal to radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.
In a sermon, al-Sadr remained defiant, saying he rejected "any appeasement with the occupation." Still, mediators said al-Sadr and U.S. officials agreed to a truce due to last through Sunday.
Elsewhere, an Iraqi police colonel, Ahmad al-Khazraji, was shot dead Thursday night in downtown Baghdad, the U.S. command said Friday. The body of a Baghdad area council member was found hung with a sign on his chest that said "al-Mahdi Army business," a reference to al-Sadr's militia.
Convoys of U.S. troops and equipment could be seen heading out of parts of Fallujah, replaced by red-bereted Iraqi troopers. Residents said that by Friday evening, U.S. troops had left several neighborhoods that had been the scene of heavy fighting, including Nazzal, Shuhada, Nueimiyah and the industrial area. As U.S. Marines withdrew, Iraqi police and civil defense units moved in.
"Initially it appears that the transition ... working," Marine Lt. Col. Brennan Byrne said. He described the plan as "the Iraqi solution we've all been looking for in this area."
In Baghdad, Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt, coalition deputy operations chief, insisted the Marines were not withdrawing from Fallujah, one of the most hostile cities in the tense Sunni Triangle, but were simply "repositioning." He insisted the Marines would maintain a strong presence "in and around Fallujah."
"The coalition objectives remain unchanged - to eliminate armed groups, collect and positively control all heavy weapons and turn over foreign fighters and disarm anti-Iraqi insurgents in Fallujah," Kimmitt said.
Asked if the Marines were leaving Fallujah, Kimmitt replied: "Nothing could be further from the truth."
Nevertheless, the move appeared aimed at reducing the American profile at a time of growing opposition among Iraqis to the U.S.-led occupation. The deal was announced at the end of the bloodiest month for American forces - and for Iraqis as well - since President George W. Bush launched the Iraq war in March 2003. At least 136 U.S. troops died in April.
The plan for Fallujah's security also marked a shift in the U.S. strategy which had marginalized former members of Saddam's Baath Party and abolished the Iraqi army last year. The commander of the new Fallujah Brigade, Maj. Gen. Jassim Mohammed Saleh, once served in Saddam's Republican Guard. He arrived in this besieged city Friday wearing his old uniform to the cheers of bystanders.
Under the plan, a force of 600 to 1,100 Iraqis, many of them former soldiers from the Fallujah area, would be used initially to man checkpoints around the city. Marines will remain on or near the city's perimeter and plan at a later stage to conduct their own patrols inside the city, a Pentagon official said on condition of anonymity.
Gen. John Abizaid, chief of U.S. military operations in the Middle East, told reporters at the Pentagon that the United States was sticking by most of the objectives it outlined when the Marines stormed Fallujah on April 5 - mainly to seize the men who brutally killed four American contractors. But Abizaid conceded that the killers had probably already fled the city.
He seemed to soften on previous demands that the guerrillas hand over foreign fighters and heavy weapons to U.S. forces.
"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."
Foreign fighters, too, may have fled the city, a top U.S. military official in Baghdad said on Thursday. Others question whether many foreign fighters had ever joined the battle in Fallujah, characterizing it instead as a homegrown uprising. And weapons coming "off the streets" appears to be a softening of the previous demands to "turn over" heavy weapons to the Marines.
"Initially it appears that the transition to the Fallujah Protective Army is working. It's a delicate situation. The Fallujah Protective Army is the Iraqi solution we've all been looking for in this area," Marine Lt. Col. Brennan Byrne said.
U.S. officials sought to draw attention Kimmitt said he had no information on Saleh's background, but that the commander had been vetted by the Marines who had full confidence in him. A former general in the Iraqi army, Mohammed al-Askari, said Saleh served in the Republican Guards in the 1980s. He later commanded an Iraqi army division and headed the army's infantry forces.
"Fallujah residents have chosen Maj. Gen. Jassim Mohammed Saleh to form and lead a unit that will be in charge of protecting the city," said Iraqi Brig. Gen. Shakir al-Janabi, who expects to be part of the new force. "Our force will handle the security issue today in cooperation with Iraqi police."
One of three battalions of U.S. Marines packed up and withdrew from most of its positions in an industrial zone in the southern area of the city. U.S. military guards permitted civilian cars to enter the city after undergoing searches.
In an apparent move to speed the Fallujah agreement, U.S. authorities Thursday released the imam of the city's main mosque, Sheik Jamal Shaker Nazzal, an outspoken opponent of the U.S. occupation who was arrested in October.
The chief of Fallujah's hospital, Rafie al-Issawi, said at least 731 Iraqis, many of them civilians, were killed since the siege began on April 5. But earlier figures were disputed by Iraq's health ministry and an exact toll was not known. At least 10 Marines have died during the siege.
Ten U.S. soldiers and a South African civilian were killed in attacks elsewhere in Iraq on Thursday, including eight Americans who died when a bomb hit as they tried to clear explosives from a road south of Baghdad.
Friday's American deaths raised to 128 the number of U.S. troops killed in combat in April, the bloodiest month for U.S. forces in Iraq.
At least 738 U.S. troops have died in Iraq since the war began in March 2003. Up to 1,200 Iraqis also have been killed this month.
In Najaf, negotiations continued in to end the standoff with militiamen loyal to al-Sadr.
Ahmed Shaybani, a spokesman for al-Sadr, told The Associated Press that talks were under way between Najaf police and tribal leaders. He said a proposal emerged under which al-Sadr followers would hand over security to the Najaf police and Sadr's Mahdi army would leave the city.
Shaybani said the proposal would be accepted if the Americans agreed not to enter Najaf and did not act in a hostile way toward its holy sites. Al-Sadr would remain in the city.
In a sermon at a mosque in nearby Kufa, al-Sadr remained defiant.
"Some people have asked me to tone down my words and to avoid escalation with the Americans," al-Sadr said. "My response is that I reject any appeasement with the occupation and I will not give up defending the rights of the believers. America is the enemy of Islam and Muslims and jihad is the path of my ancestors."
Lt. Col. Pat White said U.S. forces were holding back to give talks a chance and out of respect for Friday, the Islamic day of prayer.
"We want to show that we respect what that day means to the Islamic world," White said, adding that U.S. forces will closely monitor the speeches that clerics give at prayer services.
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Associated Press correspondents Katarina Kratovac and Jason Keyser in Fallujah, and Denis D. Gray and Scheherazade Faramarzi in Najaf contributed to this report.
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Fallujah pullback opportunity, not necessarily agreement to end fight: Abizaid (MUST READ!!!)
Which BTW could be the best possible outcome for us so long as they remain pro-American.
Are they going to wear 'New-World-Order-NATO' uniforms?
/scarism?
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Today: April 30, 2004 at 13:01:42 PDT
FALLUJAH, Iraq (AP) -
The general chosen to lead a security force for Fallujah is a former Iraqi Republican Guard who headed Saddam Hussein's infantry and has strong family ties to the besieged city, according to relatives and former colleagues.
Maj. Gen. Jassim Mohammed Saleh, 49, led up to 1,100 Iraqis as they began taking up positions Friday from U.S. Marines in southeastern Fallujah. He shook hands with Marine commanders at a post on the southeastern entry to the city, 35 miles west of Baghdad.
The Marines have conducted a monthlong siege of the city of 200,000 to pressure anti-American fighters to give up their heavy weapons.
Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt, a U.S. military spokesman, offered no details about Saleh's background but said the Marines had screened the former general and had full confidence in him. Officials of the U.S.-led coalition also said they had not information on Salah's history.
However, a former Iraqi general, Mohammed al-Askari, said Saleh served in Iraq's elite Republican Guards in the 1980s and later commanded the 38th Infantry Division of the Iraqi army.
He was then promoted to head all of the Iraqi army's infantry forces, al-Askari said. His last posting was as a division commander in the al-Quds (Jerusalem) army, which was initially founded to liberate Jerusalem but grew into a vast paramilitary force.
In that capacity, he spent the war last year assigned to a military base in Ramadi, just west of Fallujah, according to Haroun Mohammed, an Iraqi journalist based in London.
Saleh also has deep roots in Fallujah. Another London-based Iraqi journalist, Osama al-Fahaly, said Saleh is a Fallujah native and belongs to the Mohammadi tribe, the town's largest, and is a close relative of the tribe's leader. Fallujah natives reached in neighboring Jordan confirmed Saleh is a well-known figure in the clan.
One relative of Saleh's, who spoke in Jordan on condition of anonymity, said Saleh attended the Iraqi military academy in Baghdad and distinguished himself as a quiet and stable personality. He graduated in 1989 from a special academy for high-ranking officers, the man said.
The man said Saleh was a member of Saddam's Baath Party - as was every member of the Iraqi army - but was never seen as a political figure and never rose in the party ranks.
He said Saleh was well-liked by the soldiers and officers who worked with him.
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AP correspondent Shafika Mattar in Amman, Jordan, contributed to this report.
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Actually that would not be a good thing. Remember there was a time, up until the late 70s, when Iran used to be one of our biggest allies (the biggest in the M-E after Israel). Goodness, we even went as far as to sell/give them F-14 TomCats. Anyways, the Shah of Iran was nothing more than a despot, and we supported him and ensured he kept power (and all the while he was crushing his people).
It was so easy for the Ayatollahs to spur the rabble to action, paint the US as the 'evil puppeteer' behind the scenes, and after the revolution Iran went from friend to public enemy.
The thing about Iraq is this .....any government that takes over after June 30th must be better than what was there under Saddam. If it isn't it will be all too easy for the clerics to paint a picture that depicts the US as nothing more than people who came to disrupt their country (the old better the devil you know ...). That might be why GW is emphasising that the government should be democratic.
I personally feel the whole 'hearts and minds' thing is a difficult thing to do in the ME, but when it comes to Iraq we really have to ensure it is as much a success as possible. Coupe de tats, especially those that happen to be taken over by bad people who at the same time happen to be pro-American, would be a veritable poison-pill to anything we are trying to do in Iraq.
I forget. When we were killing a hundred or so rebels every day and night in Fallujah with snipers, tanks and gunships... was that a truce or a ceasefire?
The main "source of attacks" has been Muslim fundamentalists, aided by the technical resources of Saddam's guys (don't forget, while Saddam was initially simply a leftist Arab nationalist, once he could cash in on Muslim hatred of freedom and the West, he rushed to do so).
We're not turning anything over to the locals; we are making some of them responsible for things they should have taken responsibility for long ago. The part of Fallujah they are "taking over" has already been pacified, and we are still shooting at the rest of it.
When Spain bailed on us, we realized that Europe is a waste of time, and there's no need to court them anymore. We can forget Europe and find Iraqi allies now.
We have spent too much time wondering WWET (What Would Europe Think?).
Finally,......a WMD is 'found'.
/scarism
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