Posted on 05/10/2004 10:23:23 AM PDT by Eurotwit
FALLUJAH, Iraq (AFP) - Celebratory gunfire ripped the Sunni Muslim bastion of Fallujah as US marines in a dozen armoured vehicles entered the war-battered city on a symbolic tour and met with local leaders.
Iraqi police and masked insurgents shot off rounds and people flooded the streets, waving Iraqi national flags and honking their car horns in jubilation over what they mistakenly believed was a deal between the marines and the city's leaders to scale back the US presence in Fallujah.
Locals said they believed if the city was quiet during the convoy tour marines would leave Fallujah for good.
But the marines immediately crushed the notion and said they would keep their positions around the edges of the city, rocked by the worst fighting in Iraq (news - web sites) since the US invasion last spring.
Major General James Mattis, commander of the 1st Marine Division, led the 20-vehicle convoy of marines, police and Iraqi Civil Defense Corps (ICDC) into the heart of the city, with ICDC members waving the old Iraqi flag.
The marines headed into meetings with the city's mayor and within an hour Iraqis erupted in joyous celebration as people tumbled into their cars and started their own impromptu victory parades.
Marine spokesman Major T.V. Johnson said Mattis reviewed plans with Fallujah's mayor and tribal sheikhs for establishing "conditions so we can get in there and start spending money on the city on various projects."
But Johnson expressed befuddlement about the swirling rumours among Fallujans that the marines were on the verge of a further withdrawal.
"Eventually we want to recede to the horizon ... but just because we have one meeting in town it doesn't mean we're leaving Fallujah."
But Johnson's word would have fallen on deaf ears in the city awash in a carnival-like atmosphere.
A caravan of some 20 vehicles including trucks full of young men waving AK-47 assault rifles toured around the centre of the city, blaring their horns as people gathered on the street to greet them.
"Saddam, your name shocks America," shouted a group of 10 men being driven in the bucket of a digger in the middle of the convoy. One of the flags on a van proclaimed: "Hail the heroes".
The sound of gunfire crackled in the area as the convoy passed by burnt-out cars, damaged homes and mosques, with rubble strewn around a minaret, in a reminder of April's fighting.
Bilal Mohammed, 23, was standing on the front seat of a BMW car with his head outside the sun roof, holding an AK-47.
"I feel like every Muslim Arab is feeling today, that we have a victory that God himself gave us -- a victory over the unbeliever Americans. This is the end now, and it will be much better than before."
Along the road, Yussef Mosaif, who draped himself in the traditional red, green, black and white Iraqi flag, said: "America is the enemy of the Fallujah people and will be till the end of our lives."
On the city's main street, police Sergeant Yassin Hamed said: "This is a victory for the people of Fallujah and for all the Iraqi people over the Americans."
Since the marines struck a deal with former Iraqi generals at the end of April, Fallujah has been patroled by Iraqi police and the newly-formed Fallujah Brigade, an ad-hoc force of army veterans, many of them with links to Saddam Hussein (news - web sites)'s old Baath party.
Until now, marines have manned joint checkpoints with Iraqi security teams on the city's periphery, but Monday's convoy stood as an effective test of the calm ruling Fallujah since the police, ICDC and Fallujah Brigade took over responsibility here last week.
Last month's fighting, prompted by the March 31 murder and mutilation of four US security contractors on the city's main street, left hundreds of Iraqis and scores of marines dead.
The convoy could herald a greater pullback of marines from the edge of the city and accelerate the process of restoring normality and pumping 77 million dollars of reconstruction funds into Fallujah.
Fallujah's northwestern neighborhood of Jolan remains a haven of insurgents and marines are deployed, alongside ICDC, outside the district.
The coalition wants the Fallujah Brigade and police to round up the insurgents' heavy weapons and start taking steps to find the culprits behind the March 31 murders, as well as a February 14 attack on Iraqi police and ICDC that killed more than 20 Iraqi officers.
Saddam - your bedpans are dumped by american guards...
Along the road, Yussef Mosaif, who draped himself in the traditional red, green, black and white Iraqi flag, said: "America is the enemy of the Fallujah people and will be till the end of our lives."
There were/are two choices:
1. Pull back and let the "arab street" see us as cowards
2. Flatten the place and have the "arab street" see us brutal occupiers
Between those two, I'll take #2.
And remember, fire going straight up is celebratory fire, fire going along the ground is hostile fire...
These people need a more reliable news source.
2) They ignore the fact that, in fact, an armored column went in without any "resistance" at all;
3) The press tries to explain this as "if we're quiet, the Americans will go for good."
Sorry. This won't fly. The Marines haven't gone anywhere.
The press WANTS you to think there are only two options while #3 is working pretty well.
So they thought that being quiet would make the Marines leave...so they could claim another phony "victory". DUH!
The entrance of the Nazi Army into Paris would no doubt be spun as a victory for the French by this media pack...
Michael
Looks like they view it as a religious war ...so be it..
That's the only action they would understand and respect us for.
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