April 3, 2004
By Edmund Sanders and Tony Perry
Los Angeles Times
FALLUJAH, Iraq - The charred bodies have been cut down from a bridge over the Euphrates River but the shadows of the four American security contractors who were killed here continue to fall over this restive Iraqi town.
As leaders in United States and Iraq huddle to map their next moves in Fallujah, the key actors on the ground are showing no signs of being able to prevent a fierce clash.
A day earlier, a senior U.S. military official said the American forces would not embark on ``a pell-mell rush'' into Fallujah, and that any military strike ``will be precise'' and ``overwhelming.''
On the outskirts of the city Friday night, battalions from the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force geared for a battle, setting up checkpoints and camps in preparation for their eventual return to the hostile city. As they braced against one of the season's first blistering sandstorms, several Marines said they were rearing to avenge Wednesday's brutal killings.
``I've got a lot of hate inside me but I try to put that aside,'' said Sgt. Eric Nordwig, 29, of Riverside, Calif., a veteran of the battle to topple Saddam Hussein. ``We just sit and take it and be mortared.'' The time has come to ``clean up the town,'' he said.
In Washington, Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz briefed members of the House Armed Services Committee on plans for retaliation in Fallujah. Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., the committee's chairman, said the classified briefing suggested that a reprisal may entail the use of U.S. air power.
``Obviously, we have very competent people who have since the beginning of the war against terrorism have the ability and know-how to put together a blueprint to, number one, identify the perpetrators of the terrorist actions, and number two, to hunt them down and eliminate them,'' Hunter said.
Inside Fallujah, many of the city's quarter-million residents warned of further bloodshed if the Marines return.
In an interview before Friday prayers, a senior Fallujah cleric made no apologies for the attack on the four Americans as they drove through the town Wednesday morning, but condemned the subsequent mutilation of corpses and dragging of the bodies through the streets.
``The killing is legitimate,'' said Khalid Ahmed Salih, cleric at the Al-Badawi mosque. ``But we do not accept the mutilation of the bodies. Islam orders us not to do that to a dog. No decent man will accept this.''
Fallujah residents called the attack a justified response to a Marine patrol through the city last week that ended in a firefight killing one Marine and about 18 Iraqis, including some civilians.
``It is inevitable that the sons of Fallujah will kill the Americans and mutilate their corpses,'' said Fallujah resident Fadhil Badrani. ``Though mutilation is not allowed in Islam, the grudge and malice in the hearts of the people led them to do this because of the repeated American prov- ocation.''
Such reactions are disappointing to U.S. officials, who have been pushing Fallujah's clerics and local government officials to condemn the attacks and help catch those who took part. A public call to Fallujah citizens for assistance in the case has yielded a few tips, Marine officials said.