Still under fire, US troops shifting to relief effort

The men from Fallujah gathered on the red carpet inside their mosque to vent their anger. Instead of feeling liberated, they said the violence of the US offensive to take control of their city - in the heart of Iraq's insurgency - has deepened their hatred.

These men came to collect food from US and Iraqi forces at the Hadra Mohamadiya Mosque, and were secretly given a swab test for recent explosives handling, something that might mark them as insurgents.

They were clean. But the bitter tone of their remarks sheds light on what drives Iraq's insurgency, and how hard it will be to stamp out.

"When you captured Saddam Hussein, I was very happy, and not fighting Americans, but you used your guns, and your military debased me," says Mahmoud al-Samarrai, who says his house was hit by US airstrikes. "I am very angry. I hate all Christians, because you killed my family, my city, and my mosques."

As US and Iraqi commanders on the ground debate the effectiveness of the battle so far, a key issue is becoming how to address such anger and when to ease the military operations. Senior Iraqi officers argue that it is time to shift from pure military actions to rebuilding. US Marine and Army officers - who launched a blistering tank attack Wednesday in southern Fallujah - say they are still under fire, and so the warfighting is not yet done.

"We're in this gray area between decisive operations and stability and support," says Lt. Col. Michael Ramos, commander of the 1st Battalion 3rd Marines, which controls northeast Fallujah. "Unfortunately, we're still finding huge weapons caches, and people holed up in houses fighting us."

US officials plan to pay for the rebuilding of much of the city, including cash for damage to houses like Mr. Samarrai's. Samarrai's world view does not include the insurgents, who often used Fallujah's mosques for weapons caches, and its minarets as sniper positions.

The marines say their experience last April, when they invaded Fallujah to quell an uprising and were ordered to halt before they could take half the city - has taught them the risks of pulling back. Since April, insurgents and Islamist cells loyal to Al Qaeda affiliate Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, regrouped and turned the city into the primary base of the insurgency.

Completion involves "cleaning out remaining pocket of resistance; all the explosive are truly a safety hazard," says Marine Maj. Gen. Richard F. Natonski, 1st Marine Division commander, in an interview.

"Wednesday, an insurgent was killed putting an [explosive] in a refrigerator. What I'm afraid of is that civilians will come back and find booby traps in their homes. So we're going to get rid of as much of that as we can."

"The Iraqi [top brass] are concerned about public perception, they want an amnesty for these people," says Maj. Mike Zacchea, an adviser and liaison to Iraqi forces at the Hadra mosque. "The Marines Corps way of fighting is to break the will [of the enemy] to fight."

The Iraqis say that, "if you've got 90 percent done, and insist on [militarily] going after the remaining 10 percent - every last one - you could lose that 90 percent we gained," says Major Zacchea.

Page: 1 | 2