Fallujah's city council battles to hold its ground

Despite threats from insurgents, Iraqi leaders meet weekly to address the concerns of citizens.

"You haven't done anything," says Jassim Bedawi. "When Sheikh Kamal and Sheikh Hamza got killed, what had you citizens done to prevent their deaths?"

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Mayor Bedawi is a rare phenomenon: an Iraqi still willing to participate in a democratic institution once seen as central to the rebuilding of Iraq. No other city council operates in the insurgent-riddled Anbar Province. But the embattled Bedawi - whose family, like those of other members, is under threat of kidnapping or worse - continues to forge ahead in one of the most stressful jobs the city has to offer. No debates over parking or playground equipment occupy his agenda. Issues of life and death occupy him and a number of city councilors who meet every Tuesday - as well as the question of whether they will survive a US pullback from the city. The Marine presence is reviled by many here, even though many recognize its importance to maintain some level of protection and even reconstruction.

"The people of Fallujah are not standing with me," the mayor complains, saying that without such support, asking for help from the central government could "get my head cut off, or a member of my family kidnapped."

"Citizens can't just come here and make requests," says Bedawi. "They must also give support."

Two years after US marines invaded Fallujah to force out insurgents who had made the city off limits to US forces, militants are filtering back into the city, despite only six entry points, which are heavily guarded. Since August, they have waged a campaign of intimidation that has left two key councilmen and the deputy chief of police chief murdered, and a trail of threats against those who persist.

The previous mayor fled to Syria earlier this year, after a dispute with the Ministry of Defense in Baghdad over his plans to raise a local Sunni militia.

On this day in late November, the meeting begins with three men who complain about shootings by US Marines - one of them fatal - of their sons and a nephew. They demand prosecution of the "snipers" involved, and their removal.

The council also discusses compensation by the military for occupation of certain properties; they had previously dismissed 300 false claims by residents. They talk of the need for US forces to "get close to the people" and how the US election is likely to change their lives. They ponder who will guard the phone exchange after repairs by US forces.

"I'm in awe.... Against all odds, they continue to meet," says Col. Lawrence Nicholson, the Marine regimental combat team commander who attends every meeting. "I don't know how resilient we [Americans] would be, if [insurgents] came to our door and said: 'We will kill your family.' "

"Witness No. 1," a man called Khalid with a bandaged wrist and his arm in a sling, tells how his teenage son Hamidi was shot by a Marine "sniper" on Oct. 30 from Observation Post Fenton, a tall house with three lookout positions on the main east-west artery. The son died a week later; Khalid was wounded, and a neighbor boy who came to assist him was also shot.

The family home is near OP Fenton. Marines there, officers say, believed that Hamidi was armed with a grenade.

"No matter how much compensation, it will not be worth a dime when I go to my son's funeral," Khalid told the council and the officers present. "I want the sniper to be prosecuted, according to the law."

A third witness speaks of a shooting of his nephew from the "sniper's building" on Nov. 19. He asks that the position be moved, "because the sniper does not differentiate between terrorists and civilians."

Colonel Nicholson - a stickler on abuse, say marines under his command - stands, promising a full investigation and "my word that we will clean up this situation."

"What we have heard is ... a tragic event for all of us who call Fallujah home," says Nicholson, reminding them that he has investigated "every allegation" in his 10 months in Iraq.

"In many cases, we have pulled marines who do not act properly out of the city," Nicholson says. "I have sent marines back to the US, because they did not deserve to be able to serve here. They had betrayed my trust; I lost confidence in them."

"I must point out that this sniper position is where it is to save all lives," he says, noting that three Marines had been shot at by Iraqi snipers in the previous 48 hours.

"While I will not tolerate a Marine shooting an innocent, I think we all have to understand ... the number of IEDs [roadside bombs] that are planted in this city every day ... kill police, Iraqi Army and marines, and wound them," says Nicholson. "I could spend every meeting parading 30 victims in here."

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