Marines join Iraqi forces in Fallujah

ESCORTED by Iraqi forces, US Marines entered the centre of Fallujah yesterday for the first time since the end of the bloody siege last month.

Marines in Humvees and armoured vehicles drove into the Sunni Muslim city west of Baghdad in a convoy with members of the newly established Fallujah Brigade riding in pick-up trucks.

The Americans spent about an hour there, meeting city officials and discussing plans to repair damage from last month’s fighting, said Marine spokesman Lieut Eric Knapp.

“Freedom of movement is crucial to rebuild and stabilise the city,” said Knapp.

The first Iraqi pick-up truck flew the red, white and black Iraqi flag, which the Iraqi Governing Council has proposed changing to the outrage of many Iraqis.

“It is a good day for peace in Fallujah,” Marine Major General James Mattis said, after meeting with local leaders. “Nobody shoots, everybody waves and smiles. Any day that there is no shooting it is good.”

Marines began the siege of Fallujah on April 5 after the killing and mutilation of four US civilian contractors. Ten Marines and several hundred Iraqis were killed before the siege was lifted in an agreement providing for the Americans to pull back and transfer primary security responsibility to an Iraqi force led by officers from Saddam Hussein’s military.

“We have not yet found the killers of the contractors,” Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt, the deputy head of operations in Iraq, said, adding that “the mission is not yet over”.

US officials have said they will insist that the killers of the contractors face justice in Iraq. “We remain committed to achieving those objectives through a peaceful process but we will not flinch on those objectives.”

Meanwhile, Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr ordered his Mehdi Army to launch a new offensive against US-led forces after US forces yesterday pounded his strongholds in Baghdad.