Border security high as violence flares
BAGHDAD -- Hundreds of residents began returning to the war-ravaged city of Fallujah yesterday, but renewed fighting in the area killed three Marines, showing that insurgents remain active despite the US offensive to crush them last month.
The US military, worried that insurgents might sneak back into the city with returning families, used high-tech devices to screen fighting-age Fallujah men who lined up at four checkpoints. The men were fingerprinted, photographed, and had their irises scanned, said Lieutenant Lyle L. Gilbert of the First Marine Expeditionary Force.
Witnesses told the British Broadcasting Corp. that the residents allowed through the checkpoints were given badges to wear showing they had been cleared to enter their houses. Most people came on foot but some in cars were waved through, the witnesses said, even though the US military had proposed earlier this month to ban cars from central Fallujah because of the risk of suicide bombings.
US and Iraqi officials, who had prepared for up to 2,000 residents to return to the downtown Andalus district, announced that more than 900 people had passed through the checkpoints, 16 were turned away, and one was detained.
Also yesterday, the US military said that the suspected suicide bomber in Tuesday's deadly explosion in a US dining tent near Mosul probably was wearing an Iraqi military uniform, offering the first indication of how such an attack could have taken place. Brigadier General Carter F. Ham, the top US commander in northern Iraq, said that the attacker may have evaded the vetting process for Iraqis joining the security services.
''The vetting process, I think, is sound, but clearly we have now at least one instance where that was likely not satisfactory," Ham told CNN. ''So we have to redouble our efforts there."
Fighting flared in several sections of Fallujah yesterday. In a northern district, Marine aircraft destroyed a building thought to be harboring suspected insurgents, Gilbert said by e-mail. US F-18s dropped bombs in central Fallujah, and tank and machine-gun fire were reported to the south.
The military declined to specify where or how the Marines were killed, saying only that they were in Anbar Province, which includes Fallujah. But a US official, speaking on condition of anonymity to the Associated Press, said the three deaths occurred in the Fallujah fighting.
US and Iraqi forces stormed Fallujah last month, destroying much of the city in an attempt to dislodge groups of insurgents and Islamic fighters who had seized control of the city and conducted regular attacks on American forces.
Iraqi officials estimate that 210,600 of the city's 300,000 residents had fled, many to tent camps in other parts of Anbar and to Baghdad, by the time the invasion began Nov. 8. The once-bustling city now lies in ruins, its water and electricity networks badly damaged.
The city still has no clean water, an International Committee of the Red Cross official said following a visit earlier this week. Gilbert said the military has opened two humanitarian aid stations to provide food, water, medical assistance, and reconstruction information.
The Association of Muslim Scholars, a hard-line Islamist group, said the city was ''uninhabitable" because of the US bombing. ''The rotten smell of the dead is widespread," Sheik Hareth Suliman al-Dari, a leader of the group, said in an interview with an Islamic news website.
Fallujah's mostly Sunni Muslim population has spearheaded the violent resistance against the US-led occupation and the interim government. American officials hope to restore some semblance of normalcy to the economically devastated city before the national election on Jan. 30. They and Iraqi officials fear Fallujans and other Sunnis -- favored under Saddam Hussein but now overshadowed by Iraq's majority Shi'ites and pro-American Kurds -- will not participate in the vote, exacerbating their alienation.
''They are very reluctant to take part in the election," said Adnan Pachachi, a Sunni Arab and leader of the Independent Democrats, which is fielding candidates in the election. ''For some, it's out of bitterness because of Fallujah. For others, it's because, frankly, they're afraid of reprisals."
Each returning family gets $100 from the government. The United States has allocated $70 million to help rebuild Fallujah, with $11 million targeted for the first 30 days of reconstruction. The interim Iraqi government has also announced a multimillion-dollar reconstruction program, including up to $10,000 per family for rebuilding damaged homes.
More residents are expected to trickle back into the city over the next several days. US officials said many may not have heard that they were being allowed to return, and more might arrive after announcements during weekly prayers today. They also said some people were waiting to hear whether it was safe to return, particularly after yesterday's fighting.
''The word is slow to get out," Lieutenant Colonel Michael Paulk, a military spokesman, told the AP. ''They want to hear reaction from people who are coming to the city." But a group of displaced Fallujans camped in a tent city in Baghdad said they would not go back yet.
''We are going to stay here until the Americans and the Iraqi National Guard have left the city," Bilal Sami Sabri, a 29-year-old carpenter, said as he helped distribute bags of dates donated by humanitarian groups. ''Once they're gone, we'll go back and rebuild Fallujah with our hands."
Over the past few weeks, the 900 residents of the camp have managed to make it livable. Yesterday, jovial children played under a warm, bright sun as women in black abayas washed pots and pans in preparation for a communal lunch.
''Though we're living in tents, conditions are good so far," said Sadi Khalef, a 54-year-old Fallujah businessman who guides a small group of visitors around the camp. ''We get three meals a day as well as . . . shelter."
Anti-US sentiment remains strong among Fallujans. Sabri politely shied away from answering a question about whether any of the resistance fighters were among the camp residents. ''Who are the mujahideen but people defending their own city?" he said. ''Any honorable person would defend his country and his land. The mujahideen are everywhere." 