U.S. Hands Over Some Positions in Iraq

[demoman123]

FALLUJAH, Iraq - Led by one of Saddam Hussein (news - web sites)'s generals, Iraqi troops replaced U.S. Marines on Friday and raised the Iraqi flag at the entrance to Fallujah under a plan to end the monthlong siege of the city. A suicide car bomb on the outskirts killed two Americans and wounded six.

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The shift of security responsibilities to Iraqis was a move toward ending the intense fighting that had evoked strong international criticism and from America's Iraqi allies.

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"Clearly, we will not tolerate the presence of foreign fighters," Abizaid said. "We will insist on the heavy weapons coming off the streets. We want the Marines to have freedom of maneuver along with the Iraqi security forces."

Foreign fighters, too, may have fled the city, a top U.S. military official in Baghdad said Thursday. Others question whether foreign fighters ever joined the battle in Fallujah, characterizing it instead as a homegrown uprising. And weapons coming "off the streets" appears to be a backing off previous demands to "turn over" arms to the Marines.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=514&e=2&u=/ap/20040430/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_6

[54anickel]

1. Foreign fighters keep mysteriously coming and going.

Nice to know Abizaid has some type of objective :eyes:

Gen. John Abizaid, chief of U.S. military operations in the Middle East, said the United States was sticking by most of the objectives it outlined when the Marines stormed Fallujah on April 5 — mainly to seize men who killed and mutilated four American contractors.

However, Abizaid conceded the killers probably had fled the city. And he also seemed to considerably soften previous demands that the guerrillas hand over foreign fighters and heavy weapons to U.S. forces.