Resignation, Suspicion Greet Fallouja Pact

There was a sense of hope tinged with great distrust among the scores of Fallouja residents gathered Friday at the eastern terminus of this battered city.

The talk was all about the tentative peace deal in which Marines would depart and a new Iraqi force would provide security.

“This solution is a good one,” said Ziad Fadhil, a 32-year-old contractor and car salesman who was among dozens gathered at the last U.S. checkpoint, hoping to return to the homes they abandoned during nearly a month of fighting. “That is, if the Americans are really serious about it. And if they are going to commit to their word.”

U.S. military men have spoken in recent weeks of their disdain for the insurgents of Fallouja, how they have broken cease-fire after cease-fire and were not to be trusted.

But Friday, returning Fallouja residents lured by the prospect of peace had little negative to say about the gunmen holed up in their town. From their vantage point, it was the Americans who were not to be trusted, not the “mujahedin” who had held off the world’s most powerful military.

“People say this gesture is just an attempt by the Americans to reorganize themselves, and to replace their tired soldiers with new troops,” said Mohammed Attiya Ubaydi, a 47-year-old trucker. “They are not serious in what they say. If they are serious, why don’t they withdraw right away?”

Confusion was rampant about the accord, even as U.S. bulldozers knocked down road blocks and Marines seemed to be getting ready to pull out. “Things are changing by the hour,” said one Marine.

But the distrust among the people of Fallouja was a constant.

Over and over they repeated suspicions about U.S. intentions. The new plan was a trick, a trap, a ruse, they said.

Adding to their frustrations was the fact that Marines manning checkpoints were under orders to only allow a few people back into the city Friday, most of them women and children. U.S. commanders have voiced suspicions that some young men may be coming back to join the insurgency.

“They do not have credibility,” Abdul-Sattar Khudhayer, a 40-year-old blacksmith, said of the U.S. troops. “If they had credibility, they would have withdrawn by now and opened the road for these people.”

Suddenly, there was a commotion.

Fallouja residents surrounded two cars. In the back seat of one of the sedans sat the man of the hour, Maj. Gen. Jassim Mohammed Saleh, a former general in Saddam Hussein’s military who has been tapped to head the new Fallouja security force. Saleh looked every bit the Hussein-era officer with his broad mustache, neatly pressed uniform and burgundy beret.

Microphones were thrust into the sedan’s open window and star-struck residents gazed in awe. Many claimed to know Saleh, whose tribal roots cut through Fallouja and the Sunni belt of western Iraq.

“Not today,” the general said in politely demurring interview requests. “Today we are only worried about the safety of these families. The people of Fallouja are seeking peace and security. We will do our best to maintain peace and tranquillity.”

His car rolled into the town, the Marines allowing him through.

Residents heaped praise on the general.

“All people of Fallouja know him as a patriotic military commander,” said Jamal Salim, a 29-year veteran of the city’s police force. “We have full confidence in him.”

Mohammed Hamid Abdullah, a 47-year-old laborer, was also impressed. And wary.

“Yes, Maj. Gen. Jassim is our son, and he is trying to make an agreement, but you cannot trust them,” Abdullah said, referring to the U.S. occupiers. “They have repeatedly betrayed their pledges.”

Times staff writer Patrick J. McDonnell in Baghdad contributed to this report.