Los Angeles Times 7:04 PM PDT. September 10, 2004 Dissolution of Brigade Is Setback for Marines By Alissa J. Rubin, Times Staff Writer
RAMADI, Iraq - The controversial Iraqi military force formed by the Marines in a last-ditch effort to pacify the restive city of Fallujah has been disbanded in the face of continuing violence, assaults on government security forces and evidence that some members have been working openly with insurgents. The dissolution of the Fallujah Brigade, composed of former members of the Iraqi army and Saddam Hussein's special security forces, was made known to its members Thursday evening. It marked a decisive setback for the Marines, who had sought to avoid an all-out assault in the spring by arranging for a local security force led by Iraqi ex-generals to restore order. "The Fallujah Brigade is done, over," said Marine Col. Jerry L. Durrant, who oversees the 1st Marine Expeditionary Unit's involvement with Iraqi security forces. "The whole Fallujah Brigade thing was a fiasco. Initially it worked out OK, but it wasn't a good idea for very long." Durrant did not say what the Marines might do next, but U.S. warplanes Friday bombed Fallujah for the fourth consecutive day and the air campaign is widely expected to continue and possibly intensify.Friday's air attack targeted earth-moving equipment being used by insurgents to build fighting positions, a Marine spokesman said. With the demise of the Fallujah Brigade, the Marines are left with no attractive options for rooting out Fallujah's entrenched insurgency, a movement that has spread to surrounding villages and left the interim Iraqi government without control of the nation's largest cities west of Baghdad, the capital. Thousands of Marines remain based as close as two miles from Fallujah, but the insurgents -- local and foreign fighters backed by firebrand Sunni Muslim clerics -- have had several months to dig in and make it more difficult for American or Iraqi government forces to launch a ground attack. The new development comes as U.S. forces seek to re-establish Iraqi government control in several insurgent bastions including Samarra, to the north of Baghdad, just months before scheduled national elections. Gen. Abdullah Hamid Wael, the brigade's latest leader, announced the dissolution on instructions from the Ministry of Defense. Speaking at an Iraqi military base west of Fallujah, Wael read from a ministry statement that said "any member of the brigade can, as an individual, join the Iraqi national guard or the Iraqi police." Discontent rippled through the group, many of whose members had hoped that it would remain intact and eventually become a unit of the new army. Judging by members' comments, it seemed likely that some would openly rejoin the insurgency, in which many had been involved before joining the brigade. That will make it all the more difficult for U.S. soldiers and Iraqi government forces to retake Fallujah -- currently a "no go" area for U.S. troops. "We don't know where to go now after this dismissal by the American troops and the Iraqi interim government," said Brig. Gen. Tayseer Latief of the brigade. "They leave us no other option, but to join the resistance." Ministry of Defense officials declined comment Friday. When the brigade was established, Marine commanders acknowledged that many members either were insurgent fighters or had connections to them. The insurgents waged pitched battles against Marines for weeks last April. The goal in forming the force was to avoid a bloodbath by allowing the Marines to withdraw from the city but leaving a proxy force to tamp down insurgent activity and apprehend people responsible for the killing of four U.S. civilian security contractors March 31. Initially, Marine commanders boasted that the brigade would root out anti-American forces and target foreign fighters. The Marines' hope was that because of their military training and pride in having responsibility for their town, brigade members would stand up against those who fought the American military and Iraqi interim government forces. In the end, most brigade members' prior allegiance to the insurgency proved impossible to sever. The Brigade made no effort to restrict insurgent activities, members and the Marines said. Fallujah became even safer for insurgents, who could take refuge, plot attacks, and run manufacturing centers for car bombs and other explosives. Made up of 1600 former members of the Iraqi army and Saddam Hussein's Republican Guard, the brigade was created formally on May 1. Four months later, as the brigade is dissolved, its members are better armed, better equipped and better off, having received salaries and weapons from the Marines. Paid on a monthly basis according to their rank, wages ranged from $260 for low-level soldiers to $700 for generals, according to one of the Brigade's staff officers. The Marines also gave Brigade members new semiautomatic rifles and vehicles, and furnished a base for them. For the first three months, the Brigade was technically under Marine command and its staff officers were in touch daily with Marine officers at Camp Fallujah on the outskirts of town. "We're trying to go in and recover the stuff we gave them, but I'm not sure it's worth it," Durrant said. "They've already stolen the air conditioners." On a recent trip to Fallujah, it appeared that brigade members were mixing easily with insurgents. At several checkpoints, one or two Iraqi police lounged under small huts along with a brigade soldier as a couple of masked men with AK-47s leaned into each car looking for Westerners. Last week, several Fallujah Brigade members in uniform shot at Marines near the city limits and the Marines returned fire, Durrant said. >From its beginning, many Brigade members never fully disentangled themselves from the insurgent movement. Some expressed pride at the role they had played in fighting the Marines and boasted of their prowess in firing rocket-propelled grenades and semiautomatic weapons. Although the Marines provided them with uniforms, most eschewed them in favor of the brown or olive green uniforms worn by the Iraqi armed forces under Saddam. While the brigade was never expected to remain in place indefinitely, there had been talk of having members join either the Iraqi army or the national guard -- either as a unit or as individuals. Although the brigade members wished to remain together as a unit, interim Iraqi officials believed that to create a professional army, soldiers had to be loyal first to the country, not to a unit, a city or a province. It seems unlikely that Fallujahns would choose to join the national guard. Many Iraqis in the Fallujah area view guardsmen as stooges for the Americans. Fallujah fighters brutally killed one local national guard commander a few weeks ago and kidnapped another, forcing both battalions to disband. Several members said they were angered by the dissolution. "This was a great violation to the members of the brigade by the American forces and the Iraqi interim government," said Maj. Ahmed Abed Abaas. "Dissolving the Fallujah brigade, they broke the truce agreed upon last April when the American besieged Fallujah." Times staff writers in Fallujah contributed to this report.
