Fallujah fighters celebrate

FALLUJAH, Iraq – Gunmen waved their weapons in Fallujah’s streets and outside car windows Saturday, cheering what they called a victory as U.S. forces pulled back. But the Marines insisted they weren’t going far and a new Iraqi force taking the front line would root out die-hard insurgents.

The new Fallujah Brigade, put together by Iraqi generals from Saddam Hussein’s ousted regime, likely will include some former army soldiers who fought American forces over the past month, Marine Lt. Gen. James Conway said.

He promised, however, that anyone who has “blood on their hands” would not be allowed to stay in the force.

Another military official acknowledged that the United States didn’t know who the individual members of the force were and that its fighters and commanders still had to be vetted to ensure that they are not connected to crimes of the Hussein regime. The force’s leadership could be changed soon because of the screening process, the official said.

Scores of Iraqis gathered in the streets Saturday morning, some flashing “V” for victory signs and raising the Iraqi flag. Motorists drove through the streets, shouting “Islam, it’s your day!” and “We redeem Islam with our blood!”

Meanwhile, violence continued Saturday, exactly a year after President Bush stood aboard the Everett-based aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln and declared that major combat in Iraq had ended.

A U.S. soldier was killed when a rocket-propelled grenade hit his convoy near the town of Qarraya, 45 miles south of Mosul, the military said. A second soldier died Saturday of wounds suffered the day before in a roadside bombing in the same area.

In another Saturday bombing, two foreign contractors were killed and five other foreigners wounded in an attack in the northern city of Mosul, according to the U.S. military and witnesses. Nationalities of the victims were unavailable.

A British foot patrol also came under attack in the southern city of Amarah, sparking a gunbattle with insurgents that left five Iraqis dead and six British soldiers wounded, according to witnesses and a British forces spokesman.

Witnesses said the five Iraqis killed were members of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr’s al-Mahdi Army.

Copyright ©2004 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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