Commanders welcome calm in Fallujah

People shop at a market in downtown Fallujah, Iraq on Feb. 9. Some of the bloodiest fighting of the war took place in Fallujah, the heart of the anti-American resistance until troops stormed the city in November 2004. Now U.S. commanders hold up the town as an example for the rest of Iraq.


Commanders welcome calm in Fallujah
By Kim Gamel - The Associated Press
Posted : Sunday Feb 10, 2008 10:14:17 EST

FALLUJAH, Iraq — Women shrouded in black shop for gold jewelry and fabric. Young boys tote trays of tea. The smell of tangerines wafts through the air. This is Fallujah 2008 — a former insurgent stronghold that U.S. commanders now hold up as an example for the rest of Iraq.

But a simmering provincial power struggle is threatening to raise new tensions among the fractured Sunni tribal chiefs and politicians of Anbar that some fear could distract them from the fight against al-Qaida in Iraq.

Anbar province was the stronghold of the insurgency that mobilized in the months after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion routed Saddam Hussein. Some of the bloodiest fighting of the war took place in Fallujah, the heart of the anti-American resistance until American troops stormed the city in November 2004.

The Euphrates River city, 40 miles west of Baghdad, remained a virtual prison and rebuilding was slow to take hold after the U.S. Marines clamped down on the perimeter and continued to face fierce fighting with insurgents.

That changed last year when Sunni tribal leaders joined forces with the Americans to deprive al-Qaida of sanctuaries and force the militants to flee or go into hiding. The so-called awakening movement has since spread to Baghdad and surrounding areas but nowhere has it been more widely successful at quelling the violence than in Anbar.


Rest of article at: http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/02/ap_fallujah_080210/