UPDATE OF FALLUJAH
by Paul Vallely
Benador News
January 23, 2005

I spent all last Tuesday in Fallujah with the Marines. These are the activities there. Lt. Gen. John Sattler, commander, First Marine Expeditionary Force (l-MEF), briefed the Pentagon press corps Jan. 18 on the state of operations in Fallujah * Citizens of Fallujah are returning to the city and returning to work. * Prime Minister Allawi gave the go ahead for citizens to return on Dec. 23. * That first day, 921 citizens returned to the city, 12 government workers showed up, 192 contractors signed contracts to clear debris and help with the water situation and there were six visits to humanitarian sites. * A little more than three weeks later, on Monday, 9,400 citizens went through the same five checkpoints, 640 government workers showed up to help the Coalition team, 400 contractors came to work and there were 2,000 visits to humanitarian assistance sites to pick up food, water, blankets and other necessities. * Heads of households are being paid a $200 humanitarian assistance payment to help them buy necessities and reestablish themselves. * The Iraqi government is directing security, and is in close partnership with Multi-National Forces. * Eight battalions of Iraqi Security Forces are inside Fallujah (six from the Ministry of Defense and two police battalions from the Ministry of the Interior). * Three U.S. Marine battalions and a regimental combat team headquarters are stationed in Fallujah, working side-by-side with Iraqi forces. * Iraqi security forces will take the lead in providing security for the polling sites throughout al Anbar province. * Iraqi forces will have the actual physical security inside the polling sites; U.S. forces will be where they are needed in the numbers they are needed. * Fallujah has been fairly quiet the last week to 10 days. * Identification checks, security checkpoints and technology is in place to ensure weapons or explosives are not brought into town. * During the town clean up, more than 500 weapons caches were picked up and 30 improvised explosive device-manufacturing shops were cleaned up. * At least 72 insurgents were taken into detention. Forces are continuing to hunt for others, including looking in outlying towns. They are using all the tools in their intelligence tool box to capture them, or if they resist, to kill them. * Election and polling place venue plans are being crafted. * Details at this point are not being announced so that the enemy does not have time to plan against the positions. * The l-MEF is assisting the Independent Electoral Commission of Iraq (IECI). * I-MEF will be assisting with the movement and logistics of moving ballots to a central location, making sure there are adequate ballots and adequate polling booths at the different polling centers. * Fallujans realize the thugs, intimidators and foreign fighters mortgaged their town for their own cause, brought chaos and destruction, then left. * Fallujans are moving forward - for instance, in the past few days commerce has reappeared on the streets as small vendors set up their shops again. The positive attitude will continue as damaged and destroyed homes are evaluated and owners are able to settle claims. * Recently there have been fewer attacks in the I-MEF's area of operations, which includes Fallujah over to the Syrian border, down to Najaf and up into northern Babil. * Prior to crossing the line of departure on Nov. 7, there were 270 attacks the previous week. Last week there were 92 attacks, most being from indirect fire and IEDs. * Iraqi Security Forces fought extremely well beside the l-MEFduring the fight inside Fallujah. * The leadership is coming online. Some units are conducting independent operations. * I-MEF and Iraqi forces are continuing to work side-by-side, trading ideas, watching each other's leadership, so the Iraqi forces can grow and both forces can learn from each other.

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