[A-List] Iraq: from tragedy to farce

["Michael Keaney" <michael.keaney@xxxxxx>]

Falluja farce as Iraqi officer is removed
WILLIAM C MANN, Falluja
The Herald, May 04 2004

The appointment of an Iraqi general to head the brigade taking over from US
forces besieging Falluja was yesterday reduced to farce.

The former Republican Guard general, who effectively took over on Friday,
was summarily removed from the post that America's top soldier said he had
never had. His replacement will be a general once exiled by Saddam Hussein,
said US officials.

Major General Jassim Mohammed Saleh, the original commander, who was at the
head of the new brigade, will probably be handed a subordinate position to
Major General Mohammed Latif, the official said.

General Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the media
were "very, very inaccurate" in identifying Saleh as commander of the Iraqi
force that moved during the weekend into positions outside Falluja.

He said officials in Baghdad were checking into Saleh's background. Friends
and relatives have said he served during the 1980s in Saddam's feared
Republican Guard. Later, they said, he headed Saddam's infantry forces.

"There are people that know his record, know what he's done in the previous
Saddam Hussein regime," Myers said. "They're going to have to find an
appropriate role, if a role at all, for him," he said.

Myers said Saleh "has not been vetted yet and probably won't be the one in
command".

But Marine Lieutenant Colonel Brennan Byrne said near Falluja that Saleh had
opposed Saddam's regime and paid a "steep personal price".

Byrne and his colleagues appeared to have accepted Saleh because he offered
the best alternative to bloody fighting that could have produced casualty
rates politically untenable both in Iraq and the US.

An intelligence officer, trained in Britain, Latif was exiled and may also
have spent time in prison. But unlike Saleh, Latif hails from Baghdad, 30
miles to the east, which may not endear him so easily to local people.

The Marines backed off their threatening posture around Falluja, inhabited
by adherents of Saddam's Sunni branch of Islam, as elements of Saleh's
brigade replaced them. In the city, crowds waved Iraqi flags, cheered and
celebrated, many flashing V for victory signs.

General Latif participated in meetings with Marines last week on the
creation of the brigade.

Lieutenant General James Conway, the top Marine commander, said he believed
that Latif had been exiled by Saddam's regime for several years.

"He is very well thought of, very well respected by the Iraqi general
officers. You can just see the body language between them. And if I had to
guess at this point, when we have this brigade fully formed, he demonstrates
a level of leadership that tells me that he could become that brigade
commander," Conway said.

A US official said yesterday the decision to put Latif in charge emerged as
it became clear that he was more influential. He said: "General Saleh as I
understand it will be working at the battalion level, not the brigade
level."

An American soldier, meanwhile, was killed and two others injured when they
came under attack from small arms fire in Baghdad yesterday.

The troops from the 1st Armoured Division were providing security at a
weapons cache which was discovered on Sunday night.

The shooting brought the US death toll to 152 since a wave of violence began
on April 1. At least 754 American troops have died in Iraq since the war
began in March 2003.

The people of Falluja yesterday began to bury their dead. At the football
stadium, youths dug the pitch into trenches where they laid bodies freshly
pulled from rubble in areas US. Marines held until a few days ago.

As plumes of dust and a fetid odour rose from the field, workers planted
gravestones - two and three to a grave, in the case of families - that mark
the cost of a month of siege.

"I thank God for letting us stand up to the Americans, but it is also
bitter," said Hamid Eisawy, whose daughter was among those buried as
residents of Golan - pounded from the air by US bombers last week - brought
out bodies.

By afternoon, about 20 bodies, including the unidentified, whose graves were
simply marked "Martyr", had been buried.

One headstone bearing the word "Spies" marked the grave of seven people
accused of helping the Americans, residents said. AP