- Title: IRAQ: U.S. MARINES START PULL BACK FROM FALLUJA.
- Date: 30th April 2004
- Summary: (W3) FALLUJA, IRAQ (APRIL 30, 2004) (REUTERS) 1. GV: U.S. MILITARY VEHICLES DRIVING DOWN ROAD AS PART OF PULL-OUT FROM FALLUJA 0.11 2. GV: U.S. SOLDIERS NEAR STREET SIGNS 0.17 3. GV: U.S. MILITARY VEHICLES DRIVING AWAY (2 SHOTS) 0.44 4. LV/GV/CU: U.S. SOLDIERS REMOVING BARBED WIRE (3 SHOTS) 1.01 (U3) FALLUJA, IRAQ (APRIL 30, 2004) (REUTERS) 5. GV: U.S. SOLDIERS AND CIVILIANS STANDING ON ROAD NEAR MILITARY CHECKPOINT AT ENTRANCE TO FALLUJA 1.06 6. MCU/GV: CHILD DRINKING WATER BEHIND BARBED WIRE; IRAQI CIVILIANS STANDING BEHIND BARBED WIRE (2 SHOTS) 1.17 (W4) FALLUJA, IRAQ (APRIL 30, 2004) (REUTERS) 7. VARIOUS: U.S. MARINES SCUFFLING WITH IRAQI MAN AT MILITARY CHECKPOINT AFTER DENYING HM ACCESS BACK INTO THE CITY; U.S. SOLDIERS PINNING MAN TO GROUND; IRAQI MEN SHOUTING BEHIND HIS BACK "He is ill"; MOTHER OF ARRESTED MAN CRYING; U.S. SOLDIERS PREPARING TO TAKE MAN AWAY (2 SHOTS) 3.11 (U3) FALLUJA, IRAQ (APRIL 30, 2004) (REUTERS) 8. LV/GV: CIVILIAN CAR WITH IRAQI FLAG FLYING FROM ITS WINDOW (2 SHOTS) 3.21 9. MCU: TWO IRAQI GENERALS INSIDE CAR, MAN ON THE RIGHT IS FALLUJA POLICE CHIEF MAJOR GENERAL JASEM MOHAMED SALEH 3.32 10. GV/PAN: CAR HEADING TOWARDS FALLUJA, PEOPLE RUNNING AFTER IT 3.40 (U3) BAGHDAD, IRAQ (APRIL 30, 2004) (REUTERS) 11. LV: CAMP WEST OF BAGHDAD FOR REFUGEES FROM FALLUJA 3.46 12. GV/CU: TENTS; FAMILIES SITTING INSIDE TENTS; MAN SMOKING; CHILDREN SITTING IN TENT; MATRESSES ON TENTS (5 SHOTS) 4.15 13. (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) FALLUJA RESIDENT ABDUL SAMAD, SAYING: "We hope that there will be a cesefire and we hope that the U.S. soldiers will be pulled out. But the Americans have no credibility, they never kept their promises. There have now been six or seven rounds of talks and agreements on a ceasefire and each time they violated the ceafire and bombed Falluja. They lack credibility." 4.36 14. (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) ANOTHER REFUGEE, ALAA HASSAN, SAYING: "If the agreement stipulates that [Iraqi] soldiers enter Falluja without the Americans, if they are Iraqi soldiers and not American soldiers or peshmerga, if they are personnel of the Iraqi army, Iraqis from Falluja, we agree." 5.00 15. CU: TENT WITH ARABIC WRITING READING "IRAQI RED CRESCENT" 5.05 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
- Embargoed: 15th May 2004 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: FALLUJA AND BAGHDAD, IRAQ
- Country: Iraq
- Reuters ID: LVA8T8I4WNLNTQYB5XN87143TK6B
- Story Text: U.S. Marines start to pull back from positions
around the besieged Iraqi city of Falluja.
U.S. Marines pulled back from positions along the
southern and western edges of Falluja on Friday (April 30).
But they appeared to hold on to strongpoints dominating the
Golan district to the north, where they have fought fierce
gunbattles and called in bombers on Thursday (April 29)
evening against Sunni Muslim insurgents.
U.S. troops began clearing rolls of razor wire from the
main entrance to Fallujah on Friday, as U.S. commanders met
with local representatives to work out details of a deal
aimed at lifting the monthlong siege of the city.
Hundreds of people who fled the city to escape fighting
have been gathering at the checkpoint since the early hours
in the morning for permission to cross back into the city.
Witnesses said that U.S. soldiers and ICDC turned
civilians back, saying that no one would be let inside the
city today.
U.S. Marines at one military checkpoint scuffled with
an Iraqi after telling him he could not go into the city.
The man with tranditional Arab dress and red and white
checkered headdress around his neck quarrelled with the
U.S. soldiers after they pushed him back, witnesses said.
Four U.S. soldiers surrounded the man, holding his arms
behind him with one of them pressing his thumb on the man's
neck to help pin him down to ground.
People gathering at the checkpoint pleaded with the
U.S. army and personnel of the Iraqi Civil Defence Corpse
(ICDC) to release the man, shouting "he is ill"
His mother was nearby crying and pleading with the
soldiers to let her son go.
U.S. Marines handed control of Falluja to a former
general in Saddam Hussein's feared Republican Guard in bid
to end a month-long siege that killed hundreds in the city
and infuriated Iraqis.
In what appeared to be a reversal of Washington's
policy of excluding members of Saddam's Baathist regime
from power, Jasim Mohamed Saleh told Reuters his force
would help police and other Iraqi security forces bring
order to the town.
The commander of the Marines, who were pulling back
from siege positions around the city of 300,000, was quoted
as saying the former commanding general of Saddam's 38th
Infantry Division would lead a force of about 900 mostly
former Iraqi soldiers to replace the U.S. forces.
Hundreds of people cheered the former general, who
lives in the city, as he made his way into the town centre
in uniform in the early afternoon.
Hundreds of Falluja civilians are still living in tents
waiting for a lasting agreement on a ceasefire and a return
of calm to the city after more than two weeks of battles.
In a camp set by Iraqi Red Crescent in the western
outskirt of Baghdad, displaced residents of Falluja on
Friday hoped that the U.S. forces would keep their promise
and withdraw from Falluja.
"We hope that there will be a cesefire and we hope that
the U.S. soldiers will be pulled out. But the Americans
have no credibility, they never kept their promises. There
have now been six or seven rounds of talks and agreements
on a ceasefire and each time they violated the ceafire and
bombed Falluja. They lack credibility," said Abdul Samad,
who fled his home to escape fierce battles in the city.
Another refugee said he did not want to see U.S.
soldiers or Kurdish fighters, which are known as peshmerga,
inside the city.
"If the agreement stipulates that [Iraqi] soldiers
enter Falluja without the Americans, if they are Iraqi
soldiers and not American soldiers or peshmerga, if they
are personnel of the Iraqi army, Iraqis from Falluja, we
agree," said Alaa Hassan.
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