One of Ours

...[Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt, the top US military spokesman in Iraq, ] said the leader of the Fallujah Brigade, former Major General Jassem Mohammed Salah, and his officers had yet to be fully vetted...

...Maj Gen Salah’s ability to deliver would soon be put to the test, said Gen Conway, who commands the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force that has besieged Fallujah for nearly a month.

“In a few days we will have our first convoy go through the centre of Fallujah … and we’ll expect him to provide security,” Gen Conway said...

...Gen Conway described the Iraqi force as part of the US-led “military partnership” and said its leaders fully understand that foreign “terrorists” and other hardcore fighters in Fallujah “must be killed or captured”.

The official in Baghdad said the new force would initially hold the city’s southern industrial zone, with the marines forming an outer cordon about a kilometre away.

Tentative plans exist to hand the city’s more volatile northern section to the brigade within the next few weeks...

...the move was seen as a major victory by those inside the shattered city.

“We resisted and won,” an armed young man, Abu Safaa Mehmadi, told an AFP correspondent inside the city.

Another fighter, Abu Salem, 60, said: “Baghdad fell in 20 days and we resisted nearly a month before getting an Iraqi force to look after our security.”...