Marine Corps News Room

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By Daniel Williams

Iraqi police had just found some explosives hidden in blocks of ice at an ice-making factory in Fallujah, long one of Iraq's most rebellious towns. The explosives were raw material for a roadside bomb, the Marines figured, to be provided to insurgents disguised as a delivery of ice.

``These Iraqis aren't stupid,'' said Moyer, 19, halfway into an eight-month tour of Iraq. ``They'll try anything once. Who would think to inspect ice? It's hot here. Everybody loves ice.''

A day spent with Moyer and his comrades of the Marine 6th Battalion, 2nd Regiment highlights the chronically tenuous security situation in Fallujah. The city is one of the areas targeted by President George W. Bush's 20,000-strong troop ``surge'' designed to bring security to Baghdad and western parts of Iraq this summer.

As such, it will be one of the exhibits in a military and political progress report due for delivery in September by General David Petraeus, the commander of the U.S. forces. The report may set the stage for a U.S. withdrawal over time.

Few places have resisted pacification more than Fallujah, just 45 miles (70 kilometers) west of Baghdad on the road to Syria. Insurgents here fought U.S. troops soon after the overthrow of Saddam Hussein and hosted foreign fighters affiliated with Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda global terror network. In 2004, U.S. forces assaulted the city twice to clean out rebels and holy warriors.

Sealed Garrison

Compared with then, the town is quiet; it's practically a sealed garrison. Hundreds of Iraqi police and members of the Iraqi army help keep Fallujah under guard. Entry is limited to residents holding special passes. Vehicles travel into the city only under police escort. At least half the population of 350,000 has fled, city officials say.

U.S. commanders say that many insurgents from Fallujah and the rest of Anbar province in Iraq's west have fled eastward to areas where Petraeus mounted a major offensive this week to root them out. The U.S. military said late yesterday it killed at least 41 insurgents in an operation codenamed ``Arrowhead Ripper'' in and around Baquba, northeast of Baghdad.

``The insurgents seek the path of less resistance,'' Colonel Richard L. Simcock, who commands the 6,000 Marines in charge of Fallujah, said in an interview. ``They try to go where we're not.''

The six-Humvee patrol was tasked with clearing main city roads of possible explosives and providing a show of force.

`Something to Look At'

``We like to be part of the scenery,'' said Lance Corporal Mitchell Penny, 21, from North Carolina. ``Give the bad guys something to look at.''

No sooner had he spoken than a distant explosion and a puff of smoke broke over the horizon to the north. The radio said a pickup truck had blown up next to a mobile-phone tower.

The convoy moved slowly down Fallujah's main boulevard. Ruined monuments from past battles lined the road: mosques with chunks out of their domes, collapsed houses, smashed storefronts.

A voice on the radio said that, due to the phone-tower explosion, all civilian car traffic in Fallujah was prohibited. Women in long black shrouds -- pious Islamic dress in much of Iraq -- walked along the roadside.

`Shouldn't Be There'

``There's a pickup truck ahead,'' said Moyer, who's from Ohio. ``Shouldn't be there.'' Penny, sitting above the Humvee in a turret, spun round and pointed a machine gun at the truck. An Iraqi police van pulled up and shooed the vehicle off the road.

The convoy pulled into a barricaded fortress for a break. Layers of barbed wire and concrete barriers protected a Marine base, a police headquarters and Iraqi army barracks, along with municipal buildings.

Two Iraqi soldiers in greenish camouflage approached. They were Shiite Muslims from the far south. Under Hussein, the Shiites were the repressed majority in Iraq. Now they control the government. Fallujah is populated by Sunni Muslims, formerly the politically dominant group.

``Fallujah, no good,'' said one of the Shiites. ``They don't like us here.'' He moved his hands outward as if shovelling forward a large ball and made a ``bam'' sound. ``They like to bomb.''

Rocket Grenade

The convoy moved back out. It passed a kebab restaurant that had reopened just two weeks ago only to shut down again after reverberations from a rocket-grenade attack on a similar Marine patrol shattered its new windows.

The convoy traced loops around the city, sticking to main roads. ``We don't go into the back alleys unless the Iraqis need us for something,'' said Lance Corporal Michael Driscoll, 20, from Connecticut, who was sitting in the back seat.

The Humvees headed out of town. A big line of trucks awaiting escort stood at Fallujah's east end.

Suddenly a big gasoline tank truck made a U-turn and appeared to be coming into the military convoy's path. Penny in the turret tried to wave it off.

``Let's not play chicken with it,' Moyer said, and Penny fired a round from his machine gun. Then another.

The truck lurched to a halt, the warning shots having caught the driver's attention.

``That's good,'' said Moyer.

On the radio, word came that no vehicle traffic was visible in Fallujah and that, by order of the Iraqi army, the ice factory was closed until further notice.

To contact the reporter on this story: Daniel Williams in Fallujah, Iraq, at dwilliams41@bloomberg.net