'Bang! Bang!': Marines Train Iraqis for Patrols Inside Falluja

The New York Times
By JOHN KIFNER

FALLUJA, Iraq, April 27 — A dozen Iraqi troops practiced storming a building for about an hour here on Tuesday under the watchful, if dubious, eyes of the American marines they are expected to join for patrols inside this violent city.

The plan for the joint patrols was cobbled together Sunday night by the American administrator, L. Paul Bremer III; the top Army commanders, Gen. John P. Abizaid of Central Command and Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez; and self-styled local leaders in hopes of averting a potentially deadly Marine attack. The date for the patrols to begin, originally set for Tuesday, has now slipped.

Among themselves, the marines are calling the planned operation the Suicide Patrol.

Nevertheless, the marines of the Third Platoon, Company K, Third Battalion, Fourth Marines — which calls itself the Dirty Third — were waiting to begin training the Iraqis Tuesday morning as 12 members of the Iraqi Civil Defense Corps and their two officers detached themselves from a crowd of men in civilian clothes and the blue-uniformed Iraqi police milling around a gas station at the edge of the city.

The Iraqis wore the "chocolate chip" desert camouflage uniforms that were American-issue in the Persian Gulf war in 1991, with new ICDC patches sewn on. They also sported a variety of footwear, ranging from lounge-lizard zip-up boots to counterfeit Adidas running shoes.

Their officers disdained wearing helmets for the exercise, although Lt. Ahmed S. Muhammad carried one. The superior officer, Maj. Ahmed Hamadi Khalif, remained immaculate, carrying only a small notebook.

The marines formed them up in two lines, the Iraqis crouching in action-movie style. One had the shoulder strap of his AK-47 assault rifle stretched across the muzzle.

At a signal — "Yallah" from the Iraqis, "Let's go" from the marines — the Defense Corps men trotted toward a small cinder-block building, crouched by the door and strolled inside. "Bang! bang!" shouted the marines, simulating gunfire. "All clear," said the Iraqis, learning to make the marines' thumbs-up sign.

"That's how it will go for now," said the marines' platoon commander, First Lt. Kealoha Stokes.

Earlier, Lieutenant Stokes had told his volunteer interpreter, Khalid Thaner, 37, a music student from Detroit, that when the Iraqis went on patrol, "I need your opinion, if they're fighting or if they're running."

On a second run at the building, the lieutenant took some comfort as one of the Iraqis leaped nimbly through a back window.

"Oh, he's in," he said. "Nice."

During a break, the Americans showed the Iraqis some of their weapons, with Lance Cpl. Jacob Nelson hoisting a hefty rocket launcher and announcing that it could send a projectile through "four feet of concrete and 12 feet of sandbags." The Iraqis looked suitably impressed.

Then they ran a drill simulating the evacuation of a wounded soldier that was intended largely to assure the Iraqis that they would be taken care of. "I appreciate their guys aren't very heavy," said a marine who carried off the supposed victim.

As the training ended, Major Khalif returned to a point he had often made earlier: that the Iraqis wanted the blue-uniformed police along on the patrol. Then he had one more important question for his American paymasters: "And the bonus?"