FALLUJAH, Iraq — Iraqi forces took over positions yesterday from Marines and raised the Iraqi flag at the entrance to Fallujah under a plan to end the monthlong siege of the city, but a suicide car bomb on the outskirts killed two U.S. troops and wounded six.
The two deaths on the final day of April raised the U.S. death toll to 136, making it the deadliest month for American forces since the war began in March 2003.
The shift of security responsibilities to Iraqis, led by a former general who served under Saddam Hussein, was a move toward ending the intense fighting that had evoked strong international criticism and from Iraqis as well as America’s coalition partners.
In the southern city of Najaf, U.S. troops and radical Shi’ite cleric Sheik Muqtada al-Sadr agreed to a three-day truce yesterday.
Despite Washington’s vow to “kill or capture” Sheik al-Sadr, the fiery young cleric has freely moved back and forth between his office in Najaf to Kufa to deliver Friday sermons for the past three weeks.
Lt. Col. Pat White said the military did not move against Sheik al-Sadr to give negotiations a chance and to show respect for Friday, the Islamic day of prayer.
Preaching yesterday in Kufa, Sheik al-Sadr remained defiant.
“Some people have asked me to tone down my words and to avoid escalation with the Americans,” the Shi’ite cleric said. “My response is that I reject any appeasement with the occupation and I will not give up defending the rights of the believers. America is the enemy of Islam and Muslims and jihad is the path of my ancestors.”
Elsewhere, Iraqi police Col. Ahmad al-Khazraji was fatally shot Thursday night in Baghdad, the U.S. command said.
The body of a Baghdad local official also was found hung with a sign on his chest that said “al-Mahdi Army business,” a reference to Sheik al-Sadr’s militia.
Convoys of U.S. troops and equipment could be seen heading out of parts of Fallujah, replaced by Iraqi troopers in red berets under the flag that flew over Saddam’s Iraq.
Residents said that by last night U.S. troops had left several neighborhoods that had seen heavy fighting and an industrial area. As U.S. Marines moved out, Iraqi police and civil defense units moved in.
U.S. military guards permitted civilian cars to enter the city after searches.
“Initially it appears that the transition to the Fallujah Protective Army is working,” said Marine. Lt. Col. Brennan Byrne. “It’s a delicate situation. The Fallujah Protective Army is the Iraqi solution we’ve all been looking for in this area.”
Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt, coalition deputy operations chief, insisted the Marines were not “withdrawing” from Fallujah, one of the most hostile cities in the tense Sunni Triangle, but were simply “repositioning.”
Asked if the Marines were leaving, Gen. Kimmitt replied: “Nothing could be further from the truth.” He said the Marines would maintain a strong presence “in and around Fallujah.”
“The coalition objectives remain unchanged — to eliminate armed groups, collect and positively control all heavy weapons, and turn over foreign fighters and disarm anti-Iraqi insurgents in Fallujah,” Gen. Kimmitt said.
Nevertheless, the move reduced the American profile in Fallujah at a time of growing opposition among Iraqis to the U.S.-led occupation.
The security plan also marked a shift in U.S. strategy, which had marginalized former members of Saddam’s Ba’ath Party and abolished the Iraqi army last year.
The commander of the new Fallujah brigade, Maj. Gen. Jassim Mohammed Saleh, once served in Saddam’s Republican Guard. He arrived in the city yesterday wearing his old uniform to the cheers of bystanders.
Under the plan, a force of 600 to 1,100 Iraqis, many of them former soldiers from the Fallujah area, would initially staff checkpoints.
Marines will remain on or near the city’s perimeter and at a later stage conduct their own patrols inside the city, a Pentagon official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity.
Gen. Saleh was checked out by the Marines and they had full confidence in his background, Gen. Kimmitt said.
The chief of Fallujah’s hospital, Rafie al-Issawi, said at least 731 Iraqis, many of them civilians, had been killed since the siege began on April 5. Earlier figures were disputed by Iraq’s health ministry and an exact toll was not known. At least 10 Marines have died in the siege.
At least 738 U.S. troops have died in Iraq since the war began in March 2003.
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