Insurgents and Islam Now Rulers of Fallouja

More than 10 weeks after the grisly killing and mutilation of four U.S. contract workers turned this town into an emblem of Iraq’s wildfire insurgency, Fallouja has become a symbol of a different sort.

In the wake of a truce last month that averted an all-out assault by U.S. Marines, the conservative Sunni Muslim city west of Baghdad has taken on the trappings of a mini-republic that lives largely according to its own rules, in defiance of the potent American military force that remains poised on its doorstep.

Fallouja’s status as an autonomous fiefdom -- where local people say insurgents rule the streets and an increasingly austere brand of Islamic law has taken root -- could embolden other towns, particularly in like-minded Sunni tribal areas, to challenge the legitimacy of the country’s transitional government as a scheduled hand-over of power to Iraqis approaches.

And the woes of a U.S.-sanctioned security force in this city on the banks of the Euphrates could bode ill for efforts by the American military and occupation authority to appease rebellious pockets of Iraq by setting up locally recruited forces intended to co-opt insurgents. In the dusty streets of Fallouja, the early May pullback by the Marines to stave off close-quarters urban combat and the likelihood of heavy civilian casualties is touted as a glorious victory for the insurgents, who enjoy overwhelming support here.

“The mujahedin are taking care of Fallouja now -- this is our reality,” said Saad Duleimi, a well-to-do businessman and member of one of the area’s most influential tribes. “They control all the affairs of the city. And that is what the people want.”

The principal U.S. aims under the truce, which was reached in the wake of three weeks of fierce fighting between Marines and insurgents, do not appear even close to being achieved.

Those include collecting heavy weapons from insurgents, establishing a climate in which Western contractors could work in relative safety to help rebuild battle-wrecked parts of the city and bringing to justice the people behind the gruesome killings of the four workers from the Blackwater USA security firm.

Instead, the city remains awash in weaponry and a virtual no-go zone for foreigners, where on-the-road ambushes and abduction attempts are common.

No arrests have been made in the March 31 ambush in which the workers were killed and their corpses beaten and burned by a mob. Some of the victims’ body parts were strung from a bridge over the river.

U.S. military spokesman Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt told reporters in Baghdad on Saturday that “we are not satisfied we are making active progress” in the case or toward other truce objectives.

Rather than moving in to make arrests themselves, the Marines have handed a list of suspects to the Fallouja Brigade, a special force created under the truce whose ranks include former members of Saddam Hussein’s army as well as former insurgents.

But so far, the brigade has been able to assert only extremely limited authority, Falloujans and U.S. military officials said. Last week, its men came under mortar fire that left 12 wounded.

“There are areas where, obviously, the brigade is not in control,” said Maj. T.V. Johnson, a spokesman for the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, which is camped on Fallouja’s outskirts. “If we want a Western timeline -- we want this or that done today, or done yesterday -- we’d be disappointed.”

In Fallouja, locals describe a complex power structure in which the roles of Sunni clerics, tribal chieftains and young insurgents are closely intertwined, with often overlapping agendas.

Imams, or mosque preachers, have consistently spread a strongly anti-occupation message from Fallouja’s pulpits, one that is also voiced by Sunni clerics in the mosques of Baghdad and elsewhere in the Sunni heartland of central Iraq that supported Hussein and greatly benefited from his rule.

Although many Fallouja tribal leaders have played a more conciliatory role, taking part in truce talks and having regular contacts with the Americans, most speak bitterly of the affront to tribal traditions posed by U.S. forces.

“The hatred toward the Americans was heightened when they started to arrest the sheiks and insult them in front of their people -- even in front of women,” said Sheik Hammad Mutlak, a chieftain of the Jumali tribe. That, he declared, had helped contribute to a breakdown of the sheiks’ authority, which in turn drove young tribesmen into the insurgency.

Fallouja has always had a reputation for being devout, with its social mores derived from deeply conservative tribal codes and Islamic teachings. But local people say adherence to Sharia, or Islamic law, has taken on a distinct new rigor in the wake of April’s siege, which left 10 Marines and hundreds of Iraqis dead.

“It is not allowed to break the rules of Islam,” said Sheik Aboud Mohammed, the imam of Fallouja’s Maadhidi mosque. “These laws might not have been fully followed prior to the occupation of our city, but the fact that Americans attacked our holy sites ... has made us more sensitive about these issues.”

Vigilante-style enforcement of religious edicts by the insurgents has been on the rise in recent weeks. Barbers have been warned not to shave men’s beards. Several beauty parlors have been shut down, and four purveyors of illicit alcohol were publicly flogged and paraded through town in the back of a pickup truck last month, according to witnesses.

Townspeople insist that the insurgents’ presence has all but quelled the outbreak of lawlessness that had beset the city as local authority broke down during the months of U.S. occupation.

“Fallouja is the safest it’s ever been -- you don’t even have to lock your doors because no one will dare to steal,” said Hamza Dari, a taxi driver. “I feel much more secure than before.”

That sense of safety, of course, in no way extends to outsiders. The stalking of foreigners who venture into the city is aided, some residents say, by Iraqi security forces who report the presence of any Westerner to the insurgents.

The insurgents scour the city as well, carrying out armed patrols in narrow alleyways and crowded marketplaces. They man checkpoints where young fighters, sometimes masked, scrutinize people entering or leaving town. Particularly ambush-prone are sport utility vehicles used mainly by foreigners.

Even if one is traveling in a nondescript, battered car and accompanied by a local escort, entering Fallouja is a heart-pounding experience. Last week, however, a car carrying an American journalist swathed in an all-enveloping black abaya and a hijab, or head covering, was waved through without incident.

“You are welcome in my house, but you are not safe here or anywhere in Fallouja,” one local host admonished during the visit. He warned against making eye contact with anyone at a checkpoint or those traveling in nearby cars.

There are signs that Fallouja’s insurgents are a fragmented lot whose internal divisions may eventually come to the foreground -- a development sought by military and coalition officials. Manifestos and pamphlets regularly appear in the streets, signed by more than a dozen factions.

But in a city long known for its overarching mistrust of outsiders, residents uniformly express support for those who fought the Americans. No one entertains the possibility that the Marines could have crushed the insurgents if ordered to do so.

“I believe the U.S. forces went through one of their toughest times here, meeting the resistance they did,” said Abdul Latif, a government worker. “We believe God saved our city. And we believe they learned a lesson: not to mess with Fallouja.”

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An Iraqi special correspondent for The Times in Fallouja contributed to this report.