Celebrations break out in Fallujah as US marines enter rebel Iraqi city

[Barrett808]

FALLUJAH, Iraq (AFP) - Celebratory gunfire ripped the Sunni Muslim bastion of Fallujah as US marines in a dozen armoured vehicles entered the war-battered city on a symbolic tour and met with local leaders.

Iraqi police and masked insurgents shot off rounds and people flooded the streets, waving Iraqi national flags and honking their car horns in jubilation over what they mistakenly believed was a deal between the marines and the city's leaders to scale back the US presence in Fallujah.

Locals said they believed if the city was quiet during the convoy tour marines would leave Fallujah for good.

But the marines immediately crushed the notion and said they would keep their positions around the edges of the city, rocked by the worst fighting in Iraq since the US invasion last spring.

(more)

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20040510/wl_mideast_afp/iraq_fallujah_convoy&cid=1514&ncid=1480

[MaineDem]

1. police and masked insurgents?

Are they all on the same side?

Which side is celebrating? I find this a tad confusing.

[Barrett808]

2. It appears the residents are celebrating their victory

They certainly aren't welcoming the US forces.

[Say_What]

9. Pics from Aljazeera

Falluja people: Keeping US marines around Falluja's edges is a victory


People in Falluja show how they feel about the proposed new flag

[shadu]

3. Yes, they are all Iraqis who want the US out

I should think they are of one mind on this.

[UpInArms]

4. that headline is so misleading!

these "celebratory" crowds don't seem to be cheering the return of tanks to their streets.

[Barrett808]

6. Correct n/t

[Minstrel Boy]

7. it's upside down and backwards!

I'm getting dizzy; I need to lie down.

[Just Me]

5. Yikes!! They celebrated a mistaken belief,...

,...that a deal had been reached to scale-back US military presence?

This kind of news makes me feel,...unsteady.

[Dhalgren]

13. They celebrated because

the Marines are to remain in their camps <<outside>> the city. They will not come back and patrol - the Marines are out!

[Eye and Monkey]

8. Perhaps these Marines should feel lucky -

Lucky that a celebration of victory by Falluja rebels didn't turn ugly on them.

[Say_What]

10. Meanwhile, over at the OIL pipeline--KABOOM!!

Hey Chimpy... happy now that you've f*ck up another country and killed thousands of innocents INCLUDING YOUR OWN PEOPLE?

<clips>

Iraqi oil pipeline Damaged

Iraqi fighters bomb an oil pipeline in southern Iraq , slashing daily Iraqi oil exports by about 25 percent.

fighters set off the bomb Saturday under the Faw oil pipeline, some 35 miles south of the main southern city of Basra, said an engineer at Iraq's Southern Oil Company, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Luyaibi said the blast damaged a 18-foot section of one of two pipelines that run from Basra to the Faw peninsula on the Gulf. The pipelines have a capacity of 2 million barrels per day - larger than Iraq's current exports.

Luyaibi said that engineers were able to move oil from the damaged pipeline to the second pipeline.

But an official for the State Oil Marketing Pipeline later told Dow Jones that the damage was still considerable and that the second pipeline's capacity was too small to carry all of the additional exports. He told Dow Jones that exports had fallen to 1.2 million barrels a day following the blast.

<http://www.aljazeera.com/cgi-bin/news_service/middle_east_full_story.asp?service_id=1900>

[0007]

11. WoW!!

I don't know whos the dumbest this case.

[floda]

12. here is why they were celebrating instead of shooting

This is from a photocap at getty images.


Caption:
FALLUJAH, IRAQ: A convoy of US marines armored vehicles makes its way out of Fallujah after completing a joint patrol with Iraqi police and members of Iraq Civil Defense Corps (ICDC) in the restive city, 50 kms west of Baghdad, 10 May 2004. Celebratory gunfire rattled across the Sunni Muslim bastion of Fallujah as US marines in a dozen armoured vehicles entered the war-battered city on a symbolic tour and met with local leaders. Both Iraqi police and masked insurgents shot off rounds and people flooded the streets, waving Iraqi national flags and honking their car horns in jubilation over what they mistakenly believed was a deal between the marines and the city's leaders to scale back the US presence in Fallujah. EDS NOTE: Adding background to clarify reason of celebration. AFP PHOTO/Roberto SCHMIDT (Photo credit should read ROBERTO SCHMIDT/AFP/Getty Images)

[Dhalgren]

14. According to Al-Jaz the people were

celebrating because the Marines were going to remain in their camps outside the city and not move back in. In other words, the Marines have given up.