FALLUJAH, Iraq, Feb. 13 -- Mohammed Farhan Jasam shifted from side to side on the dirt road at the bus stop, his feet dancing impatiently.
His youngest son, Barah, 12, stood beside him, squinting against the noonday sun and trying to catch a glimpse of the bus that would shuttle them a few miles to the center of Fallujah.
A bus shuttles residents into Fallujah after they pass through a checkpoint controlled by U.S. and Iraqi security forces.
(Jackie Spinner -- The Washington Post)
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Jasam and his family fled their home in Fallujah before U.S.-led forces began an offensive on Nov. 7 to retake the city from insurgents. The family moved to Ramadi, about 25 miles to the west.
On Sunday, Jasam, 50, an agricultural engineer who operates a honeybee farm outside the city, returned for the first time, anxious to see his house after hearing from neighbors that the gate and fence around it had been damaged in the fighting.
More than a dozen people bunched together at the bus stop in front of a bullet-riddled apartment building. Jasam shifted his feet some more. Finally, unable to stand the wait any longer, he and his son set out on foot along a narrow walkway lined with barbed wire
"I am very happy," Jasam said. "Between the terrorists and the Americans, we didn't have a chance to do anything. They were both pressing on us. I think the problem is solved."
At least 1,000 people a day pass through this bus stop on the northwestern edge of Fallujah, 35 miles west of Baghdad, on their way back to the city, said Marine Lance Cpl. Matthew Willis, 22, of Petersburg, Ill., who is part of the unofficial welcoming committee that greets residents entering the city at this juncture.
The stop, which is manned by members of the 81mm mortar platoon from the Marine 3rd Battalion, 5th Regiment Weapons Company, is at one of five entry points into the city controlled jointly by U.S. troops and Iraqi security forces. They constitute the only legal way into city, which has been sealed off since the ground assault.
As part of their duties, Willis and Lance Cpl. Michael Ray, 20, of Central City, Iowa, flag down civilian cars with an extra seat or two for those waiting for the bus, hand out water, call for escorts and direct people to a booth where they can get new residence cards, a requirement for people reentering the city.
Ray sat on the hood of his Humvee on Sunday and eyed the residents from behind his dark shades. He said he could not wait to get home next month.
"This is a waste of time," Ray said. "I think they let the people back in too soon, before they made sure the city was clear of insurgents."
Willis moved more eagerly among the residents, lightly armed and not wearing sunglasses. He said he has gotten to know many of the people who have passed through here, some of whom come in daily with new supplies or to check on their homes.
"The kids, you go shake their hands and the parents smile," he said. "It's part of winning hearts and minds."
A few days ago, Nabil Raji Mosa, 60, a technical engineer who worked at the Irrigation Ministry in Fallujah before the battle began, approached Willis with a problem. Mosa has been trying to return to his house in Fallujah to retrieve his daughter's teaching certificate, which she needs for a job, he said.
But the Marines now occupy his house and will not let him search for the certificate, Mosa said. He added that he has been paying about $350 a month to rent a place in Baghdad and that he had not received compensation from the Marines for use of his Fallujah residence.
"They won't allow me to go home," he said.
Willis later confided that he had gone to the man's home to look for the certificate but could not find it. "The Marines burned everything," he said. He has not yet broken the news to Mosa. "I want to go back one more time and see if it's somewhere," Willis said. "Maybe it survived."
Nearly all of Fallujah's 250,000 residents emptied the city in advance of the military operation. The city partially reopened to residents on Dec. 23, and U.S. military officials now estimate that 60,000 people have come back, although not everyone who has returned has opted to stay. Many structures -- in some places, entire neighborhood blocks -- are uninhabitable.
Salah Dulaymi returned a few weeks ago and found his house completely flattened, he said. His wife and most of his children, who are living in nearby Saqlawiyah, have not been back to Fallujah since the assault, he said.
On Sunday, Dulaymi stood at a bus stop with his wife and nine of their children, looking for a ride into the city, where they plan to live with a grown daughter.
Dulaymi said the family waited for two hours to pass through the checkpoint outside the city. Two of his sons were still in line waiting for two large buses loaded with the family's possessions to be inspected.
"I feel safe right now," said Dulaymi, 50, a retired Iraqi military officer. "There is nothing in the city, no mujaheddin. But they destroyed the city. There had to be ways to solve the problem without attacking Fallujah."
A few minutes later, a bus pulled up, and a police officer helped Dulaymi and his family onto it.
The officer, 24, was a Baghdad resident who spoke on condition of anonymity because of security concerns.
"All the houses are destroyed, and we feel sorry about that," he said. "But these people, the majority of them deserved it because they didn't help get rid of the insurgents."
Mohammed Hasan, 45, a taxi driver waiting at the bus stop who has been out of work since the battle, said he had nothing to do with the insurgency. He said he just wanted to return to his home.
But so far, Hasan said, the Marines have stopped him moving back because his house is too close to one of their operations centers in the city. "The Marines took my house," he said. "They gave everyone $200, but I didn't get it because my food ration card was damaged. I have been away four months."
As he spoke, a woman who gave her name as Um Mohammed walked by with her children in tow. It was her second visit back to the city, she said, clutching a heavy plastic sack filled with possessions. Her children also lugged bags of goods.
"The glass is broken, and there is no furniture," she said. "I don't like seeing the city like this. But I didn't like seeing the insurgents, either."
