U.S. Opts To Delay Fallujah Offensive

Although a group of civic leaders had agreed to a peace deal with U.S. military commanders and civilian officials on April 19, the local leaders have failed to fulfill a key element of the agreement -- getting the insurgents to surrender heavy weapons. On Wednesday, police officers delivered a pickup truck filled with rusty and largely inoperative weapons, not the modern equipment military officers had wanted. The lack of compliance with the arms handover prompted Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and senior military officials to suggest that offensive action could resume on short notice.

Rumsfeld and the other military officials questioned whether the local leaders who signed the peace agreement had enough influence over the insurgents to compel them to turn over weapons and cease hostilities. If the leaders could not deliver, the military officials said, the Marines would be left with no option but to resort to force again.

But on Saturday, with Marine commanders preparing their attack plans, top American officials helicoptered into a sprawling base outside Fallujah for last-ditch meetings. Participants included the U.S. administrator of Iraq, L. Paul Bremer, and the overall commander of U.S. forces in the Middle East, Army Gen. John P. Abizaid. Iraqi political leaders, who have been negotiating with civic leaders in Fallujah, implored the American officials to give the peace deal more time, according to a U.S. official familiar with the discussions. The Iraqis insisted that many in the city who had fought against the Marines earlier in the month had promised to cease attacks but did not want to give up their weapons, the official said.

In response, Bremer and Abizaid decided to try to implement joint patrols to give the local leaders a final chance to demonstrate whether they could control the city, the official said. "If they can keep the bad guys from shooting, that's great," the official said. "If the bad guys start shooting at the Marines, then we're going to have to go in with more force."

The decision not to attack immediately and to attempt the joint patrols was so sensitive that it was made in consultation with the White House, the official said.

In Washington, a senior Bush administration official said the decision to rely for now on patrols rather than an attack was based partly on the concern of President Bush's aides about the fallout an invasion could trigger in the Arab world.

"It's a situation that calls for precision and some measure of patience -- not unlimited patience, however," said the official, who declined to be identified in order to speak more candidly. "You want to be prepared to take strong action on short notice against those who've been identified, and do what's necessary to subdue them. On the other hand, you don't want to misfire prematurely in such a way that you temporarily make the local situation worse and provide images that incite a broader reaction."

Despite pledges of stability from local leaders, Lt. Col. Brennan Byrne, the commander of a Marine battalion in Fallujah, said he would not take any chances: The Marine unit conducting the joint patrol, he said, will have air support and "will be prepared for anything they might run into."

The decision to use joint patrols, with heavy U.S. armor escorting uniformed Iraqi police and civil defense officers, also serves to shift the context of any future confrontation away from the notion of collective punishment for the mutilation of the contractors.

"Whether we use military means or whether we use political means, we're committed to achieving the end, which is to get Iraqi control back in the city," Kimmitt said.

Iraqi security forces interviewed in Fallujah on Sunday were apprehensive about the idea of patrolling with the Marines. "I don't feel safe because the Americans are not safe," said police Capt. Jassim Mohammed Abid. "They're going to get shot at. They can't guarantee safety for themselves, so how can they guarantee safety for me?"

Kimmitt referred to the first joint patrol, which is planned for Tuesday, as both a test and a possible watershed. "That will be the first step into returning the city to a sense of stability that eventually will result in our being able to bring a tremendous amount of funds, civil affairs money and expertise into that city," he said.

On the heels of Bremer's meeting on Saturday, the occupation authority formally announced $70 million in funding for civic improvements in Fallujah and nearby Ramadi: $20 million upfront and $50 million soon.

Meanwhile, in southern Iraq, the country's main oil-exporting terminal will remain closed until at least Monday after it was damaged in a seaborne suicide attack on Saturday, Oil Minister Ibrahim Bahr Uloum told reporters. The Basra terminal normally funnels nearly a million barrels daily to waiting tankers.

A third American service member, identified as a U.S. Coast Guardsman, died from wounds suffered when a patrol craft challenged the explosives-laden dhow, one of three that exploded at the port in a coordinated attack.

In Baghdad, a U.S. soldier was killed and three were wounded when a roadside bomb detonated Sunday morning. Several civilians, including children, were killed when soldiers came under fire from rooftops on both sides of the road when they returned to collect their wrecked Humvee, the military said.

In other attacks Sunday, eight U.S. soldiers were wounded by assorted mortar fire or roadside bombs in Balad, north of Baghdad. Four Iraqi civilians were killed in the northern city of Mosul after mortar shells landed outside a hotel and a hospital.

Vick reported from Baghdad.