Ineffective Iraqi Force in Fallouja Disbanded

Discontent rippled through the group, many of whose members had hoped that it would remain intact and eventually become a unit of the new army. Judging by members' comments, it seemed likely that some would openly rejoin the insurgency, in which many had been involved before joining the brigade. In doing so, they would be able to fight with weapons provided to them by the Marines, who also paid them monthly salaries.

That will make it all the more difficult for U.S. troops and Iraqi government forces to retake Fallouja -- currently a "no go" area for U.S. forces.

"We don't know where to go now after this dismissal by the American troops and the Iraqi interim government," said Brig. Gen. Tayseer Latief of the brigade. "They leave us no other option but to join the resistance."

Defense Ministry officials declined to comment Friday.

When the brigade was established, Marine commanders acknowledged that many members either were insurgent fighters or had connections to them. The insurgents waged intense battles against Marines for weeks in April.

The goal in forming the force was to avoid a bloodbath by allowing the Marines to withdraw from the city but leaving a proxy force to tamp down insurgent activity and arrest those responsible for the killings of four U.S. civilian security contractors March 31.

Initially, Marine commanders said the brigade would root out anti-American forces and target foreign fighters. The Marines hoped that the brigade members, with their military training and pride in having responsibility for their town, would stand up against those fighting the U.S. military and Iraqi interim government forces.

Empowering a force made up of Iraqis would move "Iraqi stakeholders ... to try to contribute to solving some of the challenges and problems," Marine Col. John Coleman said in a July interview.

Coleman acknowledged that the brigade was "a nascent military capability at best," but one that enabled the Marines to get out of the city where their presence had become a rallying call for the insurgency.

In the month after the brigade's formation, "the enemy activity in this zone dropped to almost zero," he said. But it then began to climb back to the level it had been before the killing of the U.S. civilian contractors, whose remains were mutilated.

In the end, most brigade members' prior allegiance to the insurgency proved impossible to sever.