The brigade made no effort to restrict insurgent activities, members and the Marines said. Fallouja became even safer for insurgents, who could take refuge, plot attacks and run manufacturing centers for car bombs and other explosives.
Made up of 1,600 former members of the Iraqi army and Saddam Hussein's Republican Guard, the brigade was formally created April 30.
Four months later, as the brigade is dissolved, its members are better armed, better equipped and better off. Monthly wages ranged from $260 for low-level soldiers to $700 for generals, one of the brigade's staff officers said. The Marines also gave brigade members new semiautomatic rifles and vehicles and furnished a base for them.
For much of the time, the brigade was technically under Marine command and its staff officers were in touch almost daily with Marine officers at Camp Fallouja on the outskirts of town.
"We're trying to go in and recover the stuff we gave them, but I'm not sure it's worth it," Durrant said. "They've already stolen the air conditioners."
He added that when two Marine helicopters inadvertently flew over the Fallouja Brigade base several weeks ago, the aircraft were riddled with bullets and "the pilot was shot in the face."
On a recent trip to Fallouja, it appeared that brigade members were mixing easily with insurgents.
At several checkpoints, one or two Iraqi police officers lounged under small palapa huts with a brigade soldier as a couple of masked men with AK-47s leaned into each car looking for Westerners.
Last week, several Fallouja Brigade members in uniform shot at Marines near the city limits and the Marines returned fire, Durrant said.
From the brigade's inception, many members never fully disentangled themselves from the insurgent movement. Some expressed pride at the role they had played in fighting the Marines and boasted of their prowess in firing weapons. Although the Marines provided them with uniforms, most brigade members eschewed them in favor of the brown or olive green uniforms worn by the Iraqi armed forces under Hussein.
Although the brigade was never expected to remain in place indefinitely, there had been talk of having members join either the Iraqi army or the national guard -- either as a unit or as individuals. Brigade members had said they wished to join the army as a unit, but interim Iraqi officials believed that to create a professional army, soldiers had to be loyal first to the country, not to a unit, city or province.
As it turns out, few brigade members appear likely to be welcomed into the army -- it was not mentioned as an option in the announcement, although Marine officials said they believed Falloujans were free to sign up.
It also seems unlikely that Falloujans would choose to join the national guard. Many Iraqis in the Fallouja area view the guardsmen as U.S. stooges. Fallouja fighters killed a local national guard commander a few weeks ago and kidnapped another, leading many guardsmen to abandon their positions.
Several members said they were angered by the dissolution.
"This was a great violation to the members of the brigade by the American forces and the Iraqi interim government," said Maj. Ahmed Abed Abaas. "Dissolving the Fallouja Brigade, they broke the truce agreed upon last April when the Americans besieged Fallouja."
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The Times' staff in Fallouja contributed to this report.
