Cleric condemns mutilations

BAGHDAD, Iraq — A Sunni cleric in Fallujah on Friday condemned the mutilation of the four Americans slain there two days before. But while Sheik Fawzi Nameq deemed the desecrations un-Islamic, he declined to criticize the ambush that killed the men or suggest that Fallujah relent in its opposition to the U.S.-led occupation.

Though Fallujah was calm Friday, occupation and Iraqi forces came under fire elsewhere. A roadside bomb killed one U.S. soldier and wounded another in Baghdad, officials said. And the military reported that a U.S. Marine was killed Thursday in an attack near Ramadi, a Sunni city not far from Fallujah in Al Anbar province.

Fallujah residents, a day after a top U.S. general vowed that the Marines would retake control of their city, expressed concern and defiance.

"The Americans should think before they act," Lt. Mohammad Tarik, a member of the Iraqi security forces in Fallujah, told Reuters. "If they enter Fallujah and use force it will only be met with force, and this will happen over and over. Everyone is angry with the occupation, and there are many tribes, which means there will be revenge."

Those warnings were voiced in Baghdad as well, where Iraqis view Fallujah and Ramadi as tightly knit tribal towns that gave even Saddam Hussein's police state occasional trouble.

"I have an acquaintance from Fallujah. He tells me, 'The good thing that we have that you don't in Baghdad is that you do not see any American soldiers on our streets. We do not allow that in Fallujah,"' said Hussein al-Musawi, 30, who was lunching with co-workers from a Baghdad auto dealership. "They have their own demands there, and one is that they will not accept the occupation."

Al-Musawi and his friends have their own problems with the Americans, they said, mostly regarding the lack of security. But they do not resent the occupation as do residents in Fallujah and other parts of the so-called Sunni Triangle.

The men, two Shiites and a Christian, said they feel no special kinship with the mostly Sunni residents of Fallujah. But they believe U.S. forces have mistreated the Fallujah men through unfair detentions and humiliations. They also pointed to a clash last April in which U.S. forces shot to death at least 13 demonstrators; the Americans said they had come under fire from the protesters.

All of Iraq would take offense if the Marine response in Fallujah led to many civilian casualties, the men said.