The continuing U.S. offensive against the two cities accompanied recent statements by U.S. officials that military decisions will remain permanently in their hands, even as they put together an interim Iraqi government to a blueprint endorsed by top United Nations officials. All the same, U.S. officials continue to describe the administration to be imposed by June 30 as a “transfer of sovereignty” from foreign occupation authorities to Iraqi officials.

The Fallujah fighting began after U.S. commanders declared an end to a so-called ceasefire imposed two weeks earlier, after a U.S. assault—prepared by a propaganda offensive whipping up outrage over the deaths of four mercenaries—in which hundreds of Iraqis were killed. The “ceasefire” has been marked by aggressive air and ground patrols, several bloody clashes, and constant activity by Marine snipers.

The April 27 attack involved Marines on the ground and at least one AC-130 gunship. The Associated Press reported that “blasts and gunfire went on steadily for more than half an hour in sustained fighting, apparently in the northern Jolan district, a poor neighborhood where Sunni insurgents are concentrated.”

Fallujah, a center of the Sunni Muslim population, was a base of the Baath Party under the Saddam Hussein regime. Since the U.S. and British governments launched their invasion last year, it has been a center of armed resistance to the invading and occupying forces.

U.S. aircraft built up to the attacks with a leaflet drop on the city of 200,000 people. The leaflets instructed fighters to “surrender, you are surrounded. If you are a terrorist, beware, because your last day was yesterday. In order to spare your life end your actions and surrender to coalition forces now.”

U.S. officials said that the April 26 Najaf attack had targeted an antiaircraft gun nest. There were no reports of U.S. deaths in the slaughter, which involved helicopter gunships as well as ground forces.

Over the past couple of weeks, U.S. troops have maintained a standoff in Najaf with supporters of Shiite leader Muqtada al-Sadr, whose militia, known as the Mahdi Army, recently carried out attacks on U.S.-led forces. Working through Iraqi Governing Council and Shiite intermediaries, U.S. officers are demanding al-Sadr’s surrender and the breakup of his militia.

In other parts of Iraq such as the town of Balad and the Sadr City district of Baghdad, U.S. forces have been conducting raids against al-Sadr’s forces.

The April 26-27 fighting in Najaf occurred as U.S. troops cleared the way to replace the Spanish unit that had held the base in the city.

The government of Spain has announced that it is planning for the withdrawal of its 1,400 troops from the imperialist occupation force. A spokesperson for the recently elected Socialist Party, said Spanish intelligence agents would remain in Iraq at Washington’s request. Madrid would “maintain a commitment” there, she said. “It’s just a question of deciding where and how.”

Making clear his disapproval of the Spanish withdrawal, U.S. president George Bush stressed to prime minister-elect José Luis Zapatero, “the importance of carefully considering future actions to avoid giving false comfort to terrorists or enemies of freedom in Iraq,” White House spokesman Scott McClellan said April 19.

Democratic Party presidential candidate John Kerry said, “I had hoped the [Spanish] prime minister would have reconsidered his position.” The Honduran and Dominican governments have also announced they will withdraw their troops, totaling 672, from a brigade operating in south-central Iraq under Spanish command.

To give the imperialist occupation a greater façade of legitimacy, Washington has embraced a proposal by a “special envoy” of UN General Secretary Kofi Annan for a slightly modified version of the projected “interim” government. Under this proposal, the occupying authorities will pick a president, prime minister, and a cabinet.

U.S. commanders will “have the right, and the power, and the obligation” to decide on military operations, said Marc Grossman, U.S. undersecretary of state for political affairs. “We would do our very best to consult with that interim government and take their views into account,” he said.  
 
‘U.S. forces must operate freely’
U.S. secretary of state Colin Powell said April 26, in a calculated understatement, that he hoped Iraqis “will understand that in order for this government to get up and running—to be effective—some of its sovereignty will have to be given back.” U.S. forces, he said, “have to be able to operate freely.”

The interim body would replace the Iraqi Governing Council, handpicked last year by the U.S. overseer of the occupation, Paul Bremer. The 25-person council includes politicians exiled by the Saddam Hussein regime, pro-occupation leaders of the Kurdish nationality, Sunni and Shiite Muslim figures, and a leader of the Iraqi Communist Party.

In another adjustment to provide a more convincing façade for their occupation and stronger leadership for previously unreliable Iraqi military units, U.S. officials said April 22 that Bremer’s office and the Pentagon might reinstate Iraqi administrators and military officers who had been purged for their alleged association with the former ruling Baath Party of Saddam Hussein.

In doing so, they are reining in what Bremer called the “overzealous” approach by Governing Council member Ahmad Chalabi to the U.S.-backed “de-Baathification” campaign. Chalabi, a wealthy businessman who spent decades in exile conspiring against the Hussein regime with U.S. financing, boasted in January that the Council had purged 28,000 former Baathists.

U.S. officials have complained about the performance of the under-equipped Iraqi security forces sent into combat in recent weeks. About 10 percent “actually worked against us,” said Gen. Martin Dempsey, commander of the 1st Armored Division,” while others refused to risk engagement with the insurgents.

U.S. forces have continued to launch forays in Baghdad, taking some losses as they do so. On April 17, they shut down sections of two major highways running through the city, “after days of roadside bombings and ambushes,” the Los Angeles Times reported.  
 
 
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