Fallujah Redux

The city of Fallujah will long be associated with some of the worst violence and brutality of the Iraq War. Initially occupied by U.S. forces in 2003, it eventually served as the headquarters for numerous insurgent groups operating west of Baghdad, including al-Qaeda in Iraq and its leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, until the city was forcibly retaken at the end of 2004. Once the city was finally cleared, U.S. forces settled into the routine of waging a low-intensity warfare campaign against insurgent forces and trying to set the conditions for Iraqi government control. Even though U.S. forces were winning tactically, they struggled with a population that still strongly supported the insurgency. By the middle of 2007, four years after the initial invasion of Iraq, the city of Fallujah and its surrounding countryside were still mired in a seeminly intractable insurgency. As Anbar province's tribes began to turn against al-Qaeda, Fallujah's residents were waiting for the movement to push eastward to help them eliminate the Islamist threat, but they needed the help of U.S. forces. A concerted pacification campaign, in coordination with tribal efforts, was implemented by U.S. and Iraqi secu