Iraqi force replaces Marines in Fallujah

US officials provided no further details on the bombing.

The shift of security responsibilities to Iraqis was a move toward ending the intense fighting that had evoked strong international criticism, including from America's Iraqi allies.

Negotiations also were taking place in the southern city of Najaf, where tribal leaders and police agreed to a three-day truce as part of a plan to resolve a standoff between soldiers and militiamen loyal to radical Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.

A defiant Sadr said, ''America is the enemy of Islam."

Elsewhere, Iraqi police Colonel Ahmad al-Khazraji was shot to death Thursday night in Baghdad, the US command said. The body of a Baghdad local official also was found hanged with a sign on his chest that said ''al-Mahdi Army business," a reference to Sadr's militia.

Convoys of US troops and equipment could be seen heading out of parts of Fallujah, replaced by Iraqi troopers in red berets under the flag that flew over Hussein's Iraq.

Residents said that by yesterday evening, US troops had left several neighborhoods that had seen heavy fighting, including Nazzal, Shuhada, Nueimiyah, and an industrial area. As US Marines moved out, Iraqi police and civil defense units moved in.

US military guards permitted civilian cars to enter the city after searches.

''Initially, it appears that the transition to the Fallujah Protective Army is working," said Marine Lieutenant Colonel Brennan Byrne. ''It's a delicate situation. The Fallujah Protective Army is the Iraqi solution we've all been looking for in this area."

Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt, coalition deputy operations chief, said the Marines were not ''withdrawing" from Fallujah, one of the most hostile cities in the tense Sunni Triangle, but were simply ''repositioning."

Asked whether the Marines were leaving, Kimmitt replied, ''Nothing could be further from the truth." He said the Marines would maintain a strong presence ''in and around Fallujah."

''The coalition objectives remain unchanged -- to eliminate armed groups, collect and positively control all heavy weapons, and turn over foreign fighters and disarm anti-Iraqi insurgents in Fallujah," Kimmitt said.