We're Staying in Iraqi Flashpoint, U.S. Forces Say

[Nambe]

FALLUJA, Iraq (Reuters)

--- The U.S. military said on Friday it had pulled some troops from the main police station in Falluja 30 miles west of Baghdad but left others in place, denying reports it had withdrawn completely from the station or the town center.

After overnight rocket-propelled grenade attacks on the police station and the mayor's office, police held a rally on Thursday, threatening to quit unless U.S. forces left.

"Our operations here have continued as normal since the protest. Nothing has changed and we have not reduced the number of troops (in the town)," U.S. Army Second Lieutenant Amanda Goldstein told Reuters at the main police station on Saturday. ---

"They took a few people away and brought a few people back. It's basically a shift system, nobody has left," policeman Dawoud Sulaiman said.

"But we don't want their occupation of our country and we want them to leave this police station because it puts us in danger when U.S. forces occupying the police station come under attack," he told Reuters. ---

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