On Sunday, AP reported that the US military is "lowering its profile" in order "to avoid alienating its Iraqi allies who take power at the end of the month." The military has been criticised for it "heavy-handed tactics," hence the softening of once-rigid demands.
Unfortunately, that report came on heels of one a few hours earlier from Karma, described as a suburb of Falluja. An Iraqi interpreter has been kidnapped. Marines cordon off the crime scene, a "house-to-house search" fails to find him. Lt. Col. Brennan Bryne "demands" that the Iraqi be released and announces he is "’indefinitely suspending’ all assistance and construction projects." Of course, house-to-house searches have been known to be conducted with a bit of "heavy-handedness."
That was Sunday in Karma. On Tuesday, eleven Iraqis, including women and children, were killed when heavy fighting broke out there. It appears as if the tactics and demands were hard enough to provoke more resistance.
On Wednesday (today), it appears the violence spread to Fallujah itself, "Rebels kill 12 Iraqi soldiers." Al-Jazeera reports "Occupation tanks poised to enter."