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Blaring warnings from Humvee-mounted loudspeakers, the U.S. Marines sent residents of this rural town scurrying Monday when the troops arrived to demolish symbols of President Saddam Hussein's regime.

But any potential tension melted quickly into jubilation when the people of Qal'at Sukkar learned one of their own had come home.

Khuder Al-Emeri, 43, left his Seattle restaurant behind three months ago to join the Free Iraqi Forces, a group of exiles trained by the U.S. military to serve as interpreters and guides in Iraq.

Wearing desert camouflage and assisting the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit, his return to the Shiite village where he once led an uprising against Saddam's regime was a whirlwind of tears and hugs seeing relatives he didn't even recognize after 12 years away.

"I came to help my people," Al-Emeri said.

Qal'at Sukkar, which means "Fort of Sugar" and is located 60 miles north of Nasiriya, was essentially bypassed by larger Marine units that passed near here on their way to Baghdad. The only obvious sign of fighting in the town is a bullet-riddled bus alongside a main road.

As the Marine unit arrived Monday in a convoy of vehicles with assault rifles at the ready the first time an American force of such magnitude had entered the town only children were waving from the roadsides.

When news got out that Al-Emeri was back, crowds of men flooded into the streets and pressed around him, cheering and clapping and pushing up against Marines in defensive positions. One man rushed up to an American with a wreath of plastic flowers to hug him, rifle and all, despite the Marine's best efforts to maintain his distance.

"We have had enough!" the crowd chanted, and several young men also shouted "George Bush, yes!"

At one point, Al-Emeri had to use the loudspeaker to urge the crowd to move back for their own safety as Marines wired a large Saddam mural in front of the former secret police headquarters for destruction.

Inside secret police offices behind the mural, Al-Emeri found a warrant dated in early March calling two brothers in for questioning. He received no information Monday on their whereabouts.

Leader of a Shiite uprising during the first Gulf War, Al-Emeri left the country in April 1991 and said the Iraqi regime placed a price on his head. He was only able to communicate with his family who was regularly questioned about his whereabouts by relaying messages through acquaintances in Baghdad. The restaurant he ran, named "Peace" in Arabic, was seized by the government along with his other businesses.

His family were among those who rushed out to greet him including his 15-year-old son, Ali, whom he hadn't seen since he left Iraq. When they first saw each other, they embraced tightly and wept.

Ali Al-Emeri said he was afraid to ever let his father go away again, but Al-Emeri assured him: "Stay home. You are safe. I am here, the U.S. forces are here."

Across town at the local Baath Party headquarters in a former school building, where Marines ripped down another Saddam portrait, Al-Emeri found piles of documents about the movements of residents. U.S. troops carried out armload after armload of mortars.

Residents insisted that local Baath party members had simply vanished. Al-Emeri said townspeople asked for U.S. help to maintain security and that none of the local party leaders had yet been detained.

"I don't know where they're hiding maybe they're in the city, maybe they're out of the city," Al-Emeri pleaded to the unit's civil affairs officer.

Despite the warm greeting, townspeople complained they had no electricity or food, and said the local hospital had no medicine. Some also talked of hearing massive gunfire the night before. "No water, no hospital, no food, no anything," resident Walid Qasm said in English. "Help, help, please help."

Humanitarian groups haven't made it to the area and Marines here are doing assessments for possible future aid but they hesitate to say how long it could take to arrive.

"It does take a while, it's not an overnight process," said Capt. Brian Reynaldo, officer in charge of civil affairs for the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit. Planning is under way to conduct medical and dental clinics in the town of 45,000.

The Free Iraqi Fighters are made up of Iraqis between 18 and 55 years old who had been living in exile in the United States, Canada and Western Europe. They trained with the U.S. Army in Hungary this winter, learning basic self-defense skills, such as how to use a 9mm pistol and wear protective gear in case of chemical or biological attacks. The Pentagon has said they would be paid a small stipend, less than a U.S. private would earn.

Their open involvement in the war coincides with the return of prominent Iraqi exile leaders, notably Ahmed Chalabi, who has been leading the London-based Iraqi National Congress and aspires to lead post-Saddam Iraq. Chalabi said Sunday he was in Nasiriya, and his group said 700 of its members were in the town as the 1st Battalion of the Free Iraqi Forces.

Also, in Iran on Monday, Mohammed Baqir al-Hakim, whose Supreme Council of the Islamic Revolution in Iraq is the largest Iraqi opposition group, has decided to return to Iraq, according to his spokesman.

Al-Emeri said he planned to come back to his hometown to stay. Despite the rapturous reception Monday, he declined to speculate on a future leadership role for himself.

"It's up to the people, it's democratic," he said. "The problem was with Saddam Hussein, not with the Iraqi people. ... We want real democracy."

photo credit and caption:

Khuder Al-Emeri, 43, center, working for the U.S. Marines 24th Expeditionary Unit as an interpreter, is reunited with local villagers after 12 years, Monday, April 7, 2003, in Qal'at Sukkar village, some 62 miles north of Nasariyah, Iraq. Khuder led an uprising in his village during the last Gulf War and fled to the United States in fear of reprisal from Saddam Hussein's regime. He now returns in hopes of rebuilding his village. (AP Photo/Wally Santana)

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