US Marines 'frustrated' in Falluja

US forces are reportedly impatient to flush the insurgents out

Plans to begin joint US-Iraqi patrols in the restive city of Falluja on Tuesday have been delayed after heavy fighting. The patrols - an attempt to reassert control over the city - are now expected to start later this week.

Our correspondent Jennifer Glasse, who is with the US forces in Falluja, described the situation and the mood among the American soldiers in an interview with the BBC Radio 4's Today Programme.

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Marines say they are still working on getting patrols started later this week. The Tuesday deadline was kind of set by the politicians and the extension of the ceasefire negotiated over the weekend.

What they have been doing is fingerprinting and doing retina scans of candidates that will patrol alongside of them - the Iraqi police and civil defence forces - and training them to get ready to patrol in this very restive town.

It has been very much on again/off again for the marines. They have been in and around Falluja for three weeks now.

US holds off Falluja assault Eyewitness accounts of siege

They had started an offensive but it was halted by political leaders who felt that things were getting very much too rough.

They have been sitting on the edge of town.

They say they are ready for an all-out offensive if it is called for, meanwhile the ceasefire has been in effect.

There have been skirmishes nearly every day but none so violent as the one on Monday that left one marine and at least eight Iraqis dead.

During that clash, the marines destroyed the minaret of a mosque and that is certainly not going to make things easier for them in Falluja.

The commanders say they want to get the insurgents out of their entrenched places in town.

Root out

There are a couple of neighbourhoods in Falluja where the Iraqi police say they can't patrol because they are controlled by insurgents and the Americans want to get them out.

The problem is, they say, the tactics used by the insurgents are certainly not classic military tactics.

The commanders say they use mosques as cover, hide behind civilians and take civilian hostages.

One marine told me that he spoke to a family where an insurgent had come into the house, taken the family hostage and fired a rocket from the home.

The Americans retaliated, of course, against the house and so members of this civilian's family were killed.

A family member said later he had nothing to do with the insurgency, but he had no choice but to allow these insurgents in the house.

So there is clearly a problem in Falluja. The military would like to root this problem out.

But I think the political will is to do as little damage as possible.