US forces offer truce in Falluja
A US military commander in Iraq says his forces are ready to observe a ceasefire in Falluja if the Sunni militants holding the city respond.
Shortly after Brig Gen Mark Kimmitt spoke, a team from the US-appointed Iraqi Governing Council entered the city for talks with local leaders.
The IGC is said to be furious about not being consulted over the Falluja offensive and other US-led operations.
The move came as reports emerged that a US man had been captured by militants.
Hundreds of civilians are reported to have been killed in Falluja, and women and children are trying to leave the city after six days of violence.
The US has reported the deaths of at least 42 of its soldiers in combat since Sunday in Iraq.
Australian TV has shown pictures of a man, apparently American, taken hostage by fighters outside Falluja after an attack on a convoy taking fuel to US troops.
The hostage identified himself as "Thomas Hamill" (spelling unconfirmed) as he was taken away by masked gunmen in a car.
The attack took place near Abu Ghraib, on the main highway from Baghdad to Falluja on Friday.
As concern grew over hostage-taking by insurgents in Iraq, the Arab satellite television channel al-Arabiya broadcast a videotaped message from a previously unknown group threatening to kill 30 hostages which it claimed to be holding.
The group of eight masked men identified themselves as the Brigades of the Hero Martyr Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, after the Palestinian militant cleric assassinated by Israel last month.
They called for the withdrawal of coalition forces, saying their hostages included Japanese, Bulgarians, Israelis, Americans, Spaniards and Koreans.
However, no hostages were seen on the tape and there was no way to verify the group's claims.
In other developments on Saturday:
The director of the Iraqi Red Crescent in the Kurdish city of Irbil and his wife have been found dead
Clashes between insurgents and US troops in Baquba, north of Baghdad, have left at least 40 Iraqis dead and several soldiers wounded
Street fighting erupted in northwest Baghdad's Sunni Muslim district of Adhimiya
There have been explosions near the headquarters of the US-led administration in Baghdad
Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi arrived in the southern city of Nasiriya to visit Italian troops there
Shia pilgrims are gathering for the festival of al-Arbaeen in Karbala - a holy city held by armed supporters of radical Shia cleric Moqtada Sadr.
Falluja dangers
Explosions were heard in Falluja on Saturday.
Witnesses said US marines were entering a residential area near the industrial zone they seized in the east of the city, the Associated Press news agency reported.
One of the few journalists left in Falluja, Ned Parker of the AFP news agency, told the BBC World Service's Newshour programme that conditions were chaotic.
He said that between the residential area and the industrial zone was a no-man's land where bodies had been lying for more than a day.
"It is impossible to pick them up and anywhere you go is a potential killing zone," he said.
CONFIRMED HOSTAGES
Noriaki Imai, 18, Japanese researcher
Nahoko Takato, 34, Japanese aid worker
Soichiro Koriyama, 32, Japanese photojournalist
Nabil George Razuq, 30, Palestinian aid worker
Fadi Ihsan Fadel, 33, Canadian aid worker
Despite the continuing fighting, the Iraqi delegation entered the city and headed to a mosque for talks, a US military spokesman said.
"We advised them of the danger and we let them pass through. They wanted no escorts," he added.
Earlier on Saturday Gen Kimmitt told reporters in Baghdad: "What we are seeking is a bilateral ceasefire on the battlefield so we can allow for discussions."
The governing council, for its part, called for an "immediate ceasefire".
It also urged "political solutions" to crises in various parts of Iraq where militants have been battling occupying forces.
Iraqi interim Human Rights Minister Abdel Basit Turki and a member of the Iraqi Governing Council's rotating presidency, Iyad Allawi, both resigned on Friday.
Militants are holding at least five foreigners hostage - three Japanese citizens, one Palestinian and a Canadian of Syrian origin.
A number of other foreigners in Iraq have been reported missing.
Story from BBC NEWS:
news.bbc.co.uk
Published: 2004/04/10 13:42:56 GMT |
