If we end up with any kind of "negotiated end" to Fallujah, it's a major loss.
Iraq Envoys Are Sent to Falluja in Bid to Stop Fighting
By CHRISTINE HAUSER - NYT
BAGHDAD, Iraq, April 10 — The Iraqi Governing Council sent two delegates to Falluja on Saturday to meet with tribal leaders and clerics and try to end days of fierce fighting between insurgents and American troops.
Americans again suspended offensive military operations there to allow the delegation to try to negotiate.
There was no official report of any outcome of the talks, but Reuters quoted a spokesman for the negotiating team, Qahtan al-Rubaie, as saying the Sunni insurgents wanted the United States Marines to leave the city before any cease-fire talks.
The American troops have raided Falluja, a center of anti-Americanism, at a heavy cost to the Marines and with reports of hundreds of Iraqis killed. At the same time, to the south, coalition troops have been battling Shiite militias.
The two-pronged battles represent the most extensive combat since last May, when President Bush declared that the major military operations to topple Saddam Hussein had been completed.
A group of armed Iraqi insurgents, their faces masked, claimed on Saturday to be holding 30 foreigners hostage and threatened to kill them unless the United States halted its offensive in Falluja.
In a film that was shown repeatedly on Arabic television, a masked man representing the group said: "We have Japanese, Bulgarian, Israeli, American, Spanish and Korean hostages. Their numbers are 30."
He added: "If America doesn't lift its blockade of Falluja, their heads will be cut off."
The tape did not show any hostages, however, and it was not possible to confirm that such a group was being held. But several foreigners are known to be missing, putting intense pressure on Japan and other American allies.
In another tape broadcast on television, a man speaking with an American accent was shown being held in the back seat of a car by a masked gunman. He identified himself as Thomas Hamill and said his convoy had been attacked, and in the background black smoke blossomed thickly into the air.
The gunmen, their faces covered with Arab head scarves, jumped into the vehicle's seats around him and sped off, one of them saying into the camera: "We swear to God, we are not afraid of death. We are going to heaven."
On Thursday, kidnappers seized three Japanese citizens and threatened to kill them on Sunday if Japan did not withdraw its forces from Iraq.
[On Saturday, Arabic television station Al Jazeera reported that the group holding three Japanese hostages said it would free them within 24 hours, a move which surprised Tokyo officials working to secure their release ahead of a deadline to kill them on Sunday.]
In Kuwait, an associate of Iraq's leading Shiite leader, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, denounced the kidnapping of the Japanese as a terrorist act and demanded their immediate release, Reuters reported. The associate, Ayatollah Muhammad Bakr al-Mohri, said in a sermon at Friday Prayer that was carried by newspapers on Saturday, "This ugly picture hurts Islam and Muslims as it gives a bad impression about our Islamic religion."
Ayatollah Mohri also denounced what he called the chaos in Iraq caused by the followers of a fugitive Shiite cleric, Moktada al-Sadr.
"We condemn the acts of sabotage, chaos and takeover of public property by a group that unfortunately is part of one of Iraq's biggest and best known families," he said.
On Saturday the United States deputy director for coalition operations, Brig. Gen Mark Kimmitt, called on Sunni militants to honor a cease-fire in Falluja, where some of the worst fighting has taken place. The American forces has used attack helicopters, tanks and warplanes against militants firing rocket-propelled grenades and automatic weapons.
General Kimmitt said in remarks quoted by news agencies, "What we are seeking is a bilateral cease-fire on the battlefield so we can allow for discussions."
But sporadic machine-gun fire and explosions could still be heard in Falluja, according to witnesses and news agency reports.
The American military unilaterally suspended operations on Friday, but that cease-fire held for only a few hours.
The military said in a statement on Saturday that the coalition forces were "prepared to implement a cease-fire at noon today," adding: "If it holds, talks regarding the re-establishment of legitimate Iraq authority in Falluja will begin. This action is being taken with the expectation that enemy elements in Falluja will also honor the cease-fire."
Iraqi doctors in Falluja have reported hundreds of Iraqis killed during the American offensive. The cease-fire on Friday enabled them to collect the dead and wounded in streets and houses where, they said, ambulances were unable to go.
Shiite militias loyal to Mr. Sadr, the anti-American cleric, have battled coalition troops for control of cities south of Baghdad. Battles have flared in Nasiriya, Kut, Kufa, Najaf and Karbala, as well as in Sadr City, a neighborhood in Baghdad.
Shiites and Sunnis united around Falluja as a rallying point against the occupation, organizing aid convoys for the besieged town and blood donations.
Leaders of Mr. Sadr's militia said on Saturday that they would not attack American-led coalition forces in Karbala, about 65 miles south of Baghdad, during a Shiite pilgrimage to the city this weekend for the festival of Arbaeen.
Mr. Sadr's militias had tried to seize control of stations and government buildings staffed by Iraqi officials and officers. United States officials have vowed to crush the militia forces, which they number in the thousands.
In Sadr City, American tanks that had been posted outside of police stations were not in place on Saturday. A witness said that earlier in the day, American forces tore down posters showing Mr. Sadr, and ran over them in tanks. On Friday, American soldiers also ripped down his image where it had been plastered on a statue erected in a central Baghdad square to replace one of Saddam Hussein that was toppled last year on April 9.
Militants have said they would respond fiercely if the coalition arrests Mr. Sadr, for whom a warrant has been issued in connection with the murder of another cleric in Najaf in April 2003.
Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company |
