BAGHDAD, Iraq - A senior U.S. officer said Monday it appeared all the attackers wounded or killed in a weekend raid in Fallujah were Iraqis, despite initial reports that foreigners including Lebanese and Iranians were involved.
Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt acknowledged that initial reports spoke of foreigners having taken part in the Saturday attack, in which 25 people were killed in simultaneous attacks on the police station and the Iraqi Civil Defense Corps compound.
Iraqi authorities said two attackers were captured and at least four were killed.
"The reports that we've gotten from the 82nd (Airborne Division) indicate that they were all Iraqi citizens," Kimmitt said of the killed and captured attackers.
He said the final report could have a different finding "but right now the sensing of the commander on the ground was these were all Iraqi citizens."
He said there were indications that the attack may have been staged to free four Iraqis held for firing at an Iraqi civil defense bus.
On Sunday, U.S. administrator L. Paul Bremer repeated claims that foreign fighters were involved in the Fallujah attack.
"There were foreigners apparently involved," Bremer said on ABC's "This Week." "We're still looking into that to try to find out what the implications are."
However, U.S. military officials said privately they doubted the attack was carried out by foreign fighters or al-Qaida terrorists but rather by veterans of Saddam Hussein's army.
FALLUJAH, Iraq (AFP) - A group claiming to represent Islamist insurgents in the rebel town of Fallujah called for a halt to all attacks against the Iraqi police and army after a weekend assault killed 23 policemen. The "Mujahedeen (holy warriors) of Fallujah" said it has decided "to stop all attacks against policeman and the (Iraqi) army until there is a new order," in leaflets circulated in the town, 50 kilometres (30 miles) west of Baghdad.
"We the fighters of Fallujah vow we do not have any ties to the operation carried out by the rabble without faith or honour that sullied our reputation," the group said.
It denied any connection to the raid on the Fallujah police station and a paramilitary base Saturday that also saw 72 prisoners freed from jail.