Posted on 04/12/2004 3:48:08 AM PDT by kattracks
FALLUJAH, Iraq - Gunfire was largely silenced Monday in the second day of a truce in Fallujah, where doctors said 600 Iraqis, including many civilians, were killed in the past week's Marine siege of Sunni insurgents. In the south, the military suggested it is open to a negotiated solution in its showdown with a radical Shiite cleric.
But additional U.S. forces have been maneuvering into place, and the military has warned it will launch an all-out assault on Fallujah if talks there between pro-U.S. Iraqi politicians and city officials — which were continuing Monday — fall through.
President Bush (news - web sites) prepared Americans for the possibility of more casualties in the Mideast nation after at least 62 U.S. soldiers were killed across Iraq (news - web sites) since April 4, including three Marines killed Sunday.
"It was a tough week last week and my prayers and thoughts are with those who pay the ultimate price for our security," Bush said.
The top U.S. commander in Iraq, Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, acknowledged that a battalion of the Iraqi army refused to fight in Fallujah — a sign of Iraqi discontent with the siege.
Asked about the battalion's refusal on NBC's "Meet The Press," Sanchez said, "This one specific instance did in fact uncover some significant challenges in some of the Iraqi security force structures ... We know that it's going to take us a while to stand up reliable forces that can accept responsibility."
Some 900 members of the Iraqi Civil Defense Corps are with three battalions of Marines. U.S. forces on Sunday examined a captured insurgent cache of suicide belts — raising concerns of a deadly new tactic in the city's fighting.
Bush held out hope for the Fallujah talks, saying the United States was "open to suggestions" on reducing the violence.
Meanwhile, the rash of kidnappings of foreigners that has coincided with the worst violence in Iraq since the U.S.-led occupation continued. Seven Chinese civilians were abducted by insurgents in central Iraq Sunday evening, China's government said. On Monday, Beijing urged Iraq's leaders to rescue the hostages.
Still unknown was the fate of an American hostage, Thomas Hamill, whose captors threatened to kill him unless the Marines withdraw from Fallujah by early Sunday. Other insurgents promised to release three Japanese by Sunday, but the Japanese Embassy in Baghdad said Monday they had not been freed.
In the south, members of the Iraqi Governing Council have reportedly held talks with followers of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, who raised a bloody revolt last week and still control three holy cities, Karbala, Kufa and Najaf.
One factor that has held off U.S. action to uproot al-Sadr's al-Mahdi Army militia was the presence of up to 1.5 million Shiite pilgrims in Karbala, for Sunday's al-Arbaeen ceremonies, one of the holiest days of Shiism's religious calendar. Most pilgrims had left the city by Monday morning.
U.S. coalition spokesman Dan Senor would not comment on Iraqi talks with al-Sadr's followers but added, "I would say that our goal is to minimize bloodshed and to head off any sort of conflict."
"We don't see it as a necessary requirement that any military action has to occur in Najaf," Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt told reporters.
The goal of the separate talks in Fallujah and the south — all conducted by Iraqis, with no Americans participating — was unclear. U.S. commanders demand that control of Iraqi police and U.S.-led coalition forces in the cities be restored and that insurgents in Fallujah lay down their arms and hand over Iraqis who killed and mutilated four American civilians on March 31.
Iraqi Governing Council members, who have harshly criticized the U.S. offensive, are seeking a way to extend the truce and resolve the violence.
U.S. troops retook the city of Kut from al-Sadr followers in the past three days, in the first major foray in months by the American military into southern Iraq. But military action to retake the other cities could require fighting near some of Shiite Islam's holiest shrines, raising the possibility of inflaming Shiite anger at the U.S.-led occupation.
Including the dead from Fallujah, nearly 900 Iraqis have been killed across the country since April 4.
In Fallujah, hardly a shot was heard Monday morning, more than 36 hours after insurgents in the city said they were calling a cease-fire. The Marines have halted offensive operations since Friday.
Despite the truce, guerrillas overnight made sporadic attacks, said Lt. Col. Brennan Byrne. Marines killed two insurgents setting up a machine gun near a patrol and others were fired on by gunmen hiding in a school, he said. During the day Saturday, troops and a Cobra helicopter firing rockets responded to Iraqi fire, killing "a significant number" of fighters, as spokesman said.
The bodies of 11 Iraqis were seen brought to a makeshift clinic in a city mosque Sunday.
Byrne said U.S. Marines would not withdraw from their positions in Fallujah. "Diplomacy is just talk unless you have a credible force to balk it up," he said. "People will bend to our will if they are afraid of us."
Marines on Sunday investigated a bomb-making factory first uncovered three days earlier. Along with five suicide belts found in the initial raid, they uncovered U.S. military uniforms — suggesting suicide bombers may try to use them to get close to American forces, Byrne said.
The Fallujah violence spilled over to the nearby western entrance of Baghdad on Sunday, where gunmen shot down an American AH-64 Apache helicopter, killing its two crewmen. A large force of tanks and troops pushed down the highway outside the Iraqi capital, aiming to crush insurgents who have run rampant there for days.
Most of the Iraqis killed in Fallujah in fighting that started last Monday were women, children and elderly, the director of the city hospital, Rafie al-Issawi, told The Associated Press.
Byrne cast doubt on the numbers and said he was confident troops in his 1st Battalion, 5th Regiment had not killed any civilians. "Just because (the Iraqis) say it's so, doesn't meant it's so," he said. "Remember the enemy owns this city and the enemy has an interest in manipulating the situation if they can weaken our position."
Fallujah residents took advantage of the lull in fighting to bury their dead in two soccer fields. One of the fields, seen by an AP reporter had rows of freshly dug graves, some marked on headstones as children or with the names of women. A gravedigger at the site said more than 300 people were buried there.
___
AP correspondents Daniel Cooney in Baghdad and Bassem Mroue with Marines at Fallujah contributed to this report.
Jihadis undoubtedly thought they were Japanese. But Achmed! They looked Japanese. Anyways what are some ChiComs doing in Iraq? Footloose and fancy free?
Will we never learn! Just wipe 'em out! Are they going to change just b/c there was a ceasefire? Of course not! Yet...
They were rather busy over my way this morning too.
Quiet for now...
I need this to beat back my co-workers, the liberal schoolteacher NEA worshipers that are hammering me at school for my "Support the Troops" bumpersticker.
Our troops are willing and able to return fire.
Heavy duty Spring cleaning going on in your neighborhood these days.
You're in our prayers.
But additional U.S. forces have been maneuvering into place, and the military has warned it will launch an all-out assault on Fallujah if talks there between pro-U.S. Iraqi politicians and city officials — which were continuing Monday — fall through..
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
AP recap.
Freeper eye-witnesses prefer paragraph #2, I think.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.