In what Reuters and AP call “two flashpoint cities” of Iraq, battles at Falluja and Najaf were somewhat calmed. But Western media do not report that air assaults continue.
Sunni Falluja was calmed by truce on the ground, although F-16s and Apache gunships continued to raid the vicinity via air, as Iraqi police vowed to collect heavy weapons from rebels, and the US promised to make way for ambulances and access to the city’s hospital. US troops are allowing 50 families per day back into the city, which emptied of about 1/3 of its 200,000 residents when US forces attacked in response to the killing and mutilation of American contractors there. It remains to be seen how negotiations between US authorities and civic leaders will hold up in the eyes of local militia, says Reuters.
“The difficulty with these discussions, as I understand them, is that the people who are causing the trouble aren’t part of the discussions,” Rumsfeld told a Pentagon briefing, referring to the Fallujah negotiations involving Iraqi and Sunni Muslim leaders, Fallujah officials and US representatives.
Calling Falluja a “final stand,” Rumsfeld said: “Thugs and assassins and former Saddam henchmen will not be allowed to carve out portions of that city and to oppose peace and freedom.”
But peacemaker Lakhdar Brahimi told Arab media that, “Collective punishments are not acceptable – cannot be acceptable, and to cordon off and besiege a city is not acceptable.”
Three reporters who made their way to Falluja via back roads report claims that Americans tried to take a bridge during the cease fire, but were deterred by insurgents. Meanwhile, F16s and Apache gunships were busy in the air. “Bush doesn’t need to dig mass graves – he collapses our houses on top of us,” shouted Abed Eid, pointing to the remains of three metal casings marked as AGM-114s – helicopter-fired “Hellfire” missiles – which slammed into his home [near Fallujah.]
And at Najaf, some civilians returned home as US forces prepared, “to pull back from a forward base,” in their attack on Al Sadr’s rebels.
“The Shi’ite cleric, Moqtada al-Sadr, called for a halt to attacks on Spain’s 1,400 troops near Najaf after the new government in Madrid said it was pulling out of the U.S.-led occupying coalition.”
Reuters quotes a senior US official saying he’s not sure what arrangements are being made between Iraqi negotiators at Najaf.
US commander Gen. Sanchez says he’s ready to resume the attack on the holy city of Najaf and kill Sadr. “We’ll be applying the same levels of constraint that we’ve always applied in operating in this country and making sure that we respect the people and that we respect their religious shrines,” he said.
Sam Hamod of Al Jazeera Information Service reports that, “according to short wave radio from the Aab world, many of the pilgrims who came to Najaf and Karbala for the Arabayn (40 days of respect for the martyr Husayn) have stayed on to support Sadr and to fight the Americans if necessary. Remember, these Shi’a pilgrims have come from all over the world; thus, other nations may become involved if their citizens are harmed by the U.S. troops with an attack on Najaf. Also, if America attacks Najaf, there will never be an end to Shi’a desire for revenge, as a matter of honor and of religious duty in their minds.But these matters, as important as they are, are rarely is talked about on American mass media.”
MoPress 
Leave a comment