BREAKING: Bremmer: US unilaterally suspend offensive in Faluja

[jaykay]

What in the world would lead you to speculate on the most negative possible eventuality?

Experience?

[LdSentinal]

The Kurds are also involved in the offensive?

[Just mythoughts]

"The U.S. military today said it was suspending offensive operations in Fallujah to allow negotiations with a delegation of local tribal leaders. Fallujah has been the site of fierce fighting between U.S. Marines and Iraqi insurgents."

This negotiating business is JFKerry's strong suit, maybe we should enlist him to go be the tribal leaders head negotiator.

[CyberAnt]

Isn't there some kind of holiday in progress - I'm assuming so because Islam mirrors everything Christian and they would have something to counter Easter.

[Fledermaus]

Good point...it's bigger but the results will be the same.

[A Simple Soldier]

Absolutely wrong!!!!! Military action must NEVER be divorced from political considerations. The military does not operate for its own ends. Victory or defeat is a political event.

I would let this play out for the rest of the day. First reports are often wildly inaccurate.

[Steve Van Doorn]

Surrender I is the only answer we should be eccepting.

[piasa]

So I heard. The baathists in town won't like that...

[leadpenny]

You can't say that. Barlowmaker wants everything documented. :)

[LdSentinal]

Today's Friday which is their holiest day of the week.

[Barlowmaker]

Click here

[Steve Van Doorn]

”Military action must NEVER be divorced from political considerations. “

maybe but that game is played way to often by government at the expense of our troops.

[LdSentinal]

The baathists in town won't like that...

Yeah. Those Baathists won't like the Kurdish revenge for gassing them in 1988.

[D-fendr]

I just wish I knew what was really going on. And I don't think we do, not from this report.

All I can "guess" at this point is it's a combination of political and military considerations.

I'd prefer to read, "Fallujah in U.S. control."

[LdSentinal]

Thanks for the link.

[Prime Choice]

This halt may be because a number of members of the interim Iraqi council were threatening to resign if the attack on Fallujah continued.

If that is true, then I say let them resign. We don't need terrorist-sympathizing pukes like them having a say in Iraq's future, by God.

[konijn]

US declares ceasefire in Falluja


US forces have been fighting fierce battles in Falluja
US administrator in Iraq Paul Bremer says US forces have suspended offensive operations in the town of Fallujah.
The move came on the fifth day of a battle for control of the Sunni town that has left up to 300 Iraqis dead.

Mr Bremer said the aim was to try to initiate talks with local insurgents and allow aid deliveries.

Fierce battles are continuing further south, where coalition troops are battling Shia militias in Karbala and say they have retaken the city of Kut.

The US said six more soldiers had died over two days, while at least 14 Iraqis were killed in Karbala and Falluja.

The fighting continued amid growing fears for the safety of six foreign hostages held by Iraqi insurgents.

They consist of three Japanese, a Syrian-born Canadian and two Palestinians.

Hit-and-run

Mr Bremer told reporters in Baghdad: "As of noon today, coalition forces have initiated a unilateral suspension of offensive operations in Falluja to allow for a meeting between members of the Governing Council, local Muslim leadership and the leadership of anti-coalition forces."

He did not say how long the suspension would last, but a member of the US-appointed Governing Council said it would be for 24 hours.

Two US marines and 10 Iraqi rebels were said to have been killed in the fighting in Falluja before hostilities were suspended.

The US troops were hit by sniper fire as they edged through the city block by block, facing hit-and-run attacks with mortars and rocket-propelled grenades.


F-16 warplanes flew overhead and plumes of smoke rose from the ground, reporters in the city said.

Inhabitants were said to be fleeing the city as the fighting intensified.


Map locating recent clashes
There were reports of bodies in the streets and of makeshift clinics being set up, with medical supplies scarce.

However, the top US general in Iraq, Lt Gen Ricardo Sanchez, denied his forces were blocking humanitarian supplies.

One journalist in Falluja, Tony Perry of the Los Angeles Times, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme he had seen dead marines and dead insurgents after all-day street battles.

He said the fighting had mainly taken place in less populated, more industrial areas of the city, but loss of civilian lives was inevitable in urban conflict of this kind.

"The marines are putting no timetable on this," he said, adding that US forces were ready to stay in Falluja "until hell freezes over".


US marines have lost comrades in the Falluja fighting
Gen Sanchez acknowledged that Najaf had fallen to militiamen fighting for the radical Shia Muslim cleric Moqtada Sadr.

Asked if US troops would be sent to fight the rebels, he said: "We will do whatever is necessary to defeat Moqtada Sadr's forces wherever they are on the battlefield."

The central city of Kut, which had been abandoned by Ukrainian troops two days ago, was retaken by US forces after fierce fighting, the American military said.

Television pictures showed Mr Sadr's office in the city in ruins after coming under attack.

'Not like Vietnam'

At least 40 American and allied soldiers and hundreds of Iraqis have been killed in the surge of violence in the past week.

But after the US admitted it may have to keep troops in the country longer than envisaged, Gen Sanchez denied that the Iraq conflict was becoming as intractable as the war in Vietnam.

"I don't see any shadows of Vietnam in Iraq," he said.

In the holy city of Karbala, where a major Shia religious event is due to take place at the weekend, there was fierce fighting overnight.

Some 120 US troops have been sent there to help Bulgarian and Polish forces battling Shia militiamen loyal to Mr Sadr.

Three militants and an Iranian woman are said to have been killed in fighting near a shrine in the city, while one report said as many as 15 Iraqis died.

Militiamen have reportedly issued an ultimatum demanding that foreign troops leave before the Shi'ite holy day of Arbayeen.

Thousands of pilgrims are expected to converge on Karbala for religious ceremonies to mark the event.

Meanwhile, the Arab League has offered to organise talks in Cairo between the American-led coalition running Iraq and the groups that it is fighting against.


The league's secretary-general, Amr Moussa, said the core issue that must be addressed was the deteriorating relationship between the coalition, its occupation forces and the Iraqi people.

[piasa]

Reuters report on Shiite town of Kut; al Sadr's offices Kut to pieces.

Last Update: Friday, April 9, 2004. 6:08pm (AEST)

US forces retake Shiite town in Iraq

United States-led troops have retaken control of the eastern Iraqi town of Kut, witnesses said.

The revelation comes two days after Ukrainian forces withdrew from the city centre after clashes with Shiite militiamen.

Residents said American soldiers were in control of the centre of the town, 170 kilometres south-east of Baghdad.

Witnesses said convoys of US armoured vehicles were seen on roads to the area.

Reuters television pictures showed the Kut office of radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr in ruins after coming under attack.

Al-Sadr's followers launched an uprising this week, battling US-led forces in Shiite areas across Iraq.

One Ukrainian soldier was killed earlier in the week in the fighting in Kut. --Reuters

[Robert Drobot]

This negotiating business is JFKerry's strong suit, maybe we should enlist him to go be the tribal leaders head negotiator.

Maybe he just needs to be gagged for the duration.

[piasa]

Exactly.