U.S. Looks for New Solution in Cease-Fire 
              
             
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            April 12, 2004 E-mail story Print 



      THE WORLD
      U.S. Looks for New Solution in Cease-Fire
       Fighting tapers off in Fallouja as officials shift toward a negotiated 
      end to the uprising. Helicopter crash kills two soldiers; three Marines 
      die in clashes. 

             
             

            Commentary
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            (AFP)

             

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                        THE WORLD

                        IRAQ WAR 2003

                        CEASE FIRES

                        MILITARY ASSAULTS

                        IRAQ WAR 2003 FALLOUJA IRAQ CEASE FIRES MILITARY

                        FALLOUJA IRAQ

                        CASUALTIES

                        UNITED STATES

                        LS IG




                          






      By Nicholas Riccardi and Tony Perry, Times Staff Writers 


      FALLOUJA, Iraq — A patchy cease-fire took hold in this battle-torn city 
      Sunday as U.S. officials said they were seeking "political" solutions to 
      pacify the area and, elsewhere in the country, disband a militia loyal to 
      a virulently anti-American cleric.

      The move to stress negotiations over military action marked a significant 
      tactical shift for American officials here, who until the weekend had been 
      vowing to crush the two insurgencies threatening Iraq's stability. The 
      change came as guerrillas appeared to extend their influence closer to the 
      capital Sunday, shooting down an Apache helicopter about 3 miles from 
      Baghdad's airport and cutting off communications between military posts on 
      a key road leading west from the city. 

              
             
             
             
              
             
      Two U.S. soldiers were killed when the helicopter crashed. In addition, 
      the military announced that three Marines were killed Sunday in fighting 
      west of Baghdad and at least 12 other troops died in previously unreported 
      incidents Friday and Saturday, including ferocious battles in the city of 
      Baqubah, northeast of Baghdad. 

      About 60 U.S. troops have died in Iraq since April 4, when Marines 
      launched their operation to regain control of Fallouja and militiamen 
      loyal to cleric Muqtada Sadr began attacking police posts and government 
      buildings in southern Iraq. 

      Insurgents continued to abduct foreign civilians Sunday, with China's 
      official news agency reporting that seven of its citizens had been taken 
      hostage in central Iraq. Arab television showed a tape of masked men 
      holding eight Indian, Pakistani and Turkish citizens who they said had 
      been caught driving coalition supply trucks, but the gunmen said the 
      captives would be released.

      A Briton seized last week, by a different group, was freed. There was no 
      word on the fate of an American or three Japanese whose captors had 
      threatened to kill them over the weekend.

      The continuing violence has brought to a virtual halt U.S. reconstruction 
      efforts and work toward the planned June 30 transition to Iraqi 
      sovereignty.

      President Bush, visiting soldiers wounded in Iraq at a hospital at Ft. 
      Hood, Texas, appeared somber and said that it had been "a tough week." L. 
      Paul Bremer III, the top U.S. representative in Iraq, called the situation 
      an "ongoing crisis." Asked on a Sunday morning interview show what kind of 
      Iraqi government would take over in July, Bremer said: "That's a good 
      question."

      In Baghdad, military officials indicated that concern about public anger 
      over their offensive operations — and fear that further backlash could 
      worsen the situation — had prompted them to reconsider their tactics.

      "The most important thing to understand at this point is that the 
      coalition forces have suspended offensive operations. They are permitting 
      the political track and the discussion track to go forward," said Brig. 
      Gen. Mark Kimmitt.

      In Fallouja, a week of intense fighting tapered off Sunday morning as the 
      cease-fire, brokered overnight by two members of the U.S.-appointed Iraqi 
      Governing Council and local sheiks and clerics, took hold. The lead 
      negotiator, acting council member Hachim Hassani, said late Sunday that 
      the discussions were going well and the cease-fire was extending into 
      today. "This could work to the benefit of the coalition and Iraqis," he 
      said.

      For the moment, the focus was almost entirely on stopping the fighting; 
      there was no talk of what the next steps might be, and it was unclear what 
      terms would be acceptable to both sides. Forces hostile to the U.S. 
      occupation have controlled the city for most of the last year, and a 
      variety of U.S. approaches have failed to co-opt or uproot them.

      The difficulty of resolving the Fallouja standoff was evident in the 
      comments of Kimmitt, who said the U.S. was now hoping for "a political 
      track to reestablish legitimate Iraqi control over that city" but added 
      that U.S. troops there would stick to their positions and be ready to 
      resume their offensive if talks failed.

      "These are positions the Marines fought for and died for," Kimmitt said. 
      "Those would be very good positions from which the Marines could finish 
      the attack on Fallouja."

      Kimmitt declined to say what the U.S. terms were in the negotiations, 
      saying he didn't want to comment while discussions were ongoing. 

      U.S. officials have in recent days reiterated their demands that they be 
      given custody of those behind the killing and mutilation of four 
      contractors slain in the city 12 days ago, as well as any non-Iraqi 
      fighters who might be attacking U.S. forces. City leaders have asked U.S. 
      troops to withdraw from Fallouja.

      Kimmitt said that not all the insurgents had honored the cease-fire, 
      probably because they did not have a centralized organization that could 
      order a halt to attacks. At least two Marines were injured by sniper fire 
      Sunday, and four Iraqis were reported killed, but the city was much 
      quieter than it had been in days.

      Marines in Fallouja were frustrated that their advance into the city 
      center was halted, and they feared the implications. "If we don't go 
      downtown," said one Marine who did not want his name used, the insurgents 
      "will say, 'We've won.' "

      Some analysts agreed, even while cautioning that more carnage was no 
      solution, either. 

      "This kind of battle is not going to be won by killing all the insurgents. 
      It can't be done," said Kenneth Pollack, a former CIA and National 
      Security Council staffer. But, he added, "there are going to be people who 
      see it as weakness. The insurgents themselves are probably going to count 
      this as a victory."

      Kimmitt and Dan Senor, the top spokesman for the U.S. civilian authority 
      that runs Iraq, said they halted their fighting because of complaints from 
      Governing Council members about innocent people getting caught in the 
      cross-fire. Hospital officials in Fallouja have reported more than 600 
      deaths since Marines surrounded the city late April 4.

      In a testy news conference Sunday, Kimmitt said that the widespread Iraqi 
      perception that civilians were being killed indiscriminately in Fallouja 
      by U.S. forces was based on irresponsible and inaccurate reporting by the 
      two most popular Arab-language television channels, Al Jazeera and Al 
      Arabiya.

      To Iraqis who were angered by the American actions, he said: "Change the 
      channel…. The stations that are showing Americans killing women and 
      children are not legitimate news sources."

      But many people who have fled Fallouja in recent days have told U.S. news 
      outlets, including The Times, that many noncombatants have been killed in 
      the fighting. 

      As Sunday's cease-fire brought a measure of calm, Fallouja residents 
      breathed a collective sigh of relief, children ventured into yards for the 
      first time in days and some people who had begun the day trying to flee 
      the city returned.

      "It cannot get worse than it has been," resident Abbas Khidhir said. "What 
      we have seen here is very bad…. We have made concessions in order to stop 
      the violence and save the lives of our women and children."

      Meanwhile, Governing Council members were also negotiating to persuade 
      Sadr to disband his militia and surrender to an arrest warrant for 
      allegedly helping kill a rival cleric last year. Last week's clashes 
      between Sadr's gunmen and coalition troops were the first serious fighting 
      between occupation forces and the country's Shiite majority.

      On Thursday, Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, the commander of U.S. forces in 
      Iraq, said a new military operation, Operation Resolute Sword, had been 
      launched to remove Sadr's forces. Now officials at the U.S.-led occupation 
      authority say they were prepared to give negotiators room to maneuver, 
      although terms of any potential agreement remained unclear.

      Senor said the coalition was seeking a "peaceful solution" to the standoff 
      with Sadr, whose forces have seized control of at least two southern 
      cities. But if those efforts failed, he said, the coalition would have no 
      choice but to respond to Sadr's militia and Fallouja's unrest with force.

      "What's the alternative?" Senor asked. "In all these situations, we have 
      to ask ourselves, what is the risk of not acting? If we do not address 
      these individuals and these organizations now, we will rue the day."

      American officials had pledged over the weekend to refrain from military 
      operations to capture Sadr as tens of thousands of Shiite pilgrims flocked 
      to Karbala for a religious holiday.

      Sadr remained defiant Sunday, holed up in the holy city of Najaf, where 
      his black-garbed militia members remained in control. "There is no chance 
      that the armies of occupation will reenter Najaf," a Sadr spokesman said.

      Meanwhile, Kimmitt detailed ferocious fighting over the weekend in 
      Baqubah, where he said as many as 100 gunmen attacked government buildings 
      and U.S. troops Friday night with rifle fire and rockets, killing at least 
      one U.S. soldier and two Iraqi police officers.

      "It's our assessment that the former regime element in Baqubah saw [the 
      fighting in Fallouja] as an opportunity to raise some problems," Kimmitt 
      said.

      The assault began about 2 p.m. Friday when 15 rocket-propelled grenades 
      were launched at the police station and city hall, and mortar rounds began 
      to land on the occupation government's local compound. The fighting 
      swiftly escalated, as U.S. troops that rushed to the city center in 
      response were ambushed. By evening, up to 100 gunmen had flooded the 
      town's central traffic circle and were clashing with American troops.

      The fighting ended late Friday, Kimmitt said Sunday. But there were 
      reports of dozens of Iraqis dead and sporadic attacks through the weekend.

      Among the other deaths detailed Sunday by the coalition were:

      •  Four 1st Armored Division soldiers killed Friday in separate attacks in 
      Baghdad.

      •  Three 1st Infantry Division soldiers slain in an ambush Friday near 
      Tikrit and a Task Force Danger soldier killed when a rocket-propelled 
      grenade hit his vehicle in the same area.

      •  A Marine killed Saturday in Al Anbar, the province that includes 
      Fallouja.

      •  A 1st Armored Division soldier slain Saturday in an attack on his 
      convoy in Baghdad and another killed by a roadside bomb there. 

      •  A 1st Infantry Division soldier killed Saturday in an attack in Khalis, 
      north of Baghdad.

      *



      Riccardi reported from Baghdad and Perry from Fallouja. Times staff writer 
      Alissa J. Rubin in Baghdad and special correspondent Hamid Sulaibi in 
      Fallouja contributed to this report.




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