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Interim
Ceasefire Reached In Fallujah
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Tough
Iraqi resistance has inflicted heavy casualties on occupation
troops (AFP)
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BAGHDAD,
April 11 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Faced with stiff
Iraqi resistance and mounting popular resentment, the U.S. occupation
troops and Iraqi fighters in the restive town of Fallujah have reached
a 12-hour ceasefire starting Sunday, April 11, 06:00 a.m. GMT (10:00
Baghdad time).
One
U.S.
soldier was killed and another was wounded in Fallujah, just hours
before the mediation talks that hammered out the ceasefire, which an
Iraqi mediator said was to pave the way for U.S. Marines to leave the
restive town.
Aljazeera
correspondent in the town said the ceasefire has entered into effect
and is mutually respected by both sides.
Hatem
Al-Husseini, a senior member of the Iraqi Islamic Party in Fallujah,
confirmed to Agence France-Presse (AFP) that the two sides “have
agreed to observe a 12-hour ceasefire” on Sunday.
“This
will pave the way for the gradual pullout of U.S. Marine troops from
Fallujah,” Husseini said after a meeting with occupation officials
following his return from mediation efforts in the troubled town.
Also
present at the talks were members of the Association of Muslim
Scholars (AMS), the highest Sunni authority in
Iraq
.
Pullout
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A
young Iraqi fighter celebrate in front of a burning
U.S.
military truck (AFP) |
Aljazeera
satellite channel said that the
U.S.
occupation troops will pull out of the town six hours after the start
of the truce.
Another
senior member of the Iraqi Islamic Party, Alaa Makki, earlier told AFP
the fighters in Fallujah had given mediators a series of conditions
for the ceasefire, including a pullout of
U.S.
forces from Fallujah into the surrounding desert”.
“They
did not give a specific area for the pullout, but logically it would
be around five kilometers," he said.
“They
also asked for opening the entrances to the city to allow people as
well as food and medical supply to enter easily and for people to bury
their dead.”
The
occupation has also “asked for a ceasefire, for handing over those
who took part in the mutilation and repeated riots”, he added,
referring to the four U.S. security guards, who were
mutilated by an Iraqi mob on March 31, in a horrific scene
that showed the rising anti-U.S. sentiments among the Iraqis.
The
deputy director of
U.S.
military operation in occupied-Iraq, Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt, proposed
Saturday at a press conference a
“bilateral ceasefire”.
U.S.
occupation overseer in
Iraq
announced Friday, April 9, a unilateral suspension of the six-day-old
offensive to allow for the delivery of food and medical supplies to
residents.
But
the initiative was short-lived. The suspension of offensive operations
lasted for only 90 minutes.
Fallujah
residents seized on the brief pause and started to flee the war-torn
city, hitting out at the “sepulchral and shameful silence of the
Arab leaders”.
The
bloody offensive has killed so far 450 Iraqis and injured up to one
thousand, according to al-Jazeera tally.
Sunni
and Shiite leaders called Friday for joining forces to
expel occupation forces – exactly one year since the
U.S.-British soldiers seized the oil-rich country.
A
Shiite uprising in
Baghdad
and south of the Iraqi capital led by young Shiite leader Moqtada
Sadr, and the occupation’s ongoing battles in the so-called “Sunni
triangle” have cost 46 American lives in the last week, according to
an AFP tally.
Baghdad
Blasts
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An
Apache helicopter is said to have been shot down west of
Baghdad (AFP) |
In
Baghdad
, meanwhile, there were heavy exchanges of fire between
U.S.
troops and Iraqi resistance fighters the Sunni district of Al-Azamiya.
U.S.
troops cordoned off the entire neighborhood after explosions were
heard around a former presidential palace used as a
U.S.
military base.
Witnesses
said
U.S.
troops used tanks to smash their way into the compound of a Sunni
mosque and religious school in a night raid on Al-Azamiay district,
Reuters news agency reported.
Reuters
television footage showed medical supplies and food sacks scattered
and destroyed in the compound of Abu Hanifa mosque. The goods had been
collected to help Falluja victims.
AFP
further said that a U.S. Apache helicopter was shot down west of
Baghdad
, giving no further details.
Aljazeera
aired Sunday a videotape showing the bodies of two foreigners lying in
a pool of blood in Fallujah.
A
voice on the tape claimed that the pair was
U.S.
intelligence officers.
In
Baquba, north of
Baghdad
, 11 Iraqis, including a police officer, were reportedly killed in
clashes between
U.S.
occupation forces and Iraqi fighters.
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