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U.S. Army Breaches Fallujah Ceasefire, Kills 36 People
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The U.S. military warplanes keep the offensive on the town (AFP)
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BAGHDAD,
April 22 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – The U.S. occupation
forces have "breached" the ceasefire in the town of
Fallujah, a chief negotiator said Thursday, April 22, as the American
occupation forces admitted killing 36 people in the western Baghdad
town a day earlier.
"The
occupation forces breached ceasefire,
clinched on Monday, April 19," said Harith Al-Dari, a
member of the Muslim Scholars Association, which has been involved in
truce negotiations.
Dari
exhorted Arab and Muslim countries to immediately intervene to stop
"these criminal acts", reported Aljazeera on its website.
The
Iraqi scholar warned that "the area would be entrenched in a hell
fire," but asserted talks to end the stand-off would continue
despite the U.S. violation.
"The
breach in the truce will affect the talks, but negotiations will not
stop," Dari underlined.
U.S.
forces agreed not to resume offensive operations if Fallujah residents
handed in their heavy weapons, threatening their troops would resume
attacks on short notice if necessary.
Dari
said some had begun to hand in such weapons, but a senior official in
the U.S.-led administration told reporters the response to the demand
had been "very limited".
After
just 90 minutes of declaring a ceasefire in the town on April 9,
TV air images showed U.S. forces rocking Fallujah, much to the
consternation of the town's 300,000 inhabitants.
On
April 13, U.S. occupation troops breached
a ceasefire reached days before, killing at least nine Iraqis and
wounding up to 38 others.
More
Casualties
In
a related development, the U.S. military announced Thursday that
Marines killed 36 "insurgents" in Fallujah on Wednesday,
April 21, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).
The
army claimed in a statement that the offensive started when up to 60
fighters attacked U.S. marines with small arms and rocket-propelled
grenades in northwest Fallujah.
There
are no reports on the account of the fighting by the Fallujah
inhabitants.
A
U.S. military official said the clashes on Wednesday were "very
intense but very localized", arguing the marines were honoring
the ceasefire.
"It
would appear there is some honoring on both sides," he claimed.
The
return
of the families who fled the fighting – a main reason for
declaring the Monday ceasefire, was suspended on Thursday because of
the reported clashes.
An
armored column of about 1,000 soldiers from the 1st Battalion 16th
Infantry Regiment reached the outskirts of Karma, a small village six
kilometers north of Fallujah, Thursday.
The
deployment is in an attempt to clear food delivery routes from Baghdad
to U.S bases to the west, according to an AFP correspondent at the
scene.
An
attempt to clear the route last week met with fierce resistance that
left 100 people and one U.S. soldier killed, according to the U.S.
forces.
The
U.S. offensive on Fallujah left anti-American sentiments simmering
among the ordinary Iraqis and religious leaders.
"We
beg God that He will avenge us and foil the plans" of the
Americans, Sheikh Mohammed Abdel Aziz al-Ani, imam of a Fallujah
mosque, said in a protest gathering.
The
U.S. offensive on Fallujah has claimed the lives of at least 700
Iraqis, mostly
women and children, and left up to 1500 others injured in the
town, which has been under a
crippling U.S. siege since April 5.
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