U.S. negotiates ‘tentative’ end to Fallujah siege

FALLUJAH, Iraq — U.S. Marines negotiated a “tentative” agreement yesterday to pull back forces from Fallujah, a deal that would lift a nearly monthlong siege and allow an Iraqi force led by a former Saddam Hussein-era general to handle security.

Fresh clashes broke out despite news of a pending deal, and U.S. warplanes dropped bombs on insurgent targets.

Ten U.S. soldiers and a South African civilian were killed in attacks elsewhere. The victims included eight Americans who died when a bomb hit as they tried to clear explosives from a road south of Baghdad.

Negotiations also were taking place in the southern city of Najaf, where tribal leaders and police discussed a proposal to end the U.S. standoff and for followers of a radical Shi’ite cleric to leave the city.

U.S. military commanders met with former Iraqi generals yesterday to hammer out the details of the Fallujah agreement, Marine Capt. James Edge said. A Marine commander said a deal was reached but later said “fine points” needed to be fixed.

In an apparent gesture to help the Fallujah negotiations, U.S. authorities yesterday released the imam of the city’s main mosque, Sheik Jamal Shaker Nazzal, an outspoken opponent of the U.S. occupation who was arrested in October.

One sticking point was a U.S. demand for insurgents to turn over those responsible for the March 31 killing and mutilation of four American contract workers, whose bodies were burned and dragged through the streets.

Another obstacle is the continuing demand of the U.S. military that weapons in Fallujah be turned in.

Pentagon spokesman Larry Di Rita said winning assurances that the perpetrators would be turned over remains a U.S. goal of the Fallujah talks.

The tentative deal for the Iraqi force outlined a surprising new way to find an “Iraqi solution to an Iraqi problem,” said Marine Lt. Col. Brennan Byrne. It envisions a force of some 1,100 members called the Fallujah Protective Army.

The force, which would replace the Marine cordon and move into the city as U.S. troops pull back, would be led by a leading general from Saddam’s army and include Iraqis with “military experience” from the Fallujah region, Col. Byrne said.

It even could include gunmen who fought with insurgents against the Americans — particularly ex-soldiers disgruntled over losing their jobs when the United States disbanded the old Iraqi army, another Marine officer said, speaking on the condition of anonymity.

The new force would not include “hard-core” insurgents or Islamic militants holed up in the city, the officer said. Many of the insurgents in Fallujah are thought to be former members of Saddam’s regime or military.

Col. Byrne identified the commander of the new force as Gen. Salah, a former division commander under Saddam. He said he did not know the general’s full name, but Lt. Gen. Salah Abboud al-Jabouri, a native of the Fallujah region, served as governor of Anbar province under Saddam.

Marines on the south side of the city began packing up gear and breaking down earthen berms and other security barriers yesterday in preparation to withdraw. But Col. Byrne later said the timing for a pullback was not clear.

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