FALLUJAH, Iraq — Direct talks between the United States and leaders of the besieged city of Fallujah produced their first concrete results: an appeal for insurgents to turn in their mortars, surface-to-air missiles, rocket-propelled grenades and other heavy weapons, U.S. officials announced yesterday.
In return, the U.S. military said it does not intend to resume its offensive in the Sunni Muslim stronghold west of Baghdad so long as militants are disarming.
But with Marines encircling Fallujah and holding their positions inside the city, commanders warned that if the deal falls through, they quickly could launch an all-out assault, which would likely mean a resumption of bloody urban combat.
“There is also a very clear understanding … that should this agreement not go through, Marine forces are more than prepared to carry through with military operations,” Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt told reporters in Baghdad.
He said the Marines were poised to take the city “in a very short order.”
In Najaf, a city in south-central Iraq patrolled by 9,500 peacekeepers from 23 countries, including Spain, the standoff against radical cleric Sheik Muqtada al-Sadr was effectively put on hold yesterday.
Spain has said it will withdraw its troops from Iraq.
Sheik al-Sadr’s militia “has for the most part been contained in Najaf,” Col. Dana J.H. Pittard said. “We can wait…. They will still be there. Ultimately, we still want Iraqis to solve this problem.”
Col. Pittard said there were no plans for the time being for the 2,500 U.S. soldiers deployed outside Najaf to make a move against Sheik al-Sadr in the holy city — an undertaking moderate Shi’ite clerics warn would spark an explosion of outrage.
Still, skirmishes continued outside the city. Sheik al-Sadr’s militiamen attacked a U.S. patrol, wounding two Americans, and were later seen parading around a captured Humvee, towing it to a mosque in nearby Kufa and setting it on fire.
The results of the Fallujah deal — which outlined steps to bring relief to the city’s population, arrange residents’ return and take steps toward establishing security forces’ control — depend greatly on whether Sunni insurgents are willing to hand over their arsenals.
Gunfire in the city has nearly ended since the two days of direct negotiations began Friday, and a curfew was pushed back to start at 9 p.m. rather than 7 p.m.
Small numbers of armed and uniformed Iraqi police and civil defense members were seen on Fallujah’s streets yesterday for the first time since the Marine siege began April 5.
Some residents emerged from their homes and Americans blared out from loudspeakers mounted on trucks that food stores should open.
But the Fallujah statement was far from a lifting of the Marine siege, and U.S. officials did not lay out terms by which they would do so.
Instead, the document read more like an outline of steps that must be taken to ward off a resumed U.S. assault. Even the U.S. commitment not to attack was phrased as an “intent,” not a promise.
“An agreement has been reached,” Marine Lt. Col. Brennan Byrne said. “Whether or not that agreement holds is the million-dollar question.”
The statement said joint U.S.-Iraq patrols must resume, police and Iraq security forces should resume their posts and they must “move to eliminate remaining foreign fighters.”
The agreement included only a vague reference underlining the “need” to investigate the killing and mutilation of four American civilians in Fallujah on March 31. U.S. officials have said they want Iraqis behind the attack handed over.
In the statement, the Americans agreed to allow better access to hospitals and graveyards and ease the movement of “official ambulances” throughout checkpoints. Marines have said gunmen have been using ambulances to move around.
The Americans also will consider allowing families who fled the city to return at a rate of 50 families a day starting today.
Meanwhile, U.S.-funded TV station Al Iraqiya accused U.S. troops of killing two of its employees. The military said it was investigating.
Correspondent Asaad Kadhim and driver Hussein Saleh were killed and cameraman Bassem Kamel was wounded “after American forces opened fire on them while they were performing their duty” near the central city of Samarra, the station said.
Twenty-six Iraqi and foreign journalists and media workers have been killed during the Iraqi conflict by terrorist bombings, gunmen and U.S. troops, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.
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