Deal in Falluja but US air strikes continue

IRAQ: US military commanders revealed yesterday that they had negotiated a deal to end the siege of Falluja which would leave…

IRAQ: US military commanders revealed yesterday that they had negotiated a deal to end the siege of Falluja which would leave security of the town in the hands of 1,100 Iraqi soldiers, led by a former general from Saddam Hussein's army.

If the agreement sticks, it would represent a remarkable volte-face by the American forces who surrounded the town three weeks ago after the murder and mutilation of four US security contract workers.

Though the details of the deal were sketchy last night, the withdrawal did not appear to depend on the killers being given up, or on the insurgents surrendering their heavy weapons - key demands that had prompted the seige. However, the new proposal appeared to be undermined last night when American warplanes pounded the besieged city for the fourth night running.

Jets attacked at least three separate areas of the city, including the Golan district, where insurgents have defied the US military since the beginning of the month. Explosions and gunfire could be heard, witnesses said.

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Hours earlier, a US commander had announced that a deal had been reached which would lead to the immediate withdrawal of American marines and allow a newly created Iraqi security force to secure the city.

The force would be known as the Falluja Protective Army (FPA), US commanders said. It would consist of up to 1,100 Iraqi soldiers, led by Gen Salah Abboud al-Jabouri, a former division commander in Saddam's army, who comes from the village of Asaglawia, just a few miles north of Falluja. The security force could begin moving into the city as early as today, they added.

The deal was agreed late on Wednesday night and came after negotiations between the coalition and Falluja police and civilian representatives, Lieut Col Brennan Byrne told the Associated Press news agency.

He added: "The plan is that the whole of Falluja will be under the control of the FPA." Under the agreement, marines would withdraw from their positions in and around Falluja, while the FPA forms a new cordon around it and then moves into the city. There were some reports last night that marines in the city's southern industrial area were already packing up, loading trucks and pulling out.

But after another day of carnage in Iraq which saw 10 US soldiers killed there were no guarantees that the agreement would work.

And it was unclear yesterday whether the estimated 2,000-plus insurgents inside the city would agree to the new initiative, or would simply open fire on the new Iraqi force, which is under US command.

Last night Pentagon officials said the agreement had "not yet been finalised".

The US have previously insisted that the insurgents in Falluja must give up their heavy weapons, and that those responsible for the killing and mutilation of the four US security guards last month, must be handed over.

Some on the Fallujan side last night acknowledged that a deal was being negotiated, and said that they regarded the outcome as a victory for the city.

"So far the Americans haven't been able to enter the centre of Falluja and this in itself is a victory," said Mohammad Tariq, a representative of the city council who has been involved in the negotiations and was last night in Jordan talking to UN and Red Cross officials. He said Gen Salah had not been among the insurgents fighting the Americans in the city in the past month. Yet there remains the possibility that some of the gunmen who have fought may be quietly absorbed into the new security force.

Yesterday refugees who have fled from Falluja after three nights of bombardment by US jet fighters described conditions inside the city as terrible. "'There is no electricity. There is no water. There are no food supplies at all," said Abu Mohammad, who left Falluja yesterday. "The Americans are bombing civilians. When I was about to leave, US snipers shot two ladies dead. Their bodies are still on the street."

- (Guardian Service)