http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/315083A8-987C-4FFF-A924-0703DFDF259F. htm
Falluja facing imminent US military assault
Friday 29 October 2004, 15:40 Makka Time, 12:40 GMT
Allawi says the planned talks will be the last attempt at mediation Related: Report puts Falluja civilian toll at 600 US bombing kills Fallujans Interim government in Falluja talks
The US military is preparing for a massive attack against Falluja while the country's interim prime minister has issued another ultimatum to the town's residents.
US marines on Friday announced they were in preparations for a "decisive" assault on Falluja and the town of Ramadi.
"We are gearing up for a major operation," Brigadier General Denis Hajlik told reporters at a base near Falluja. "If we do so, it will be decisive and we will whack them."
Hajlik, deputy commander of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, said the expected operation against Falluja and Ramadi, west of Baghdad, would also involve Iraqi forces.
The US military has been pounding targets in Falluja for the last several weeks leading to extensive casualties among residents and damage to the town's infrastructure.
Renewed talks
Against this backdrop of rising tension, the interim Iraqi government said it will dispatch a team headed by the deputy chairman of the Iraqi interim national council to meet with Falluja leaders, Aljazeera correspondent reported, quoting sources in the delegation.
Destruction in Falluja testifies to weeks of relentless US bombing
Iyad Allawi "has agreed to a proposal by certain members of the National Council [Iraq's interim parliament] to find a peaceful solution" to the stand-off in Falluja, council member Ahmad al-Barrak said on Friday.
"Allawi said he did not have any objections but that this would be the last attempt" at mediation before a possible military assault against the town, al-Barrak said.
Talks between the US-backed interim government and delegates from Falluja collapsed in mid-October after Allawi ordered the town to surrender Jordanian fugitive Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, and others in his al-Qaida-linked group or face invasion.
Strikes unabated
A Falluja negotiator said the mujahidin shura (council) - a body that says it represents at least some of the resistance forces in the city - along with local governors and tribal shaikhs had agreed in principle to restart talks provided the US military halt daily air strikes. However, air strikes have continued unabated on the town.
Lieutenant Colonel Hakim Karim Midab said local leaders would demand residents who had fled the fighting be allowed to return and be compensated for damage, and that US troops remove a checkpoint on the town's eastern entrance.
Midab said the city's leaders would also push for an Iraqi National Guard force that would include local residents to keep the peace between US forces and fighters in the town.
But the interim Iraqi government has refused all negotiating points and insisted on the surrender of al-Zarqawi, whom the US has blamed for a string of deadly attacks and beheading of captives in Iraq.
Falluja residents, however, insist that al-Zarqawi is not in their town.
Aljazeera + Agencies
------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Make a clean sweep of pop-up ads. Yahoo! Companion Toolbar. Now with Pop-Up Blocker. Get it for free! http://us.click.yahoo.com/L5YrjA/eSIIAA/yQLSAA/XgSolB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~->
Yahoo! Groups Links
<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/LaborAgainstWar/
<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
LaborAgainstWar-unsubscribe at yahoogroups.com
<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/