US Marines 'pull back from Fallujah positions'
US Marines began pulling back from some positions around the besieged Iraqi city of Fallujah today, according to unconfirmed reports.
The apparent move came after US forces negotiated a plan to hand over control to Iraqi forces led by a former Saddam Hussein-era general.
Fresh clashes broke out despite news of the proposal, and US warplanes dropped bombs on insurgent targets.
Negotiations were also taking place in the southern city of Najaf, where tribal leaders and police discussed a proposal to end the US standoff and for followers of a radical Shiite cleric to leave the city.
US military commanders met former Iraqi generals yesterday to discuss details of the Fallujah proposal, Marine Captain James Edge said.
However, US officials in Washington and Iraq gave differing accounts on the status of any agreement.
A Marine commander in Iraq said a deal was reached but later said “fine points” needed to be fixed.
US Deputy Defence Secretary Paul Wolfowitz said there was no deal yet and officials were “still working on it”.
Pentagon spokesman Larry Di Rita said he could not rule out that an agreement was in place, but he said the US military command in Baghdad told him that they could not confirm it.
One possible sticking point was a US 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.
Di Rita said winning assurances that the perpetrators would be turned over remains a US goal of the Fallujah talks.
The plan 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 envisages 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 US troops pull back, would be led by a leading general from Saddam’s army and include Iraqis with ”military experience” from the Fallujah region, Byrne said.
It could even include gunmen who fought with guerrillas against the Americans - particularly ex-soldiers disgruntled over losing their jobs when the US disbanded the old Iraqi army, another Marine officer said.
The new force would not include “hardcore” insurgents or Islamic militants holed up in the city, the officer said.
Many of the guerrillas in Fallujah are believed to be former members of Saddam’s regime or military.
Byrne identified the commander of the new force as General Salah, a former division commander under Saddam.
He said he did not know the general’s full name, but Lt General Salah Abboud al-Jabouri, a native of the Fallujah region, served as governor of Anbar province under Saddam.
Washington is under intense international pressure to find a peaceful solution to the standoff that has killed hundreds of Iraqis and became a symbol of anti-US resistance in Iraq, fuelling violence that made April the deadliest month for American forces.
Marines encircled the city of 200,000 inhabitants on April 5. Hospital officials said more than 600 Iraqis, many of them civilians, were killed in the fighting along with eight US Marines. But the figures were disputed by Iraq’s health ministry and an exact toll was not known.
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