By JASON KEYSER and LOURDES NAVARRO, Associated Press Writers
FALLUJAH, Iraq - U.S. warplanes and helicopters firing heavy machine-guns, rockets and cannons hammered fighters in the besieged city of Fallujah, and the commander of Marines here warned Wednesday that a fragile, often-shaken truce will not last much longer.
With four more dead Marines reported, more U.S. troops have been killed halfway into April — a total of at least 87 — than in any month since the military set foot in Iraq.
A top U.N. envoy tried to keep the vital political process moving forward amid the violence, with a proposal that deviated from a plan favored by the United States.
Lakhdar Brahimi called for the creation of a caretaker government led by respected national figures — with a prime minister, president and two vice-presidents — to run the country from the handover of power by the Americans on June 30 until national elections in January.
Under the Brahimi plan, the U.S.-picked Governing Council would be dissolved June 30, rather than expanded to form an assembly as called for in an earlier U.S.-favored proposal.
In the south, the country's top cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Husseini al-Sistani, persuaded radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr to drop defiant negotiating demands — including that U.S. troops withdraw from all Iraqi cities. An Iranian envoy was also getting involved in the mediation with al-Sadr, an aide to the cleric said.
Al-Sadr was in the Shiite holy city of Najaf. Outside Najaf, 2,500 U.S. troops prepared for a possible assault to capture al-Sadr. Troops scoured the area around the city, combing through mangroves, villages and the desert in search of al-Sadr's militiamen.
A U.S. attack on Najaf would likely outrage Iraq's Shiite majority, a community that — aside from al-Sadr's militia — has so far shunned anti-U.S. violence.
Meanwhile, Russia will evacuate its citizens from Iraq following a spate of kidnappings of at least 22 foreigners that erupted with the violence this month.
A kidnapped French journalist was freed, but there were reports that two Japanese were abducted — in addition to three Japanese already held captive by gunmen threatening to kill them.
U.S. officials and the top American contractor in Iraq, Halliburton, were trying to determine whether four bodies found belonged to seven Americans missing since gunmen attacked their convoy outside Baghdad on Friday. One of the seven, Thomas Hamill of Macon, Miss., is known to have been kidnapped, and his captors threatened to kill him.
U.S. troops were holding back their full firepower on both fronts to allow Iraqis to try to negotiate a resolution, but President Bush (news - web sites) said he was prepared to send more troops and has told his commanders to be ready to use "decisive force."
"Our work may become more difficult before it is finished," Bush said. "No one can predict all the hazards that lie ahead or the cost that they will bring. Yet, in this conflict, there is no safe alternative to resolute action."
The fighting has already been difficult. Some 880 Iraqis have also been killed this month — including more than 600 — mostly civilians — killed in Fallujah, according to the city hospital's director.
The truce in Fallujah, where Sunni Muslims are waging an insurgency, was severely shaken by fighting Tuesday and Wednesday morning — though Marines underlined that their halt to offensive operations, called Friday, was still in effect.
"I don't forecast that this stalemate will go on for long," said Maj. Gen. James N. Mattis, commander of the 1st Marine Division. "It's hard to have a cease-fire when they maneuver against us, they fire at us. We are trying to maintain the cease-fire, but the enemy is not maintaining the cease-fire."
A U.S. Cobra attack helicopter fired rockets and heavy machine-guns before dawn Wednesday at gunmen gathered on the northern edge of Fallujah. Rocket-propelled grenades arched up from the ground toward the helicopter and a second gunship providing support, but none apparently hit the gunships.
Early Wednesday, an A-130 gunship pounded a row of buildings from which Marines say ambushes have repeatedly been launched in a residential area of the city.
Gunmen repeatedly attacked one house in Fallujah that the Marines were using. At least 12 gunmen were killed in two nights of attacks.
"They came to play but we returned the serve quite well," said 1st Lt. Louis Langella.
Many — but not all — residents have fled neighborhoods around the Marine positions, the front lines of the exchanges. Marines have taken over abandoned houses and were using sledgehammers to bash through walls and move between buildings without exposing themselves to fire from gunmen.
Marines fought fierce battles Monday and Tuesday with insurgents in Karma, a village outside of Fallujah. Some 100 gunmen were killed in battles in palm groves and over canals that were so intense that wounded Marines were sent out to fight.
"They ran in there with bandages and all," said Col. B.P. McCoy, commander of the 3rd Battalion.
Marines on Tuesday came under two heavy ambushes, the best coordinated and largest guerrilla operations in days, said Capt. James Edge. Two Marines were killed Tuesday and two Monday, the military announced.
Insurgents on Wednesday offered $7,000 to anyone who kills Mouwafak al-Rubaie, the Iraqi national security adviser, after he called for Fallujah's residents to hand over militants to the United States.
In the south, al-Sistani persuaded the volatile al-Sadr to drop tough demands in negotiations aimed at averting a U.S. attack on the city of Najaf, home to one of Shiite Islam's holiest shrines.
Al-Sadr "is now ready to negotiate without preconditions," said an al-Sadr aide, Amer al-Husseini.
The initial demands, issued through a mediator, were for the cessation of all military operations, U.S. withdrawal from all Iraqi cities and release of all "innocent detainees."
But al-Sadr dropped the conditions at al-Sistani's request.
The sometimes erratic al-Sadr, holed up in his office in Najaf, has shown both flashes of defiance and signs of conciliation in recent days.
FALLUJAH, Iraq - U.S. warplanes and helicopters firing heavy machine-guns, rockets and cannons hammered fighters in the besieged city of Fallujah, and the commander of Marines here warned Wednesday that a fragile, often-shaken truce will not last much longer.
With four more dead Marines reported, more U.S. troops have been killed halfway into April — a total of at least 87 — than in any month since the military set foot in Iraq.
A top U.N. envoy tried to keep the vital political process moving forward amid the violence, with a proposal that deviated from a plan favored by the United States.
Lakhdar Brahimi called for the creation of a caretaker government led by respected national figures — with a prime minister, president and two vice-presidents — to run the country from the handover of power by the Americans on June 30 until national elections in January.
Under the Brahimi plan, the U.S.-picked Governing Council would be dissolved June 30, rather than expanded to form an assembly as called for in an earlier U.S.-favored proposal.
In the south, the country's top cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Husseini al-Sistani, persuaded radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr to drop defiant negotiating demands — including that U.S. troops withdraw from all Iraqi cities. An Iranian envoy was also getting involved in the mediation with al-Sadr, an aide to the cleric said.
Al-Sadr was in the Shiite holy city of Najaf. Outside Najaf, 2,500 U.S. troops prepared for a possible assault to capture al-Sadr. Troops scoured the area around the city, combing through mangroves, villages and the desert in search of al-Sadr's militiamen.
A U.S. attack on Najaf would likely outrage Iraq's Shiite majority, a community that — aside from al-Sadr's militia — has so far shunned anti-U.S. violence.
Meanwhile, Russia will evacuate its citizens from Iraq following a spate of kidnappings of at least 22 foreigners that erupted with the violence this month.
A kidnapped French journalist was freed, but there were reports that two Japanese were abducted — in addition to three Japanese already held captive by gunmen threatening to kill them.
U.S. officials and the top American contractor in Iraq, Halliburton, were trying to determine whether four bodies found belonged to seven Americans missing since gunmen attacked their convoy outside Baghdad on Friday. One of the seven, Thomas Hamill of Macon, Miss., is known to have been kidnapped, and his captors threatened to kill him.
U.S. troops were holding back their full firepower on both fronts to allow Iraqis to try to negotiate a resolution, but President Bush (news - web sites) said he was prepared to send more troops and has told his commanders to be ready to use "decisive force."
"Our work may become more difficult before it is finished," Bush said. "No one can predict all the hazards that lie ahead or the cost that they will bring. Yet, in this conflict, there is no safe alternative to resolute action."
The fighting has already been difficult. Some 880 Iraqis have also been killed this month — including more than 600 — mostly civilians — killed in Fallujah, according to the city hospital's director.
The truce in Fallujah, where Sunni Muslims are waging an insurgency, was severely shaken by fighting Tuesday and Wednesday morning — though Marines underlined that their halt to offensive operations, called Friday, was still in effect.
"I don't forecast that this stalemate will go on for long," said Maj. Gen. James N. Mattis, commander of the 1st Marine Division. "It's hard to have a cease-fire when they maneuver against us, they fire at us. We are trying to maintain the cease-fire, but the enemy is not maintaining the cease-fire."
A U.S. Cobra attack helicopter fired rockets and heavy machine-guns before dawn Wednesday at gunmen gathered on the northern edge of Fallujah. Rocket-propelled grenades arched up from the ground toward the helicopter and a second gunship providing support, but none apparently hit the gunships.
Early Wednesday, an A-130 gunship pounded a row of buildings from which Marines say ambushes have repeatedly been launched in a residential area of the city.
Gunmen repeatedly attacked one house in Fallujah that the Marines were using. At least 12 gunmen were killed in two nights of attacks.
"They came to play but we returned the serve quite well," said 1st Lt. Louis Langella.
Many — but not all — residents have fled neighborhoods around the Marine positions, the front lines of the exchanges. Marines have taken over abandoned houses and were using sledgehammers to bash through walls and move between buildings without exposing themselves to fire from gunmen.
Marines fought fierce battles Monday and Tuesday with insurgents in Karma, a village outside of Fallujah. Some 100 gunmen were killed in battles in palm groves and over canals that were so intense that wounded Marines were sent out to fight.
"They ran in there with bandages and all," said Col. B.P. McCoy, commander of the 3rd Battalion.
Marines on Tuesday came under two heavy ambushes, the best coordinated and largest guerrilla operations in days, said Capt. James Edge. Two Marines were killed Tuesday and two Monday, the military announced.
Insurgents on Wednesday offered $7,000 to anyone who kills Mouwafak al-Rubaie, the Iraqi national security adviser, after he called for Fallujah's residents to hand over militants to the United States.
In the south, al-Sistani persuaded the volatile al-Sadr to drop tough demands in negotiations aimed at averting a U.S. attack on the city of Najaf, home to one of Shiite Islam's holiest shrines.
Al-Sadr "is now ready to negotiate without preconditions," said an al-Sadr aide, Amer al-Husseini.
The initial demands, issued through a mediator, were for the cessation of all military operations, U.S. withdrawal from all Iraqi cities and release of all "innocent detainees."
But al-Sadr dropped the conditions at al-Sistani's request.
The sometimes erratic al-Sadr, holed up in his office in Najaf, has shown both flashes of defiance and signs of conciliation in recent days.
