Fallujah talks fail; rebel assault nears

By Jackie Spinner
The Washington Post

ANJA NIEDRINGHAUS / AP Marines of the 1st Division prepare their vehicles yesterday at a base outside Fallujah, Iraq. In this case, plywood topped with sandbags girds the roof of a Humvee. Marines are expected to lead an impending assault on the Sunni insurgent stronghold as the latest talks broke down.

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NEAR FALLUJAH, Iraq — Negotiations between the interim Iraqi government and insurgent leaders who control Fallujah city have broken down, Iraqi officials said yesterday, as more than 10,000 U.S. Marines and soldiers began final preparations to retake the city.

"A military operation is the last and only solution we have for the city of Fallujah," said Salih Kuzaie, a spokesman for the Defense Ministry. "The negotiations failed. ... It seemed like the Fallujah people are helping the terrorists. Thus, the military solution will end the crisis."

Speaking to reporters in Brussels after meeting with European leaders, interim Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi issued a warning.

"We intend to liberate the people and to bring the rule of law to Fallujah," he said. "We have been asked by the people of Fallujah to help liberate them from the terrorists and insurgents.

"The window really is closing for a peaceful settlement."

Said Sheik Abu Tiba al Jumaili, a prominent cleric in Fallujah: "The negotiations have failed. ... There is no hope."

At Friday prayers, preachers urged residents to prepare to fight. Sheikh Majid Nazzal Imam, speaking at Fallujah's largest mosque, called on worshippers to unify and to "actively participate in defending their town, and to stand firmly against the occupation forces."

It was unclear when an offensive might begin. Marine commanders said they are waiting for the go-ahead from Allawi to launch a major operation intended to root out Iraqi insurgents and any foreign fighters.

As U.S. warplanes continued to hit targets inside the city, U.S. troops yesterday cordoned off the city, preventing fighters and remaining residents from leaving. About 200 armored vehicles gathered in a desert south of Fallujah and Nuaimiya, witnesses said. In the north, Marines gathered in the Faruq cemetery and blocked a highway with concrete barriers.
 
Using loudspeakers, U.S. troops blared a warning into the city that anyone under the age of 45 who was caught trying to leave would be detained.

Residents said that until now, unarmed insurgents and foreign fighters have been able to move freely out of the city to other locations, where they pick up weapons to use against U.S. forces. If people had no weapons, U.S. forces have had no basis to arrest them, military officials said.

Most residents of the city of 300,000 had already departed, but it is thought that some remain either because the insurgents have not permitted them to flee or because they are too poor to find shelter elsewhere.

On the Ramadi-Fallujah Road, U.S. forces killed seven members of a family who were driving in their car, witnesses said.

Ahmed Salem, 52, a farmer, said he saw the driver waving to the Americans. "He was carrying a piece of cloth, but the Americans did not stop," Salem said. The driver altered the car's path "but they concentrated their shooting at him. When the car stopped, they went to see who was killed, they were surprised and they started yelling at each other."

The Marines said troops fired on a civilian vehicle that did not stop at a checkpoint in Fallujah, killing an Iraqi woman and wounding her husband, according to a military statement.

It is not clear whether the two instances were the same and being reported differently by witnesses and the military.

Material from The Associated Press, Los Angeles Times, Knight Ridder Newspapers and Chicago Tribune is included in this report.