The U.S.-led occupation authority reached a cease-fire agreement to help end tensions in the Iraqi city of Fallujah, Dan Senor, spokesman for the U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority, said.
| Oboy. We're gonna have a hudna. |
The accord has been signed by the U.S. military and Iraqi civilian leaders that will allow U.S. soldiers to resume patrols in Fallujah alongside newly trained Iraqi security forces, Senor said in a televised briefing from Baghdad, the Iraqi capital. More than 90 coalition soldiers have died this month in some of the deadliest fighting in Iraq since U.S.-led forces ousted Saddam Hussein a year ago. ``All parties, according to the communique, welcomed the improved situation in the city of Fallujah and committed themselves to take all possible measures to implement a full and unbroken cease-fire,'' said Senor. ``They recognize that in the absence of a true cease-fire, major hostilities could resume on short notice.''
| Did they include shooting at us as breaking a cease-fire? |
The agreement sets a curfew starting at 9 p.m., two hours later than at present, to permit residents to carry out religious observances, Senor said. Ambulances will be allowed to pass through checkpoints and will have access to Fallujah's hospital, while residents may conduct burials, Senor said.
| Can we check ambulances for "safety violations"? |
``In due course, consideration will be given to allowing additional citizens into the city,'' Senor said.
| "How long? I just can't say." |
Senor said no offensive U.S. military operations will be carried out if residents of Fallujah, a city of about 250,000 people that is 35 miles (56 kilometers) from Baghdad, turn in banned weapons and ``move to eliminate remaining foreign fighters, criminals and drug users from the city.''
| If the city fathers signed off on this, the "militants" just lost their cover. |
| It won't last long, and they'll blame us for breaking it. And there's the matter of the corpse mutilators. What happens to them? Or are they among the 600 dead? |
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