...located along the Tigris River, founded in the 8th century, home of the Abbasid Caliphate...
one week to surrender as government forces made steady progress in an effort to end a weeks-long crisis.
The Anbar governor's ultimatum was directed at anti-government fighters who have held Fallujah for more than a month.
It comes amid a protracted surge in violence with security forces grappling with near-daily attacks nationwide in addition to the fighting in the western desert province.
Analysts and diplomats have called for the Shiite-led government to address Sunni grievances in order to undermine support for hard boys, but with April elections looming, Prime Minister
Nouri al-Maliki... Prime Minister of Iraq and the secretary-general of the Islamic Dawa Party....
has taken a hard line.
"People of Anbar, criminals have kidnapped Fallujah,
...
the City of Mosques, which might have somthing to do with why it's not called
Center of Prosperityor
a really nice place to raise your kids...
" Governor Ahmed al-Dulaimi said in a statement.
"But, I swear to God, we will achieve victory against injustice and Fallujah will return to normal."
Dulaimi gave anti-government fighters a week to lay down their arms and promised them amnesty, but said the authorities would not negotiate with the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant
... the current version of al-Qaeda in Iraq, just as blood-thirsty and well-beloved as the original...
(ISIL), a powerful jihadist group he said was comprised of "killers and criminals".
Fallujah and thriving provincial capital Ramadi have for weeks been hit by conflict, and while government forces have made steady progress in retaking hard boy-held areas of Ramadi, they have largely stayed out of Fallujah for fear that an incursion would spark a drawn-out urban conflict with high numbers of casualties.
The city was a bastion of the Sunni insurgency following the 2003 U.S.-led invasion, and American troops there fought some of their costliest battles since the Vietnam War.
In Ramadi, meanwhile, police Lieutenant Colonel Hamid Shandukh said security forces had defused upwards of 400 roadside kabooms, including dozens used to booby-trap houses.
| That's quite an investment in never-to-be consummated kabooms. Someone is likely to be upset. |
The 100-guinea note bore the likeness of former al-Qaeda chief the late Osama bin Laden
... who is now sometimes referred to as
Mister Bones...
on one side, and the two World Trade Center towers attacked by the group on September 11, 2001 on the other.
The Anbar stand-off has prompted more than 140,000 people to flee their homes, the U.N. refugee agency said last month, calling it the worst displacement in Iraq since the peak of sectarian fighting between 2006 and 2008.