U.S. Army Breaches Fallujah Ceasefire, Kills 36

"The occupation forces breached ceasefire, clinched on Monday, April 19," said Harith Al-Dari, a member of the Muslim Scholars Association, which has been involved in truce negotiations.

Dari exhorted Arab and Muslim countries to immediately intervene to stop "these criminal acts", reported Aljazeera on its website.

The Iraqi scholar warned that "the area would be entrenched in a hell fire," but asserted talks to end the stand-off would continue despite the U.S. violation.

"The breach in the truce will affect the talks, but negotiations will not stop," Dari underlined.

U.S. forces agreed not to resume offensive operations if Fallujah residents handed in their heavy weapons, threatening their troops would resume attacks on short notice if necessary.

Dari said some had begun to hand in such weapons, but a senior official in the U.S.-led administration told reporters the response to the demand had been "very limited".

After just 90 minutes of declaring a ceasefire in the town on April 9, TV air images showed U.S. forces rocking Fallujah, much to the consternation of the town's 300,000 inhabitants.

On April 13, U.S. occupation troops breached a ceasefire reached days before, killing at least nine Iraqis and wounding up to 38 others.

More Casualties

In a related development, the U.S. military announced Thursday that Marines killed 36 "insurgents" in Fallujah on Wednesday, April 21, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).

The army claimed in a statement that the offensive started when up to 60 fighters attacked U.S. marines with small arms and rocket-propelled grenades in northwest Fallujah.

There are no reports on the account of the fighting by the Fallujah inhabitants.

A U.S. military official said the clashes on Wednesday were "very intense but very localized", arguing the marines were honoring the ceasefire.

"It would appear there is some honoring on both sides," he claimed.

The return of the families who fled the fighting ( see http://islamonline.net/English/News/2004-04/20/article01.shtml ) – a main reason for declaring the Monday ceasefire, was suspended on Thursday because of the reported clashes.

An armored column of about 1,000 soldiers from the 1st Battalion 16th Infantry Regiment reached the outskirts of Karma, a small village six kilometers north of Fallujah, Thursday.

The deployment is in an attempt to clear food delivery routes from Baghdad to U.S bases to the west, according to an AFP correspondent at the scene.

An attempt to clear the route last week met with fierce resistance that left 100 people and one U.S. soldier killed, according to the U.S. forces.

The U.S. offensive on Fallujah left anti-American sentiments simmering among the ordinary Iraqis and religious leaders.

"We beg God that He will avenge us and foil the plans" of the Americans, Sheikh Mohammed Abdel Aziz al-Ani, imam of a Fallujah mosque, said in a protest gathering.

The U.S. offensive on Fallujah has claimed the lives of at least 700 Iraqis, mostly women and children (see http://www.islamonline.net/English/News/2004-04/12/article05.shtml ), and left up to 1500 others injured in the town, which has been under a crippling U.S. siege (see http://islamonline.net/English/News/2004-04/05/article07.shtml ) since April 5.

http://www.islam-online.net/English/News/2004-04/22/article05.shtml