U.S. Iraq Envoy Orders Halt to Fallujah Fighting

[drfemoe]

April 9 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. forces in Iraq halted an offensive against Fallujah in the heart of the ``Sunni Triangle,'' where resistance to coalition forces is especially fierce, and retook the town of Kut from a Shiite militia.

U.S. Marines will observe the cease-fire for at least 24 hours, until noon tomorrow, Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt told Cable News Network. Earlier, news services cited a U.S. officer outside the town as saying that the truce had broken down after 90 minutes. Kimmitt said it is still in force.

A year to the day after U.S. troops toppled the statue of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein in Baghdad, the capital, a U.S. convoy carrying fuel was attacked at Abu Ghraib on the road to Fallujah, CNN said. A Reuters photographer counted nine bodies burning inside vehicles in the convoy, the news service said.

Ambassador Paul Bremer, the U.S. administrator in Iraq, said Marines had stopped fighting in Fallujah after six days to allow the interim Iraqi government to deliver supplies to the town and to let Fallujah residents ``tend to wounded and dead.'' They will also try to negotiate with the fighters in the town, an e-mailed statement said.
... more ...
http://quote.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000101&sid=afdMRxZbgJ6M&refer=japan

[Goldmund]

1. Again...

...a claim that Kut's been re-taken.

They've been going back-and-forth on this all day.

[Luvpurp]

2. Me thinks we are in deep doo-doo

[Brucey]

3. When do we call it genocide?

Killing everyone who disagrees with your occupation of their country is going a little far, isn't it?

[hippiechick]

5. No, the BFEE calls it 'bringing them democracy' ...

:eyes:

:hippie:

[aquart]

9. Would you please look up the definition of "genocide"?

It's a very specific term.

[jmatthan]

11. Definition of genocide

genocide
n : systematic killing of a racial or cultural group murder, racial extermination]

What is the US Army doing in Iraq?

Shites, Sunnis, I think are religious groups which are cultural groups. Collaborators are not killed but protestors are, including women and children.

See the tragic slide show: Alajazeera Exclusive in Pictures, Fallujah siege (right frame)

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/E4D19123-9DD3-11D1-B44E-006097071264.htm

which is the reason for the US move to stop their presence in Fallujah.

Americans do not want anyone to record the atrocities being conducted by their troops.

Jacob Matthan
http://www.findians.com/educated.html
Oulu, Finland

[Brucey]

14. Thank you, Jacob,

for the link and information. US military is killing thousands of innocent civilians.

[The Magistrate]

4. Once Again, The Worst Of Both Worlds

Starting this recent bout of fighting was foolish enough; doing something that will strike the insurgents as backing down, once the thing is begun, is even more foolish.

It is impossible to overstate the incompetence with which this thing is being managed....

"Desperate man do desperate things, and stupid men do stupid things. We are in for a desperately stupid summer."

"LET'S GO GET THOSE BUSH BASTARDS!"

[daleo]

6. In World War I, WWII, other major conflicts

Short term truces were often indicative of static warfare, lots of dead bodies to pick up every now and again, on both sides. I wonder if that is the case here.

[drfemoe]

7. For more on the ceasefire >

U.S. Forces Want Al-Jazeera Out Of Fallujah

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x475803

[aquart]

8. Nine Americans killed? Nine coalition? Nine Iraqis?

When the bloody hell are we going to find out how many of our people have been sacrificed to this insanity?

[Chicago Democrat]

15. Only Americans count... you should know that.

Unless you read Al Jazeera or listen to the BBC.

[drfemoe]

10. U.S. Lets Iraqi Women, Children Leave Fallujah

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- U.S. Marines on the edges of Fallujah checked a long line of cars filled with people trying to leave the tense Iraqi city amid a U.S.-called halt to the fighting Friday.

Marines are letting women, children and the elderly out of the city but are keeping men of military age in. One woman begged Marines to let her husband come with her.

The U.S. military earlier said it was halting its 5-day-old campaign in Fallujah -- dubbed Operation Vigilant Resolve -- to let the Iraqis negotiate an end to the insurgency there.

Dan Senor, senior coalition adviser, said Friday the halt also will let Iraqis bury their dead. Some residents are burying their dead at a sports stadium because they don't have access to cemeteries

http://www.nbc17.com/military/2989297/detail.html

How can this be excused?

[aneerkoinos]

12. Srebrenica in the making? n/t

[drfemoe]

13. Meanwhile, the Pilgrims are on their way

Moment of truth
April 10, 2004

Thousands of Iraqis with supplies head for Fallujah from Abu Ghraib, west of Baghdad. Picture: AFP
The latest deaths of American soldiers have forced the US to face the prospect of a widespread uprising in Iraq. Paul McGeough reports from Baghdad.

There's no preparation. Hundreds of thousands of people seem to just step out on the highway. They are Shiites, walking the 100 kilometres from Baghdad to Karbala. Streaming towards the holy city, they'll converge with others from all corners of Iraq.

These pilgrims think they have it easy. It will take only two days; others have been walking for seven or more, to cover greater distances, before all gather today in a euphoric throng of millions around the gold and blue-glazed Imam Hussein Mosque.

...
This is al-Arbaeen (the Fortieth), the end of the first Ashura holy season that Shiites have been allowed to mark in decades. Saddam Hussein murdered tens of thousands for daring to take part in this rite. Saddam is gone, but the murder continues: 40 days ago, at the start of Ashura, more than 200 died in a co-ordinated series of bomb blasts around the Karbala mosque and another in Baghdad.
<more>
http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/04/09/1081326927088.html