| Annan warns against Fallujah raid
Allawi: Peace window closing in city amid war drums Compiled by Daily Star staff
Annan warns against Fallujah raid UN chief Kofi Annan warned against an all-out military offensive to capture the rebel-held Iraqi city of Fallujah, which U.S. forces urged civilians to flee as they launched fresh air and artillery strikes on Friday. The warning came as Iraq's Prime Minister Iyad Allawi on Friday warned insurgents in Fallujah that time was running out for them to disarm amid growing expectations of a major U.S.-led assault. Stepping up pressure on the city, U.S. Marines fired artillery shells at suspected rebel targets in Fallujah Friday, witnesses said. At least seven artillery rounds were fired as marines stepped up pressure on guerrillas ahead of a widely predicted assault on [the inhabitants of Fallujah, in order to "kill or capture" members of the resistance described as] Islamic militants in the city. There was no immediate word on any casualties. An assault would further anger Iraqis and threaten polls due on Jan. 27., Annan said in letters to U.S. President George W. Bush, British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Allawi, UN officials said Friday. "The threat or actual use of force not only risks deepening the sense of alienation of certain communities, but would also reinforce perceptions among Iraqis of a continued military occupation," the Los Angeles Times quoted him as writing. Allawi and the U.S. see taking Fallujah as critical to ensuring the polls go ahead and are free and fair. "The window really is closing for a peaceful settlement," Allawi said after meeting European Union leaders in Brussels. "The insurgents and terrorists are still operating there. "We hope they will come to their senses or we will bring them to justice. We will get the terrorists," he said, vowing to bring security to all of Iraq. Allawi also denied reports that Jan. 27 had been set as the date for the first elections since the fall of Saddam Hussein. "The elections will take place as prescribed by the UN resolution (1546) in January next year. We haven't specified a certain date yet," he told reporters. Iraqi Vice President Ibrahim al-Jaafari reportedly said earlier Friday that the country's election commission had chosen Jan. 27 and that it was expected to be approved by the Cabinet. Annan's warning, contained in letters dated last Sunday
and obtained by Reuters on Friday, surfaced as U.S. troops sealed all roads
to Fallujah earlier Friday and in Arabic leaflets and loudspeaker messages
urged
women, children [below 15] and non-fighting age men to
flee, but said they would arrest any man [above
14 and] under 45 trying to enter or leave the city [of 300,000 inhabitants].
"The U.S. forces call on women, children and civilians to leave Fallujah for their own safety," said the leaflet. [But would you leave your husband, your brother, your fifteen-year-old son behind, in an encircled city, in view of the unknown fate awaiting him - we might ask...] Richard Grenell, spokesman for U.S. Ambassador John Danforth, said Washington would have no comment "on advice given [by the secretary of the United Nations] in New York regarding military decisions in Iraq." "This issue is for the government of Iraq and those who are in Iraq willing to help them," Grenell said. [According to same sources, about half of the population, and according to others,] [m]ost of Fallujah's 300,000 people have already left after weeks of intensive air and ground bombardments and clashes between insurgents and U.S. Marines. "We are making last preparations. It will be soon. We are just awaiting orders from Premier Allawi [the US puppet regime's figurehead] ,"said Marines Colonel Michael Shupp. U.S. warplanes and artillery bombarded the city on Friday [and until Monday morning when the first troops of the occupation forces entered Fallujah], residents said. Rebels fired mortars and rocket-propelled grenades at U.S. forces on the city outskirts, killing a U.S. soldier and wounding five more. There was no immediate word on civilian casualties.[American journalists like Jim Krane reported some casualties but basically, a rather successfully implemented strategy to prevent the outrage caused by civilian casualties in Fallujah last year was implemented by the US military.] Ambulances were waiting for fighting to ease. The U.S. military said overnight air raids had destroyed a command post, arms caches and rebel positions in the city. [Residents reported the destruction of "hundreds of houses," saying the entire North of Fallujah was aflame.] Hospital workers said the raids had killed three people, wounded four and destroyed five houses. A suicide car bomb and mortar fire at a checkpoint southeast of Baghdad killed three newly redeployed British soldiers and an Iraqi interpreter on Thursday. A U.S. soldier was also killed and one wounded when their vehicle hit a roadside bomb north of Baghdad on Thursday night. In Ramadi, the capital of Al-Anbar Province, marines discovered and disarmed explosives that had been rigged in a youth center and found more that two tons of explosives hidden in a mosque. Fifty suspected insurgents were also netted in the sweep, the military added. In the latest civilian casualties, two children were killed and four of their siblings were wounded when mortar rounds crashed onto their house overnight in a town northeast of Baghdad, a relative of theirs said on Friday. The target was believed to be a nearby police station in Moqdadiyyah. - Agencies |