Ceasefire talks to be held in Fallujah

A third round of negotiations aimed at ending fighting in the besieged Iraqi city of Fallujah will be held today, a US commander said.

Sunni militants have agreed to a US offer of a ceasefire, Arab TV stations reported.

A deadline set by rebels who kidnapped US civilian Thomas Hamill, 43, on Friday and threatened to kill and mutilate him if Marines did not withdraw from Fallujah by 6am today (2am Irish time), passed with no word on his fate.

Mahmoud Othman, a member of Iraq’s Governing Council, said the militants have agreed in principle to a truce, but the deal depends on American soldiers withdrawing from the city.

Rebels made the offer through mediators in negotiations between council members and city representatives in Fallujah, he said.

There was no confirmation from US commanders that a deal had been struck.

Lieutenant Colonel Brennan Byrne, commander of the 1st Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, which is deployed in the city’s south, said: “There has been no contact this morning from the rebels.”

“I can confirm that we are going to continue to hold” off attacks on the insurgents, he said.

Byrne said another round of talks would be held between 10am and 4pm today.

Arab TV station Al-Jazeera quoted an unidentified insurgent leader in Fallujah as saying a ceasefire would begin at 10am and last for 12 hours.

US commanders have said that for a truce to hold, the militants must hand over the Iraqis who killed and mutilated four American civilians on March 31 and allow the return of Iraqi police to their stations to keep order, Othman said.

Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt told reporters on Saturday that fighters must also “lay down their arms” and renounce their membership in extremist groups to fully end the insurgency that has made Fallujah its stronghold.

US forces called a unilateral halt to their offensive on Friday to allow for talks. However, sporadic fighting has occurred since then.

The Marines warned of an assault to take the entire city if the negotiations failed and moved in reinforcements around the city.

Kimmitt said a third battalion of Marines had moved to the city, joining two battalions totalling 1,200 troops and a battalion of nearly 900 Iraqi security forces.

“Were we not at this point observing suspension of offensive operations … it could well have been that we would have had the entire the city by this point,” Kimmitt said.

Nearly 60,000 Fallujah residents, about a third of the population, have fled over the past two days, a Marine commander said. Kimmitt said 60 insurgents had been captured in the Fallujah campaign so far, including five foreign Arabs.

Meanwhile, militants also continued to hold hostage two aid workers – a Canadian and an Arab from Jerusalem – but announced they would free three Japanese civilians.

But as the time for their release passed, the hostages had still not been released, according to a Japanese Embassy official in Baghdad, Hiroyuki Oura. He would not say whether the hostages were safe or if negotiations for their release were ongoing.