US pounds Falluja amid pullout talks
(Agencies)
Updated: 2004-04-30 10:17

American warplanes have struck three areas in the beseiged city of Falluja amid talks to hand security over to former Iraqi army officers.

The Golan district, the scene of heavy fighting over the past few days, was one of the three areas hit on Thursday, according to witnesses.

Local residents have been trying to flee the fighting. [AP]

The strikes occurred just hours after US officials and local leaders said a deal had been struck to begin pulling US marines back from parts of the city they now control.

US commanders have been reported as saying a former general with Saddam Hussein's army would supervise a 1100-strong force of Iraqi soldiers.

But Pentagon officials in Washington have been denying knowledge of any such deal.

It was not immediately clear whether the air strikes would have any impact on a possible agreement.

Marines agreed earlier in the day to ease their grip over the besieged city where a month-long siege has cost hundreds of Iraqi lives. But the latest attacks appear to give credence to suggestions that the US is preparing for a fully fledged assault on the city.

Broken truces

Previous deals in Falluja, notably a ceasefire, have broken down and heavy US air strikes this week combined with tough talk by US President George Bush seemed to herald a possible all-out assault.

But marines and police said troops would now start withdrawing from their siege lines.

A field commander said troops would start withdrawing from the industrial area in south Falluja on Friday to allow for a transfer of security to take place.

Lieutenant Colonel Brennan Byrn said that soldiers of the fifth battalion would return to their base outside Falluja after the hand over of responsibility to Iraqi authorities.

Iraqi patrols

He added that the marines would withdraw from the northern outskirts of the city on 2 May in order to open roads from the north and allow for Iraqi patrols to move into Falluja by 10 May.

But Falluja police chief Sabar al-Janabi told Reuters the withdrawal would be completed by 30 April. He said US officers seemed to have backed away from insistence on conducting joint patrols with Iraqi forces in the city.

Thousands of people have fled Falluja, where doctors say some 600 people died during a first US offensive three weeks ago in retaliation for the killing of four American security guards.

A Reuters journalist watched US marines open fire on a minibus at a checkpoint on the outskirts, setting the vehicle ablaze. Up to four civilians died, a policeman said.

An AC-130 gunship is shown in this undated photo provided by the U.S. Air Force. A gunship like the one shown hammered targets in Fallujah, Iraq, Tuesday April 27, 2004. [AP Photo/file]

On one of the bloodiest days of the bloodiest month for US troops in Iraq - 10 soldiers were killed, including eight by a car bomb - any progress toward a peaceful settlement would be welcome news in Washington.

That took to at least 125 the number of US soldiers killed in action this month, far outnumbering the toll in the three weeks it took to dash to Baghdad and topple Saddam a year ago. In all, 534 have been killed since the invasion of Iraq in March 2003.

Faced with such violence and armed defiance in two key towns, Bush had given commanders a free hand: "Our military commanders will take whatever actions necessary to secure Falluja," he said.

But United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan has appealed to Bush to show restraint, saying bloodshed could turn Iraqis against the occupying forces just as the UN is working with Washington to restore an Iraqi government on 30 June.

In other violence on Thursday, a South African civilian was killed in a drive-by shooting near oil company offices in the southern city of Basra. The head of security for the vital northern oilfields was wounded in Kirkuk.