Call for Falluja Truce After Week of Iraq Bloodshed

http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/news/news-iraq.htmlBy REUTERS

Published: April 10, 2004
Filed at 11:01 p.m. ET

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Leaders in the besieged Iraqi city of Falluja will call on guerrillas battling U.S. Marines to start a truce on Sunday morning to try to end a week of fighting that has cost hundreds of lives, officials said.

``From the crack of dawn, Falluja's imams and civic leaders will call on the fighters to hold their fire to avoid a massacre that could wipe out an entire city,'' said Qahtan al-Rubaie, a member of a delegation of Iraqi officials from Baghdad who went to Falluja on Saturday to try to negotiate a cease-fire.

He told Reuters the truce would officially begin at 10 a.m. (2 a.m. EDT). He returned to Baghdad on Saturday night to brief U.S. officials including governor Paul Bremer on the results of the talks in Falluja.

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...and what of the leaders that would authorize such a massacre? Have Bush and Hussein been doing some drinking together?

Bass-fishing, Budweiser, and Belchin'. At a stocked pond. On a Hollywood-set ranch, hold the horse-flesh.