The chief negotiator for the city of Fallujah dashed hopes for a quick resumption of peace talks despite his release by U.S. and Iraqi authorities. Fallujah negotiator Sheik Khaled al-Jumeili said peace talks to end the standoff in Iraq's major insurgent bastion will remain suspended as a protest against his detention by U.S. troops, who accused him of representing the militants. "The fact is that I'm negotiating on behalf of Fallujah people — civilians, kids, women — who have no power but through being represented by somebody. Since the situation has got up to this, each can go wherever they want and we don't need to talk about negotiations," he told Al-Arabiya TV.
Al-Jumeili told the AP he was released Monday from U.S. and Iraqi custody after being detained Friday after talks broke down over the city's rejection of a demand by Prime Minister Ayad Allawi to turn over terrorist leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. Al-Zarqawi's group Tawhid and Jihad has claimed responsibility in numerous beheadings and suicide bombings, including two attacks on Baghdad's Green Zone last week that killed six, including four U.S. civilians. Witnesses said al-Jumeili was picked up after leaving a mosque following prayers in a village about 10 miles south of Fallujah. Al-Jumeili said he was taken to a Marine base outside Fallujah and then by helicopter to another location. During his detention, al-Jumeili said he was treated well by the Americans and was not handcuffed or blindfolded like his companions. The other three men have not been released, he said.
| That would be the holy man's assistants, Muggsy, Butch and Spike? |
The Interior Ministry said al-Jumeili was being released on orders of Allawi. Iraqi officials hope that Fallujah leaders can be persuaded to negotiate a weapons buyback deal similar to one struck with Shiite radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr to end clashes in Sadr City. U.S. forces have been waging days of air and ground assaults in Fallujah, targeting key sites purportedly used by al-Zarqawi associates. The latest U.S. assault began Thursday after Fallujah clerics rejected the "impossible" demand to turn over the terrorist leader, insisting that al-Zarqawi was not in the city. Fallujah fell under control of radical clerics and their armed mujahedeen fighters after U.S. Marines lifted their three-week siege of the city in April.
| So how about turning over some of those radical clerics and their armed mujahedeen fighters, just to warm up? Presumably, they're in the city? Or do they commute to work? |
The U.S. military has been anticipating a rise in insurgent activity with the start of the holy month of Ramadan. |