BAGHDAD, Oct. 6 -- Iraqi insurgents from Fallujah are in intense negotiations with the country's interim government to hand over control of the city to Iraqi troops, according to representatives of both sides, in hopes of averting a bloody military battle for the city of 300,000 that has become a haven for foreign guerrillas and a symbol of the limits of Baghdad's authority.
"We have met representatives from Fallujah," the interim deputy prime minister, Barham Salih, said Wednesday. "We have had detailed discussion with these representatives, and we have agreed on a road map or a framework to facilitate the resolution of this conflict in Fallujah."
A boy sits in the rubble of a house hit in an overnight airstrike in Fallujah. A witness said U.S. aircraft made about 15 runs over the north of the city.
(Mohammed Khodor -- Reuters)
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The talks apparently gained momentum Wednesday after the mujaheddin shura -- or council of holy warriors -- that now governs Fallujah voted overwhelmingly to accept the broad terms demanded by Iraq's government. By a vote of 10 to 2, the council agreed to eject foreign fighters, turn over all heavy weapons, dismantle checkpoints and allow the Iraqi National Guard to enter the city.
In return, the city would not face the kind of U.S.-led military offensive that reclaimed the central Iraqi city of Samarra from insurgents last week, a prospect that one senior Iraqi official said clearly grabbed the attention of the Fallujah delegation.
U.S. troops would remain outside the city and end the airstrikes that have shaken residential neighborhoods on an almost daily basis in recent weeks, according to one account of the terms now on the table.
"The government -- the president, the prime minister and the defense minister -- are serious in trying to reach a peaceful solution, and we are, too," said Khalid Hamoud Jumaili, the leader of an insurgent group known as Mohammad's Army. Jumaili is one of six Fallujah residents who have been traveling to Baghdad in the past week to negotiate a peaceful end to the standoff.
"Tomorrow I am going back to Fallujah to discuss some issues which are still not solved," Jumaili said in a brief telephone interview.
If a concrete agreement emerges -- and proves successful -- it would be a substantial boost for the interim government and for prospects for holding nationwide elections in January. Fallujah, an overwhelmingly Sunni Muslim city, has been the fiercest of several areas that remain beyond the reach of Baghdad's authority. It is notorious as the staging base for a steady barrage of strikes aimed at Iraqi government personnel, especially security recruits.
Negotiations also appeared to be moving toward a peaceful settlement in Sadr City, the Baghdad slum and insurgent stronghold that has been an urban battlefield for weeks. The talks were being driven by local leaders in Sadr City, where a homegrown militia loyal to Shiite Muslim cleric Moqtada Sadr is fighting a stubborn guerrilla campaign against U.S. Army armor and airstrikes.
Iraq's interim prime minister, Ayad Allawi, told reporters Wednesday that a committee was being formed to hash out the final terms of a deal to dismantle the Mahdi Army, Sadr's militia. Allawi's government, which authorized a U.S. offensive against Sadr's militia in the southern city of Najaf in August, has been trying to persuade Sadr to join the political process.
"No cease-fire," Allawi cautioned. "We responded positively to the request of the people of Sadr City. They will surrender their weapons to the authorities. They will dismantle any armed presence in the city. They will respect and abide by the rule of law in the city. They will welcome the police to go back, patrol the streets of the city."
Meanwhile, the wave of car bombings that has plagued Iraq for weeks continued Wednesday. A suicide car bomber plowed into an Iraqi military checkpoint in the town of Anah, near the Syrian border, killing 16 Iraqis and wounding 24.
Iraq's interim president, Ghazi Yawar, said in an interview this week that the Fallujah insurgents negotiating with the government "were more willing" to concede points after U.S. and Iraqi forces stormed Samarra on Friday. Yawar, a Sunni sheik, said he was approached by the Fallujah delegation, already deep in negotiations with a team led by Salih.
"I share both the ethnicity and the faith" of the delegation, Yawar observed. But in sketching out the military offensive that would come if an agreement were not reached, Yawar said, "I expressed my personal views that it's going to be severe and it's going to be harsh. I said it so they would understand the truth: They might be the next operation."
