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Iraqis seek political solution to avert army attack on Falluja

11 January 2014 00:52 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. The prospect of an imminent Iraqi army assault on Falluja receded on Friday as negotiators tried to work out a deal under which al Qaeda militants who seized the city 10 days ago would give way to Sunni Muslim tribal leaders, APA reports quoting.

Military and local officials said the tanks, artillery and troops around the city 70 km (44 miles) west of Baghdad would not attack while efforts to end the standoff peacefully were under way.

Militants of the al Qaeda-linked Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), which is also fighting in neighboring Syria, took control of Falluja and parts of nearby Ramadi on January 1 with the help of sympathetic armed tribesmen.

At least 60 civilians, militants and tribal fighters have been killed in the two cities since the trouble erupted, 43 of them in Ramadi and 17 in Falluja, health officials in Anbar province said. They had no word on military casualties.

The militants' incursion was a major challenge to Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's Shi'ite-led government, which is battling a growing ISIL presence in Sunni-dominated Anbar.

The vast western desert region was previously the heart of the insurgency after the 2003 U.S. invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein and brought about Shi'ite majority rule.

A senior U.S. official said Washington was encouraging the government to take a "patient, deliberate and restrained" approach to the Falluja crisis. "I don't anticipate a move into the city by the armed forces," he told reporters on Thursday.

Thousands of Falluja residents have fled in fear of a punishing military assault, but for now the search for a political solution is in the ascendant, the officials said.

Mosques in Falluja opened for Friday prayers for the first time in more than a year. Previously they had taken place at an anti-government protest camp that dispersed last week.

Witnesses said markets also partially reopened and children jogged around in the rain carrying colorful umbrellas.