NYT, p.1: U.S. Issues Blunt Warning to Besieged Falluja Rebels [View All]

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MILITARY
U.S. Issues Blunt Warning to Besieged Falluja Rebels

By IAN FISHER and STEVEN R. WEISMAN
Published: April 24, 2004


BAGHDAD, Iraq, April 23 — The American authorities increased the pressure on besieged insurgents in the Sunni Muslim stronghold of Falluja on Friday with a series of blunt warnings that if they did not lay down their arms, United States soldiers would attack within days.

A senior Bush administration official in Washington said that although a decision had not been made to attack pending a final round of negotiations, "there isn't much time left." He said the administration felt a sense of urgency because the insurgents had turned over only outdated weapons and because Falluja faced an imminent human crisis, with residents in dire need of food and medicine....

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As American officials spoke of a looming confrontation in Falluja, Lakhdar Brahimi, the United Nations envoy enlisted by President Bush to help put together a plan for an Iraqi government, warned that any military action would be counterproductive. "When you surround a city, you bomb the city, when people cannot go to hospital, what name do you have for that?" Mr. Brahimi said in an interview with George Stephanopoulos in Paris for the ABC News program "This Week," to be broadcast Sunday. "And you, if you have enemies there, this is exactly what they want you to do, to alienate more people so that more people support them rather than you."

He added, "I very much hope — I don't know all what is happening now — but in this situation, there is no military solution."

An attack on Falluja, predominantly Sunni Muslim, risks inflaming Shiites as well. Earlier American attacks on the city aroused widespread anger across Iraq, and drove many Shiites to offer food and other support to the insurgents there....


http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/24/international/middleeast/24IRAQ.html