Iraqi civilians flee Falluja as truce takes hold

Civilians fled Falluja yesterday when a truce halted a week of fierce fighting between US forces and Sunni Muslim guerillas in the flashpoint town in which hundreds of Iraqis were killed.

A British contractor seized by suspected militants six days ago was freed, raising hopes for other foreign hostages still being held. An unidentified negotiator told Japan three kidnapped Japanese civilians were safe, Kyodo news agency said.

A masked man said on a video tape aired by Al Jazeera eight other hostages - three from Pakistan, two Turks, an Indian, a Nepali and one from the Philippines - had been freed. No independent confirmation of the releases was available.

The US military said eight soldiers had been killed by guerillas in the past 48 hours. Guerillas also shot down a US Apache attack helicopter near Baghdad airport, killing the two-man crew.

Some 60 US and allied troops have been killed in the past week in Iraq's bloodiest and most chaotic period since the fall of Saddam Hussein a year ago.

US President George W. Bush, campaigning for re-election in November with Iraq high on the agenda, acknowledged it had been a tough week in Iraq and said it was hard to tell if the violence would ebb soon.

"I pray every day there are less casualties. but I know what we are doing in Iraq is right, right for long-term peace, right for the security of our country," Mr Bush said at Fort Hood in Texas where he prayed with US troops on Easter Sunday.

US-led forces were pitched into a new front last week against radical Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr's Mehdi Army militia as well as a long-running battle with Sunni guerillas.

Only sporadic gunfire crackled through Falluja, west of Baghdad, after the truce.

Iraq's US Governor Paul Bremer said no terms had been imposed on the rebels in Falluja, where Iraqi mediators have talked to town leaders and guerillas for the past two days.

A representative of Iraq's US-appointed Governing Council negotiating with the rebels said the 12-hour truce, which began at 10 a.m. (0600 GMT), would be extended for a further 12 hours and that talks would resume today.

"We reached an agreement to stop the bloodshed until tomorrow morning in order for us to come back to Falluja to try and stop the bloodshed permanently and completely," Hashim al-Hassani told Reuters in Falluja.

The freed British contractor, Gary Teeley, was handed over to US-led forces yesterday, but no details were immediately available on how he had been freed or who had handed him over.

"He is in the hands of American and Italian forces in Nassiriya as we speak," said a senior source in US-led forces.

In London, a British Foreign Office spokesman said Teeley, 37 and a father of five who had been missing since last Monday, was "safe and well".

Kyodo quoted an unnamed Japanese government official for its report that the three Japanese hostages in Iraq were safe.

Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi was confronted with the biggest test of his political career when a previously unknown group released a video of the three on Thursday and threatened to kill them unless Japan withdrew troops from Iraq.

Koizumi rejected the demand, saying his government would not give in to terrorism.

In Falluja, a hospital director said more than 600 Iraqis had been killed in the past week of fighting.

Desperate families took advantage of the truce to flee combat zones in the town of 300,000. Sunni fighters, who have battled US troops from street to street, remained inside.

Fifteen food trucks reached Falluja with banners saying they were a gift from a Baghdad stronghold of Sadr, who launched an anti-US revolt across Iraq a week ago. US and Iraqi authorities want to arrest him in connection with a murder.

It was the latest of several shows of solidarity between Iraq's majority Shi'ites and minority Sunnis against the US-led occupation in the past week.

In Baghdad, witnesses said US troops used tanks to smash into the compound of a Sunni mosque in a night-raid on the Adhamiya area, where gunmen fought the Americans on Saturday.

Washington plans to hand over power to an interim Iraqi government on June 30.

The plan may involve expanding the Governing Council, but the present crisis has further strained its credibility.

"A lot of us here in Baghdad and elsewhere were appalled by the loss of life and destruction (in Falluja) because there was too much force used," Council member Adnan Pachachi told the BBC, adding negotiation or pressure could have been used.

US Marines attacked Falluja, a bastion of insurgency, last week in response to the murder and mutilation of four American private security guards ambushed in the town.

The rebels want US forces to lift their siege of the town. The US military says Falluja leaders must hand over the killers of the four Americans, and gunmen must surrender.

Guerrillas holding a US civilian, Thomas Hamill, said they would execute him unless the siege of Falluja was lifted.