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Fallujah ceasefire extended Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.news24.com/News24/World/Iraq/0,,2-10-1460_1511267,00.htmlhttp://www.news24.com/News24/World/Iraq/0,,2-10-1460_1511267,00.html
Fallujah ceasefire extended
12/04/2004 16:19 - (SA)
Fallujah, Iraq - Frantic efforts were continuing on Monday to end the bloodshed in the Sunni Muslim bastion of Fallujah while a deal appeared to be in the offing between the US-led coalition and radical Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr in central Iraq.
The Fallujah ceasefire, which began at 06:00 GMT on Sunday, was being extended until Monday night, with the agreement of both US forces and insurgents, an Iraqi mediator said.
"The ceasefire was extended by 24 hours last night, so it is supposed to last until Monday evening," Alaa Makki, a senior member of the Iraqi Islamic Party which was leading the mediation effort, told AFP.
But rebel leaders gave US marine snipers a 12:00 GMT ultimatum to leave the besieged Sunni town or face a renewed all-out offensive, a journalist who attended a meeting of insurgents told AFP.
Rebels also sought to increase the pressure on the coalition by snatching seven Chinese workers, the latest among dozens of foreigners kidnapped as bargaining chips to foil a two-pronged crackdown on Sunni and Shiite fighters.
The seven Chinese entered Iraq from Jordan early Sunday and were abducted in Fallujah, Beijing said, while pledging to spare no efforts to rescue them.
But attention was also focused on three Japanese hostages, with contradictory reports about their fate and possible imminent execution.
An armed group calling itself the "Mujahedeen Brigades" had threatened to kill the first of the three hostages at 13:00 GMT on Monday unless Japan withdraws its 550 troops from the southern Iraqi town of Samawa.
In Tokyo, Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said he still had no clear information about them hours ahead of the new deadline.
But he vowed that Japanese troops would not be pulled out of Iraq in return for sparing the hostages.
Japanese hostages
In Amman, a Japanese diplomat said "no progress" had been made towards the release of the three Japanese hostages, contradicting reports from a self-described Iraqi mediator.
Earlier self-described Iraqi mediator Mezher Dulaimi told AFP in Baghdad: "We have made a big step forward, even regarding the demands" of the kidnappers.
Monday morning, rebels fired mortar rounds on marine positions and US forces retaliated with artillery and machine guns, an AFP correspondent said.
Starting at 5:00 pm (1300 GMT) and lasting 10 minutes, a relative calm was punctuated only by a brief flurry of marine artillery and machine gun fire after the insurgents lobbed two mortars.
Iraqi national security adviser Muaffaq al-Rubaie urged Fallujah residents to hand over those suspected of the brutal murders of four US contractors there last month to preempt any renewed US offensive.
Edited by Tisha Steyn
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