Fallujah Residents Running Out of Time to Turn in Weapons

FALLUJAH, Iraq (AP) -- Guerrillas and residents in Fallujah have "days, not weeks" to turn in heavy weapons, the top Marine commander in Iraq said Thursday, warning that fighting could resume and that a U.S. push to take the city could be costly for both sides.

The stark warning by Lt. Gen. James Conway came two days after an agreement was reached in which city leaders called on insurgents to hand over their heavy weapons in return for a U.S. pledge to hold back on plans to storm the city and allow the return of families that fled the city.

Marines have said few weapons have been turned in and that most that were surrendered were old or didn't work.

In Baghdad, meanwhile, a foreigner was killed and his Iraqi translator was wounded by gunmen who opened fire on their bullet-proof vehicle Thursday. The victim's nationality was not immediately known. The shooting took place in the northern neighborhood of Azimiyah, where gunmen have been active in past weeks.

A spokesman for British forces responsible for the southern Iraqi city of Basra has lowered the reported death toll to 50 from a series of near simultaneous suicide bombings that targeted Iraqi police stations there Wednesday.

The spokesman, Capt. Hisham Halawi, said a check with hospitals showed 50 dead, 20 of them children. Earlier reports had said 68 people were killed.

It was still too early to say who was behind the Basra attacks, Halawi said.

"We can't discount al-Qaida, we can't discount former regime loyalists. It is too early to start speculating," Halawi said in Kuwait.

Suicide attackers detonated five car bombs -- all but one of them simultaneously -- against police buildings in Iraq's second largest city, striking rush-hour crowds.

Vehicles were destroyed in the blasts, including two school buses carrying kindergartners and girls aged 10-15 that were passing by.

Police discovered two car bombs before they were detonated and arrested three men, said Basra Gov. Wael Abdul-Latif.

Basra is overwhelmingly Shiite, and the last major suicide attack also targeted Shiites: a series of suicide bombers who struckt holy shrines in Karbala and Baghdad on March 2. At least 181 people were killed.

In Fallujah, Conway's warning that residents have "days, not weeks" to implement the accord reached this weekend or else fighting could resume followed a disappointing surrender of weapons on Wednesday.

He said only about a pickup truck load's worth of weapons were turned in.

"It was junk, things I wouldn't ask my Marines to begin to fire," Conway said. "We were not pleased at all with the turn-in we saw yesterday."

Conway warned that patience is wearing thin and questioned whether the civic leaders who negotiated with U.S. officials had much influence over the insurgents.

"We are somewhat questioning whether they represent the people of Fallujah because it is our estimate that the people of Fallujah have not responded well to the agreement that was made in this very room," Conway said.

Marines believe that insurgents may have been using the lull in fighting to regroup. The gunmen have "had time to perhaps establish defenses better, install more ambushes. ... I think it will be costly but the Marines understand that," Conway said.

U.S. Marines halted efforts to allow families who had fled amid fighting to return home to Fallujah, a step that was to be taken alongside disarmament. About 10 families made it back into the city in the morning before Marines announced to some 600 Iraqis waiting at the checkpoint that no more would be allowed to enter.

A top U.S. military commander said 10 percent of Iraqi security forces "worked against" U.S. forces in the past three weeks of fighting in Fallujah and the southern city of Najaf, a sign of how difficult it will be to assemble an Iraqi army and police force.

Another 40 percent of the Iraqi security forces walked off the job because they didn't want to fight fellow Iraqis, said Maj. Gen. Martin Dempsey, commander of the Army's 1st Armored Division.

He said it was "very difficult" to convince security forces that the insurgents they are fighting are "killing fellow Iraqis and fellow Muslims," he said.

The failure of Iraqi security forces to fight is significant because Washington's exit strategy depends on moving U.S. troops out of cities and over responsibility for security to Iraqi forces.

The United States, meanwhile, was criticized by Human Rights Watch for what the group said was a failure to provide clear or consistent information on the treatment of some 10,000 civilian detainees.

"Many people have been held for months without knowing why," said Richard Dicker, director of Human Rights Watch's International Justice program. "The U.S. military needs either to inform people promptly of charges against them if they are suspected of a crime, or to give them the right to appeal and a six-month review if they are held on security grounds."

(Copyright 2004 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)