Naseer Al-Nahr, Arab News

BAGHDAD, 20 April 2004 — US forces besieging the Sunni town of Fallujah yesterday demanded that the Iraqi fighters hand in heavy weapons for a truce as Spanish troops prepared to leave the country.

US President George W. Bush told Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero he regretted Madrid’s decision to withdraw its 1,300 troops from Iraq, the White House said.

In a five-minute telephone call initiated by Zapatero, Bush “expressed his regret to Prime Minister Zapatero about the decision to abruptly announce the pullout of Spanish troops from Iraq,” said spokesman Scott McClellan.

“The president urged that the Spanish withdrawal take place in a coordinated manner that does not put at risk other coalition forces in Iraq,” McClellan told reporters in Washington.

“The president stressed the importance of carefully considering future actions to avoid giving false comfort to terrorists or enemies of freedom in Iraq,” the spokesman added.

The United States played down the loss of Spanish troops to the coalition’s efforts to quell the recent upsurge in violence. The withdrawal of Spanish troops from Iraq will not create a “security vacuum” and their departure will be “orderly”, US Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt said.

Kimmitt said the departing 1,300 Spanish troops could be replaced in a variety of ways, including by existing forces on the ground, other incoming force contributions or other units from the multinational force in central and southern Iraq.

On Sunday Zapatero ordered his country’s troops to withdraw from Iraq “as soon as possible” as he said Madrid’s conditions for maintaining the contingent in the US-led coalition appear unlikely to be fulfilled.

In the southern city of Najaf, Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr called for a halt to attacks on Spanish troops. “The attacks on Spanish troops should be stopped since they are returning to their country and as long as they don’t carry out aggressions against the Iraqi people,” said a statement from Sadr’s office.

In Fallujah civic leaders joined American officials in calling on fighters in the city to disarm. The US military committed not to resume its offensive in the city if heavy weapons are surrendered.

Much depends on how the fighters respond. Kimmitt warned that if the deal fell apart, Marines were prepared to launch a final assault, meaning a resumption of heavy fighting after days of calm.

It is not clear how much influence Fallujah civic officials participating in the talks have on those fighting.

US forces launched a crackdown in Fallujah after a spate of violence including the killing and mutilation of four US private security guards there. They encircled the city and vowed to capture those responsible for the crime. In the ensuing battle some 600 Iraqi residents, including women and children, were killed.

One US official said that once the killers of the Americans were found they would be dealt with by the Iraqi justice system.

Meanwhile, a journalist and driver working for the coalition-funded Al-Iraqia television channel were killed by US military fire, the channel’s editor in chief said.

“Journalist Assad Kadhem and his driver Hussein Saleh were killed, while cameraman Jaassem Kamel, who was hit in the back, is in Samarra hospital,” Najm Khafaji said.

Khafaji said the reporting team in Samara, some 125 km (80 miles) north of Baghdad, were killed after they had started to film a US base while it was under attack.

— Additional input from agencies