Naseer Al-Nahr, Arab News

BAGHDAD, 21 April 2004 — A mortar attack on a Baghdad prison killed 22 prisoners and wounded over 90 yesterday as Honduras followed Spain in announcing a withdrawal of its troops from Iraq.

All of the casualties at the Abu Ghraib prison just west of Baghdad were among the 4,400 people detained there on security grounds, a US military spokesman said.

Iraqi fighters also attacked a US military convoy in the northern city of Mosul and one American soldier died of his wounds. Four others were injured, the spokesman said.

Elsewhere, tension eased in two flashpoint cities as a truce held in the Sunni town of Fallujah and US forces prepared to pull back from a forward base near Najaf, where Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr has taken refuge.

Eighteen mortar rounds rained down late in the afternoon on the coalition-run Baghdad Confinement Facility at Abu Ghraib, said Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt.

Only kilometers away in Fallujah, a first group of 50 families was allowed to return home after two weeks of fighting between US Marines and Iraqis left some 600 people dead and the city in tatters.

“Fifty families were allowed to enter today, 50 families will be allowed tomorrow and 50 the day after that,” Lt. Col. Ronny Gordy of the US Marines said.

All groups in Fallujah, including the fighters, had accepted a truce deal sealed Monday, said a spokesman for the Sunni Muslim Scholars’ Association, Muthanna Harith Al-Dhari.

“I am confident the fighters will turn in their heavy weapons as long as the Americans provide the guarantees they promised,” said Fawzi Muthin, a 47-year-old engineer who was a member of Fallujah’s delegation in the talks.

In the south, US forces gave Iraqi mediators more time to resolve a standoff with Sadr and his Mehdi Army militia. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, commanding US forces in Iraq, told soldiers of a 2,500-strong 3rd Brigade Task Force he was pulling them back to avoid bloodshed in Najaf or damage to shrines.

“The problem of Sadr is bigger than Sadr. It is the whole Shiite community and the holy shrine,” Sanchez said as troops prepared to leave a base 20 km (13 miles) northwest of Najaf.

“We have just about eliminated all his influence across the south,” he said, saying the cleric still had a limited presence in the towns of Diwaniya and Karbala.

Sanchez said there were “a whole bunch of initiatives” to resolve the crisis, but made clear Sadr was still a target. “Wherever we find him on the battlefield we kill him within the constraints that we have applied,” he said.

Cracks have appeared in the US-led coalition as it grapples with attacks and a wave of kidnapping only 10 weeks before a planned handover of power to Iraqis.

As some of Spain’s 1,400-strong contingent in Iraq arrived home, Honduras said it would pull out its 370 troops as soon as possible. Spanish and Honduran troops are part of a Polish-led multinational division in mainly Shiite south-central Iraq.

Thailand, which has 451 troops doing humanitarian work near Kerbala, said they would be withdrawn if they were attacked.

But the White House insisted the US-led “coalition of the willing” remained stable and said the Bush administration hoped a new UN resolution for Iraq would spur other nations to take part in providing security and reconstruction assistance.

In Rome, the UN special envoy for Iraq, Lakhdar Brahimi, said three Italian private security guards being held hostage could be freed soon. Kidnappers demanding the withdrawal of Italian troops from Iraq have killed a fourth Italian hostage.

— Additional input from Reuters