FALLUJAH, April 18: The truce between armed Iraqis and US forces besieging the western Iraqi city of Fallujah was again extended on Sunday, according to a leading Fallujah figure holding negotiations with US forces - but he added that the talks were "difficult".
Hazem Al Hazani told dpa that talks held on Saturday had resulted in agreement on "all issues except the US demand to disarm resistance in return to lifting the siege from Fallujah".
As a result of the deadlock, Al Hazani said an agreement was made to extend the truce yet again to pave the way for talks. Meanwhile, witnesses reported clashes erupting in the village of Garma 50 kilometres east of Fallujah between armed Iraqis and US forces.
The witnesses said four Iraqis were killed and several wounded during the clashes. One house, they added, was destroyed after US forces fired on it. The US military confirmed on Sunday that 10 US soldiers were killed in attacks in Baghdad, Fallujah and on the Iraqi-Syrian border.
In statements, the US military said three US soldiers were killed when armed Iraqis ambushed their convoy near the southern town of Diwaniya on Saturday evening. The US military said a fourth soldier was killed on Saturday "as a result of enemy action in the Al Anbar province while conducting security and stability operations." A fifth soldier died when an improvised explosive device struck a convoy in eastern Baghdad on Saturday morning, it added.
Meanwhile, five US Marines and between 25 and 30 armed Iraqis were killed in clashes in the western Iraqi town of Qaim near the Syrian border, the command of the US 1st Marine Division confirmed on Sunday.
According to a reporter, insurgents attacked the US outpost Hussaybah on the nearby Iraqi-Syrian border early on Saturday and then detonated a bomb on the road in order to draw the US soldiers out of their camp. The medical sources said Majid Ghali and his daughter were killed when three assailants fired at them east of Karbala. -dpa
