12 September 2004	Sunday	26 Rajab 1425

TALL AFAR, Sept 11: Hundreds of Iraqis left the trouble spot of Tall Afar, as regional heavyweights initiated contacts with the government on Saturday in a bid to end a US-led operation that has killed at least 50 people.

Clutching bare essentials, families were driven out of the northern town, which was sealed off by US troops for the third consecutive day, in national guard pick-up trucks.

Entry was barred to all.

At a makeshift refugee camp, just east of the town, the Red Crescent has erected 70 to 80 tents to shelter the displaced from the burning sun, but food and water were running low.

A group of tribal leaders, political parties and independents from across Tall Afar's Nineveh province has appointed a five-man committee to mediate between the government and town officials, said member Talaat al Wazan.

"Residents and fighters of Tall Afar have asked us to negotiate and we got in touch with (Minister of State) Kassem Dawd," he said.

"He told us that he would speak to (Prime Minister Iyad) Allawi and we are waiting for his response," he added.

Tribal leaders from the majority Turkmen Shia town of 150,000 want all detainees to be released and for the Iraqi National Guard, which backed the US-led operation in the early hours of Thursday, to leave.

In exchange, they have offered to take charge of security and ban entry to foreign fighters. The US military has branded Tall Afar a den of militants flocking into Iraq from Syria, only 75 kilometres away.

Former governing council member Shangul Shapuk, of the Iraqi Turkmen Front, also said she would join the negotiating efforts.

"I am against the use of force on innocents. Tall Afar is a border town, home to Turkmen and Arab farmers, and I don't believe they are connected to terrorist groups," she said.

The US-led multinational force said its soldiers had discovered 14 mortars of various dimensions, a 122-mm rocket and five detonators in the town.-AFP