More troops join Marines at Fallujah

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FALLUJAH, Iraq -- Hundreds of reinforcements joined Marines besieging Fallujah yesterday, and the U.S. military said it would move to take the city if cease-fire talks fail. Fighting raged through the center of the country, killing 40 Iraqis and an American airman.

Gunfire crackled in Fallujah, even as Iraqi government negotiators met with Fallujah leaders to persuade them to hand over militants who killed and mutilated four Americans here on March 31. Insurgents offered to call a truce if U.S. troops leave Fallujah -- a condition the Americans appeared unlikely to accept.

Nearly 60,000 Fallujah residents, about a third of the population, have fled over the past two days, a Marine commander said.

Elsewhere, militants hit a U.S. air base with mortars in Balad, north of Baghdad, killing an airman. Other fighters attacked government buildings and police stations in Baqouba, setting off firefights in which about 40 Iraqis were killed. Several U.S. troops were wounded, said Capt. Issam Bornales, spokesman for the 1st Infantry Division's 3rd Brigade.

Insurgents also fought U.S. troops in Baghdad's northern, mainly Sunni neighborhood of Azamiyah.

Masked gunmen caused havoc on the road between Baghdad and Fallujah, a key supply route, rocketing a second fuel convoy in the area in as many days. Nearby, guerrillas hit a U.S. tank with a rocket-propelled grenade, setting it ablaze.

Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt, the deputy director of U.S. military operations in Iraq, called on Fallujah's insurgents to join a bilateral cease-fire. But he said a third battalion of Marines had moved to the city -- joining two battalions totaling 1,200 troops and a battalion of nearly 900 Iraqi security forces.

Gen. Kimmitt warned that if talks between city leaders and members of the Iraqi Governing Council failed, the military would consider renewing its assault on Fallujah. Marine commanders were skeptical negotiations would succeed.

"The prospect of some city father walking in and making 'Joe Jihadi' give himself up are pretty slim," said Lt. Col. Brennan Byrne, commander of the 1st Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment.

"What is coming is the destruction of anti-coalition forces in Fallujah. ... They have two choices: Submit or die," he told reporters.