Iraq Insurgents Offer to Stop Attacks

By Steven R. Hurst and Qassim Abdul-Zahra
The Associated Press

Wednesday 28 June 2006

Eleven Sunni insurgent groups have offered to halt attacks on the US-led military if the Iraqi government and President Bush set a two-year timetable for withdrawing all foreign troops from the country, insurgent and government officials told The Associated Press on Wednesday.

The demand is part of a broad offer from the groups, who operate north of Baghdad in the heavily Sunni Arab provinces of Salahuddin and Diyala. Although much of the fighting has been to the west, those provinces have become increasingly violent and the attacks there have regularly crippled oil and commerce routes.

The groups do not include the powerful Islamic Army in Iraq, Muhammad Army and the Mujahedeen Shura Council, the umbrella label for eight militant groups including al-Qaida in Iraq. But the new offer comes at a time when Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's government is reaching out to militant Sunnis, including a new amnesty plan for insurgent fighters.

Al-Maliki, in remarks broadcast on national television Wednesday, did not issue an outright rejection of the timetable demand but said it was unrealistic because he could not be certain when the Iraqi army and police would be strong enough to assume full responsibility for the country's security.

Eight of the 11 insurgent groups banded together to approach al-Maliki's government under the name of The 1920 Revolution Brigade. All 11, however, have issued identical demands, said the insurgent representatives and government officials.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the information and for fear of retribution.