TALL AFAR, Iraq, 12 September 2004 — Hundreds of Iraqis fled the besieged town of Tall Afar, as regional heavyweights initiated contacts with the government yesterday 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 town, the Red Crescent 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 Daoud,” 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 Shiite 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 km away.
In the southern city of Basra a car bomb exploded near the US consular office, killing two people and wounding three, but no Americans were injured.
Two bodies were seen burning inside a vehicle that was destroyed by the blast, some 50 meters from the US compound. Those wounded were passers-by, a witness said.
