Fitful truce holds

An Iraqi army battalion refused to fight in Fallujah.
FALLUJAH, Iraq (AP) -- Gunfire was largely silenced in the second day of a truce in Fallujah, where doctors said 600 Iraqis, including many civilians, were killed in the past week's Marine siege of Sunni insurgents. In the south, the military suggested it is open to a negotiated solution in its showdown with a radical Shiite cleric.
But additional U.S. forces have been maneuvering into place, and the military has warned it will launch an all-out assault on Fallujah if talks there between pro-U.S. Iraqi politicians and city officials -- which were continuing today -- fall through.
President Bush prepared Americans for the possibility of more casualties in the Mideast nation after at least 62 U.S. soldiers were killed across Iraq since April 4, including three Marines killed Sunday.
"It was a tough week last week, and my prayers and thoughts are with those who pay the ultimate price for our security," Bush said.
Refused to fight
The top U.S. commander in Iraq, Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, acknowledged that a battalion of the Iraqi army refused to fight in Fallujah -- a sign of Iraqi discontent with the siege.
Asked about the battalion's refusal on NBC's "Meet The Press," Sanchez said, "This one specific instance did in fact uncover some significant challenges in some of the Iraqi security force structures. ... We know that it's going to take us a while to stand up reliable forces that can accept responsibility."
Some 900 members of the Iraqi Civil Defense Corps are with three battalions of Marines. U.S. forces examined Sunday a captured insurgent cache of suicide belts -- raising concerns of a deadly new tactic in the city's fighting.
Bush held out hope for the Fallujah talks, saying the United States was "open to suggestions" on reducing the violence.
Talks with al-Sadr
In the south, members of the Iraqi Governing Council have reportedly held talks with followers of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, who raised a bloody revolt last week and still control three holy cities, Karbala, Kufa and Najaf.
One factor that has held off U.S. action to uproot al-Sadr's al-Mahdi Army militia was the presence of up to 1.5 million Shiite pilgrims in Karbala, for Sunday's al-Arbaeen ceremonies, one of the holiest days of Shiism's religious calendar. Most pilgrims had left the city by this morning.
U.S. coalition spokesman Dan Senor would not comment on Iraqi talks with al-Sadr's followers but added, "I would say that our goal is to minimize bloodshed and to head off any sort of conflict."
"We don't see it as a necessary requirement that any military action has to occur in Najaf," Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt told reporters.
Iraqis talk
The goal of the separate talks in Fallujah and the south -- all conducted by Iraqis, with no Americans participating -- was unclear. U.S. commanders demand that control of Iraqi police and U.S.-led coalition forces in the cities be restored and that insurgents in Fallujah lay down their arms and hand over Iraqis who killed and mutilated four American civilians on March 31.
Iraqi Governing Council members, who have harshly criticized the U.S. offensive, are seeking a way to extend the truce and resolve the violence.
About 700 Iraqi insurgents have been killed in fighting across Iraq since April 1, but there is no authoritative figure on Iraqi civilian deaths, Kimmitt said today.
Kimmitt's comments were the first full casualty statistics released by the military since a bloody uprising by a radical Shiite militia started April 4 and U.S. forces began their siege against Sunni insurgents in Fallujah early April 5.
"The coalition casualties since April 1 run about 70 personnel. ... The casualty figures we have received from the enemy are somewhere about 10 times that amount, what we've inflicted on the enemy," Kimmitt told a Baghdad press conference.
"In terms of civilian casualties, there is no reliable, authoritative figure out there. We would ask the Ministry of Health, once Iraqi control ... is allowed back in Fallujah, they can get a fair, honest and credible figure and not one that is somehow filtered through some of the local propaganda machines," he said.
AP count
By an Associated Press count, based on individual statements issued by the military, 62 U.S. Marines and soldiers and at least two non-U.S. coalition soldiers have been killed since April 4.
Around 880 Iraqis have been killed, according to an AP count, based on statements by Iraqi hospital officials, U.S. military statements and Iraqi police.
Besides casualties in Fallujah, that number includes an unknown number of Iraqi fighters, members of Iraqi security forces and civilians killed in fights between insurgents and coalition soldiers in various parts of the country.
The number includes more than 600 Iraqi dead in Fallujah reported by the head of the city's hospital, Rafie al-Issawi, said Sunday. He said the numbers came from registries of bodies brought to the hospital and four main clinics.
Most of the dead were civilians, al-Issawi said.
Kut taken
U.S. troops retook the city of Kut from al-Sadr followers in the past three days, in the first major foray in months by the American military into southern Iraq. But military action to retake the other cities could require fighting near some of Shiite Islam's holiest shrines, raising the possibility of inflaming Shiite anger at the U.S.-led occupation.
Marines investigated Sunday a bomb-making factory first uncovered three days earlier. Along with five suicide belts found in the initial raid, they uncovered U.S. military uniforms -- suggesting suicide bombers may try to use them to get close to American forces, Byrne said.