Insurgents ordered to surrender

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Fallujah, Iraq's civic leaders joined American officials Monday in calling for insurgents battling Marines to surrender heavy weapons in return for a promise not to resume the U.S. offensive against the city, according to a U.S. spokesman.\nThe commitments appeared to be the first fruits of direct negotiations between U.S. officials and a group of civic leaders and professionals representing Fallujah residents. They have influence with Sunni insurgents who have been fighting Marines and have besieged the city.\nMuch now depends on how guerrillas respond. Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt warned if the deal falls apart, Marines are prepared to launch a final assault, meaning a resumption of heavy fighting after days of calm.\n"It would appear there is an agreed political track," he told reporters. "There is also a very clear understanding ... that should this agreement not go through, Marines forces are more than prepared to carry through with military operations."\nOf two issues important to the United States, the agreement only said there should be a resumption of U.S.-Iraqi patrols in Fallujah and Iraqis who killed and mutilated four American civilians in the city March 31 should be prosecuted.\nPresident Bush scolded Spain's new prime minister for his swift withdrawal of Madrid's 1,300 troops from Iraq and told him to avoid actions that give "false comfort to terrorists or enemies of freedom in Iraq."\nBush expressed his views in a five-minute telephone call with Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, who Sunday ordered the 1,300 troops to return home as soon as possible.\nThe troops will withdraw in four to five weeks, said Polish Gen. Mieczyslaw Bieniek, the commander of a multinational peacekeeping force. He told Poland's PAP news agency soldiers from El Salvador, Honduras and the Dominican Republic would take over Spanish duties.\nBush "expressed his regret to President Zapatero about the decision to abruptly announce the pullout of Spanish troops from Iraq," White House press secretary Scott McClellan said.\nIncoming Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Moratinos told the newspaper El Pais Zapatero's government will honor Spain's pledges at the recent Iraq Donor's Conference and help in Iraq's reconstruction and transition to democracy.\nKimmitt said there would be no power vacuum and officials had been discussing how to replace the troops since Zapatero won Spanish parliamentary elections in the middle of March.\nSeparately, an administration official said Bush plans to name John Negroponte, the United States' current ambassador to the United Nations, as the U.S. ambassador to Iraq.\nMonday, in the central city of Samara, Iraq, U.S. troops shot to death two employees of a U.S.-funded television station Al-Iraqiya and wounded a third, the station said. The Pentagon-funded station interrupted its broadcasts to announce the deaths of correspondent Asaad Kadhim and driver Hussein Saleh after American forces opened fire on them.\nOn another front, the U.S. military began to reduce its forces outside the southern city of Najaf, Iraq. The commander of the force said Monday there were no plans to move soon to capture rebel Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, holed up in the holy city.\nA force of 2,500 Army troops that deployed outside Najaf April 13 on a mission to capture or kill radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr began to rotate out, replaced by a smaller force on around 2,000 soldiers from the U.S. Army's 2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment.\nAl-Sadr's militia "has for the most part been contained in Najaf," U.S. Army Col. Dana J. H. Pittard said. "We can wait ... They will still be there. Ultimately, we still want Iraqis to solve this problem."\nMonday, Al-Sadr ordered a halt in all attacks on Spanish troops based in Najaf after Zapatero decided to withdraw his country's forces.\nAl-Sadr's office called on Iraqis to "maintain the safety of the Spanish forces until their return home" and urged "the governments of the other armies taking part in Iraq's occupation to follow the Spanish government's example.\nBetween Najaf and nearby Kufa, Iraq, U.S. troops clashed with al-Sadr militiamen, who wounded two Americans and seized an abandoned Humvee, setting it on fire in front of a mosque.\nThe fighting came after a bloody weekend for Americans, with 10 servicemembers killed in attacks across the country Saturday.