IRAQ: Muslim prayer leaders called on Iraqis living in the tense western city of Falluja yesterday to down arms and end reprisal attacks on US soldiers, who killed 15 demonstrators earlier in the week.
Local officials and the military also called for peace after Iraqis threw a grenade on Wednesday into the main base for US soldiers in Falluja, wounding seven.
"I want to tell you, to tell all of the people here in Falluja, not to attack Americans. If you do they will kill you. Do not fight them ... they have tanks", one Imam told Iraqis at his mosque across the road from the US military post.
"We know what the jihad is because we are Muslim. We will follow it until judgment day. But now we cannot do anything because the Americans are here in our city ... But having American and British troops here is not forever. We will wait for a new life. God will bring us angels."
Relations between the military and locals have become increasingly tense across Iraq, but tempers flared earlier this week when US forces opened fire on dozens of demonstrators in Falluja. The US troops said they had been fired upon first.
In Baghdad yesterday, a preacher called on the US to install a government swiftly to maintain law and order.
"To America and its allies we say: where are your honeysweet promises? Now is the time to fulfil them," Sheikh Ahmad al-Issawi said in a sermon at the Abdel-Qader Kilani mosque. "Where is the government? Now the country is without a government."