Iraq's interim government will declare a nationwide arms amnesty next week, but insists the city of Fallujah must turn in foreign militants or face assault, National Security Adviser Kassim Daoud said yesterday.
Daoud would not be drawn on the timing of a Fallujah offensive if the city did not hand over militants led by Jordanian Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
"We have a timetable and we will stick to it," he said.
US forces released overnight Fallujah's chief negotiator, whom they detained on Friday, after day-long battles and air strikes on the outskirts of the rebel-held Sunni Muslim stronghold.
"Next week, we will announce a nationwide arms collection drive," Daoud said, but gave few details of the arms amnesty.
In a country awash in weaponry, Iraqis are permitted to keep personal guns, such as pistols and assault rifles, at home. Previous gun amnesties since last year's US-led invasion of Iraq have involved heavier weapons.
Daoud said a cash-for-weapons scheme already under way in Baghdad's Sadr City district, a stronghold for Shiite militants, had been extended to Thursday.
He said many people still wanted to disarm in Sadr City.
"It would not be fair to search houses now when these people have not had enough time to turn over their weapons," he said.
Loyalists of fiery cleric Moqtada al-Sadr had been fighting US troops in Sadr City before the arms hand-over was agreed.
Fallujah is an even tougher challenge for the interim government and its US backers.
"I think the residents of Fallujah don't want this sort of peace. They want real peace, not a peace that stabs in the back and strikes and destroys homes and kills women," Fallujah representative Khaled al-Jumaili said after his release.
US Marines detained the bearded cleric on Friday while he was taking his family out of the city for safety.
Asked what evidence the government has that Zarqawi's group is operating in Fallujah, Daoud said: "There are many of his followers, jihadists [holy warriors]. The proof is there."
Meanwhile, a car bomb detonated in northern Mosul yesterday as a civilian convoy drove by, killing one Iraqi and wounding four others, said Lieutenant Colonel Paul Hastings of Task Force Olympia.
Three civilians wounded in the 10am attack were evacuated to a military hospital, he said. One Iraqi civilian was killed and another was injured. The blast came almost 24 hours after a similar bombing on a Mosul bridge on Sunday that killed five civilians and wounded 15.
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