Iraqi army not to attack Fallujah as tribes fight al-Qaeda

Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said Wednesday that his troops will not attack the volatile city of Fallujah as long as the tribes are fighting al-Qaida militants, vowing that the unrest in Anbar province will not delay the country's national elections. "We will not use force as long as the tribes announce their willingness to confront al-Qaida and eject them from Fallujah," Maliki said at his televised weekly speech. "We don't want this city (Fallujah) to suffer any more, because it had enough wars and destruction," he said referring to the two major battles between the residents of the city and the U.S. troops in 2004, which caused severe destruction and mass killings to its people. Maliki also said that al-Qaida militants will not stop the political process in Iraq and pledged to hold the nationwide elections on its scheduled date of April 30. "One of their (al-Qaida) goals is to delay the elections which are close, and I say to everyone we don't want to delay the election even for a single day, and the government is ready to provide all the needs of the elections. We want it (elections) to occur because it is a significant stage in the political process," Maliki added. Sporadic clashes in Iraq's western province of Anbar entered the tenth day after tensions flared in the province when Iraqi police dismantled an anti-government protest site outside Ramadi. The Sunnis have been carrying out a year-long protest, accusing the Shiite-led government of marginalizing them and its Shiite- dominated security forces of indiscriminately arresting, torturing and killing their sons.