FALLUJAH, Iraq -- A patchy cease-fire took hold in this battle-torn city yesterday as U.S. officials said they were seeking "political" solutions to pacify the area and disband a militia loyal to an anti-American cleric.
The move to stress negotiations over military action marked a significant tactical shift for U.S. officials here, who until the weekend had been vowing to crush the two insurgencies threatening Iraq's stability.
The change came as fighters appeared to extend their influence closer to the capital yesterday, shooting down an Apache helicopter about 3 miles from Baghdad's airport and cutting off communications between military posts on a key road leading west from the city.
Two soldiers were killed when the helicopter crashed. In addition, the military announced that at least 12 other troops died in previously unreported incidents Friday and Saturday, including ferocious battles in the city of Baquba, north of Baghdad.
But Fallujah was the quietest it has been since the U.S. offensive began. Residents took advantage of the lull in fighting to bury their dead -- estimated by Iraqis at more than 600 -- in two soccer fields.
Meanwhile, insurgents continued to abduct foreign civilians yesterday, with China's official news agency reporting that seven of its citizens had been taken hostage in central Iraq. Arab television showed a tape of masked men holding eight Indian, Pakistani and Turkish citizens whom they said had been caught driving coalition supply trucks, but the gunmen said the captives would be released.
A Briton who had been seized last week, apparently by a different group, was freed. There was no word on the fate of an American or three Japanese whose captors had threatened to kill them over the weekend.
The continuing violence has brought U.S. reconstruction efforts and work toward the planned June 30 transition to Iraqi sovereignty to a virtual halt.
More than 60 U.S. service members have died in Iraq since April 4, when Marines launched their operation to regain control of Fallujah and militiamen loyal to cleric Muqtada al-Sadr began attacking police posts and government buildings.
President Bush, visiting soldiers wounded in Iraq at a hospital at Fort Hood, Texas, appeared somber and said it had been "a tough week." L. Paul Bremer III, the top U.S. representative in Iraq, called the situation an "ongoing crisis."
