Iraq halts military operations for 72 hours in Fallujah

Iraq's defense ministry announced on Saturday a 72-hour halt to military operations in the besieged city of Fallujah, a key city in Anbar province, where Al-Qaeda fighters seized control in January. The announcement raises the possibility of a negotiated end to the deadly crisis, during which the group also seized parts of the provincial capital Ramadi.

"Military operations taken against selected terrorist organization targets in Fallujah have been stopped for 72 hours," the ministry said in a statement.

The decision was taken "in response to goodwill and frequent communications with forces of good and people calling for peace, and to stop the bloodshed in Fallujah," it added.

The overrunning of Fallujah by the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), a branch of Al-Qaeda, in the Sunni heartland of Anbar has been a blow to the Shia-led government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, especially as he prepares for the first nationwide election since the withdrawal of U.S. troops. His government has been struggling to contain discontent among the Sunni minority over Shia political domination that has flared into increased violence for the past year.

The takeovers in Anbar province are the first time anti-government forces have exercised such open control in major cities since the bloody fighting that followed the U.S.-led invasion of 2003 that toppled Saddam Hussein.

Anbar — Iraq's largest province — is composed of a vast desert area that borders Syria and Jordan. With an almost entirely Sunni population, it was the epicenter of the Sunni insurgency that rose up against American troops and the Iraqi government after the 2003 invasion.

The insurgency was fueled by anger over the dislodgment of their community from power during Saddam's rule and the rise of Shias. It was then that Al-Qaeda, a Sunni group, established its branch in the country.

With the crisis in Syria continuing to escalate, Al-Qaeda fighters have been hopping the border between the two countries to launch attacks against targets representing the governments of both Baghdad and Damascus

More than 370,000 people may have been displaced by violence in Anbar, according to the U.N.

With parliamentary elections slated for April, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has shown little interest in reaching out to Sunni lawmakers, despite appeals from Washington and other allies to be more politically inclusive. As recently as October, when he met with President Barack Obama, Maliki was urged to initiate political reconciliation among parties.

But the de-Baathification law, set up in 2003 to rout Saddam Hussein–era officials from positions of power, is still employed by the government to arrest or isolate perceived political threats. Saddam Hussein was a member of the Baath Party.

Violence in Iraq has reached a level not seen since 2008, when the country was just emerging from a period of brutal sectarian killings.

Violence has killed more than 580 people so far this month and upwards of 1,550 since Jan. 1, according to AFP figures based on security and medical sources.

Al Jazeera and wire services