http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-3999113,00.htmlTuesday April 20, 2004 4:01 PM
By JASON KEYSER and LOURDES NAVARRO
Associated Press Writers
FALLUJAH, Iraq (AP) - Iraqi security forces and civilians who fled days of street fighting in Fallujah began to return Tuesday in a critical test of an agreement between U. S. officials and local leaders to end the American siege of the rebellious city.
Meanwhile, a barrage of 18 mortars hit a Baghdad jail Tuesday, killing 21 prisoners, the U.S. military said. Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt said the mortar strike hit the Baghdad Confinement Facility run by the U.S.-led coalition. He told a news conference that preliminary reports said all the casualties were prisoners.
He said he did not know if the prisoners were suspected criminals or ``security detainees,'' Iraqis detained on suspicion of involvement in anti-U.S. violence or in the remnants of Saddam Hussein's Baathist regime. He had no further immediate details.
In Fallujah, a U.S. military-run radio station urged residents to hand over heavy weapons - including machine guns, grenade launchers and missiles - to Iraqi security forces or at the mayor's office.
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About a third of the city's 200,000 people fled during the two-week siege that killed at least 600 Iraqis, according to hospital officials.
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