Sunday Times: US secret talks with leaders of armed groups in Iraq

Press reports issued on Sunday said that American officials held a series of secret talks with leaderships for the armed groups in Iraq.

The report which was published by the British Sunday Times said that the talks were held in this month, in Balad area, to the north of Baghdad. According to the paper, the talks included leaderships representing Ansar al-Sunnah groups, Jaysh Muhammad (Muhammad army) and the Islamic army.

The paper added that one of the officials introduced himself as a representative for the American ministry of defense, said that the talks aimed at "halting the bloodshed from the two sides and listen to demands set by the gunmen." The official explained that the Americans notified the gunmen partners in the dialogue that they will take into account their main demands and define a schedule for the withdrawal of the American forces from Iraq.

Meantime, and in a statement issued on the Internet, the leader of al-Qaida organization in Mesopotamia Abu Musab al-Zarqawi said he winning in his operations launched in Iraq. This was one day after the American president George W. Bush refused during his meeting with the Iraqi prime minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari in Washington to draw a timetable for withdrawal.

Bush tried to play down reports which talked about the deterioration of the security and political conditions in Iraq. He said he has a military and political strategy to defeat the gunmen in Iraq, considering that great progress had been achieved in Iraq since handing over the authority to the Iraqis.