Falluja rebels get Allawi ultimatum

Asked about on-off peace talks with Falluja notables, Allawi said: ‘‘We have no negotiations with Falluja because it is part of Iraq. We want to free this town from the grip of terrorists who came from abroad.’’ ‘‘If there is a failure in doing this peacefully, then we will do it by force,’’ he said.

Allawi said authorities had arrested 167 Islamist militants in the past few weeks, most of them non-Iraqi Arabs. He said a ‘‘few thousand’’ followers of Saddam’s former deputy President Izzat Ibrahim had also been detained in the past few weeks, among them two of Ibrahim’s top aides.

The beheaded body of a Japanese man held by Al Qaeda ally Abu Musab al-Zarqawi’s group, which was found in Baghdad on Saturday night, was identified by Japan today. Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said despite the killing, Japan’s troops would remain in Iraq.

Meanwhile, Jordan’s state security court jailed an Islamist militant for six months on Sunday for financing Al-Zarqawi’s bombings in Iraq but found no evidence to charge him with plotting any attacks. Jordanian security sources said it was the first major interception of secret channels of funding of Jordanian militants to Zarqawi and his foreign fighters in Iraq.