Amidst the uprising in Fallujah, Iraq, on April 9, 2004, Director of Reconstruction in Iraq Paul “Bremer ordered a cease-fire… The purpose, he said, was ‘to give a political track an opportunity to reduce the violence,’ while allowing urgently needed medical supplies and food to reach the city, and the residents to bury the dead. Negotiations with local leaders, mediated by representatives of the Governing Council, ensued, in an effort to find a political solution to pacify the city. The Iraqi insurgents agreed to a cease-fire two days later. By then, Fallujah residents claimed, some six hundred Iraqis had been killed, and the United States reported forty-eight Americans dead–the highest weekly toll since formal combat operations had ended almost a year earlier.”
– Larry Diamond, Squandered Victory, Pages 235-236