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Marines hand Fallujah to Republican Guard general

US soldiers remove concertina wire from the highway linking Baghdad to the restive city of Fallujah yesterday. PHOTO: AFP

US troops began clearing rolls of razor wire from the main entrance to Fallujah yesterday as US commanders met with local representatives to work out details of a deal aimed at lifting the monthlong siege of the city.

The agreement would lead to the creation of a local force of some 1,100 members called the Fallujah Protective Army that would patrol the city under the command of an Iraqi general from Saddam Hussein's military. US Marines would pull out of the city.

A Marine officer in Iraq said Thursday that a deal was reached in principle but "fine points" needed to be fixed.

US Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, however, said there was no deal yet and officials were "still working on it."

The commander of the proposed force met with tribal leaders in a mosque yesterday morning. He wore his uniform from the former Iraqi military with his general's insignia.

Captain Ziad Khalas of the Iraqi security forces identified the proposed commander as Major-General Jassim Mohammed Saleh, a veteran of Saddam's Republican Guard.

Saleh, who a relative said had been chief of staff of a Republican Guard brigade, told reporters the force would help Iraqi security forces bring order to the town, so US forces would not be needed.

He did not say who would make up the unit.

"We have now begun forming a new emergency military force to help the forces of the Iraqi Civil Defense Corps and the Iraqi police in completing the mission of imposing security and stability in Fallujah without the need for the American army, which the people of Fallujah reject," Saleh said.

Hundreds of people, including Iraqi security forces, waved Iraqi flags and cheered Saleh, wearing his old army uniform, when he entered the town center and gave a speech yesterday.

Saleh later left the city in a convoy for a meeting with US commanders. One member of his entourage could be seen waving an Iraqi flag from the car as it drove from the city.

Khalas said Iraqi police and paramilitary forces expected to enter the city late yesterday.

In an apparent move to help the Fallujah negotiations, US authorities Thursday released the imam of the city's main mosque, Sheik Jamal Shaker Nazzal, an outspoken opponent of the US occupation who was arrested in October.

One possible sticking point in the talks could be a US demand for insurgents to turn over those responsible for the March 31 killing and mutilation of four American contract workers, whose bodies were burned and dragged through the streets. Winning assurances that the perpetrators would be turned over remains a US goal of the Fallujah talks.

At the main checkpoint into the city, some 200 families waited as Marines cleared coils of razor wire that blocked the road.

A US Marine said engineers would later move large cement blocks that blocked the road.

Marines on the south side of the city began packing up gear Thursday in preparation to withdraw and breaking down earthen berms and other security barriers. But the timing of a pullback is likely to depend on talks Friday between US commanders and Fallujah representatives.

Despite the negotiations, skirmishes continued between Marines and guerrillas.

Three F/A-18 Hornets flying off the aircraft carrier USS George Washington in the Gulf dropped three 500-pound bombs Thursday on targets in the Fallujah area in support of Marines, Navy spokesman Lieutenant Commander Danny Hernandez said.
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