US to hand Fallujah over to Republican Guard General

US troops began clearing razor wire from the main entrance to Fallujah today as their commanders met local officials to work out details of a deal aimed at lifting the month long siege of the city.

The agreement would lead to the creation of a local force of 1,100 members called the Fallujah Protective Army that would patrol the city under the command of one of Saddam Hussein’s top generals.

American marines would pull out of the city.

A marine officer in Iraq said a deal was reached in principle but “fine points” needed to be fixed.

But Deputy Defence 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 today. 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 elite Republican Guard.

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 later today.

In an apparent move to help the Fallujah negotiations, the US released the imam of the city’s main mosque, Sheik Jamal Shaker Nazzal, an outspoken opponent of the 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 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, 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.

Despite the negotiations, skirmished continued between Marines and guerrillas.

The Fallujah force is expected to include former Iraqi police and soldiers including gunmen who fought against the Americans – particularly ex-soldiers disgruntled over losing their jobs when the United States disbanded the old Iraqi army.

But the new force would not include “hardcore” insurgents or Islamic militants holed up in the city, a marine officer said.

Washington is under intense international pressure to find a peaceful solution to the stand-off that has killed hundreds of Iraqis and became a symbol of anti-US resistance in Iraq.