Jasim Mohamed Saleh near Falluja on Friday. (Reuters)

Falluja, April 30 (Reuters): US marines handed control of Falluja to a former General in Saddam Hussein’s Republican Guard today but fresh clashes showed a month of fighting with Sunni insurgents was not over.

In a reversal of Washington’s previous policy of excluding members of Saddam’s Baathist regime from power, Jasim Mohamed Saleh said his new force would help police bring order and relieve a month-long siege that has cost hundreds of lives.

“We have now begun forming a new emergency military force,” he said, adding the people of Falluja “rejected” US troops.

Marine commander Lieutenant-General James Conway told the New York Times that Saleh, who was greeted by cheering crowds in his hometown, would lead about 900 former Iraqi soldiers. Hours later, dozens of explosions shook Falluja as fighting erupted suddenly in the eastern outskirts, residents said.

US officials have struggled to stamp out open insurrection in Falluja while avoiding more bloodshed that has cost more American lives in April than any other month in Iraq and turned many Iraqis against them. They have begun to recruit some former Baath party members to help restore order and basic services.

President George W. Bush, watching sliding poll numbers ahead of November’s presidential election, gave commanders a free hand in Falluja this week and the Pentagon sent more tanks. But the improvised peace deal appeared to have averted an all-out assault on the city of 300,000 — for the time being.

“This is a minute-by-minute, hour-by-hour, day-by-day proposition,” a marine officer said, as men and machines ground their way back from positions south and west of the city. US marines around Falluja looked to have held onto strongpoints dominating the northern Golan district, where fighting has been fiercest.

It was unclear what influence the new Iraqi force in Falluja has over the estimated 2,000 or so guerrillas, some of whom US officials say are diehard Saddam supporters in a city once fiercely loyal to his minority Sunni-dominated regime.

Some 200 foreign Islamic militants have also been active, US commanders and Iraqi officials in Baghdad say. The marine officer said if those who had been fighting in Falluja joined Saleh’s force that would not be a problem for the US forces.