Fresh fighting in Falluja scares away returnees

About 10 cars had entered a checkpoint when a succession of small explosions shot up clouds of smoke, an AFP reporter witnessed.

Amid the sounds of fighting inside Falluja, a number of the 25 cars lined up at a checkpoint to enter the city decided to leave rather than venture inside the war zone they had fled ahead of last month's US offensive to reclaim the city of 300,000 from rebels.

About 900 residents returned to the war-scarred city Thursday on the first day the Iraqi government and US military had welcomed people back to their city since the campaign to root out insurgents began on November 8.

The return of citizens Thursday unfolded despite fierce fighting in northern Falluja that saw US forces call in an air strike on a building.

Three US marines were also killed Thursday in Falluja's province of al-Anbar, although the military declined to say if the deaths occurred during the Falluja skirmishes.

So far, the US military and Iraqi government has restricted access in Falluja to residents of a single neighbourhood -- the southwestern Al-Andalus business district -- and was still imposing a strict 6:00 pm (1500 GMT) curfew.

The government expects 2,000 people to return and US and Iraqi government troops are carrying out rigorous identity checks to ensure only residents of the one neighbourhood out of the city's 18 were let in.

The returnees are entering an apocalyptic backdrop of flattened city blocks and bullet-scarred homes, where wild dogs and cats have feasted on corpses and the sour smell of the dead filled the streets for weeks.

The Iraqi government has been pushing for preparations to be stepped up for the return of residents, who have been forced to stay with relatives, squat in schools or shiver in camps until they can regain their homes.