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Politics : Idea Of The Day -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: IQBAL LATIF who wrote (43865)	3/25/2003 8:04:58 PM
From: IQBAL LATIF	Respond to of 50167

Saddam has been forced to create a genuine praetorian guard - the Special Republican Guard. These 15,000 soldiers, under the command of his second son, Qusay, are the only formations allowed inside Baghdad and will form the last line of defence. Saddam gives key task to his 50,000 most trusted troops By David Blair in Amman and Michael Smith, Defence Correspondent (Filed: 26/03/2003) Saddam Hussein has entrusted the Republican Guard with perhaps the most crucial strategic task of the war - defending the approaches to Baghdad. All six divisions, totalling about 50,000 men with as many as 800 tanks, have been dug in around the capital. Standing between the US third infantry division and Baghdad is the Republican Guard's Medina division, which played a key role in the conquest of Kuwait in 1990. During the subsequent Gulf war, the Americans came out on top with Apache helicopters destroying 61 of the division's tanks in an hour. But earlier this week an attempt to repeat that feat failed after the helicopters came under sustained machinegun fire from the ground. The Republican Guard is a much more substantial force than the ordinary Iraqi army. Its soldiers are volunteers, instead of the demoralised conscripts who form the backbone of the rest of the army. Their training and weaponry is far superior and they receive preferential pay and housing. The Republican Guard was formed during Saddam's war with neighbouring Iran in 1986. To cope with a determined Iranian offensive, Saddam expanded his Palace Guard into a crack force of eight divisions. It now has 800 serviceable Soviet T72 tanks and while they do not have the range of US M1 Abrams or the British Challenger 2, and therefore should come off second best, they remain a useful weapon in the hands of a skilled commander. It is how they react in the coming days to the allied aerial bombardment and ground advances that will determine how long the war takes. The emphasis until now has been on attacking the Medina Division which has been dug in to the south-west of Baghdad. But allied intelligence sources say that another Republican Guard unit of at least brigade size, if not the full Baghdad division, has moved forward to Kut to meet an advance by the US marines. Behind them is the al-Nedaa division. The allied forces now converging on Baghdad can muster fewer than 400 tanks, around the same number as the three Republican Guard divisions south of Baghdad. But unlike the allies, Iraqi commanders have 400 more tanks in their three other Republican Guard divisions to the north of Iraq. The coalition strategy now depends on allied air power destroying the Republican Guard forces before any serious clashes on the ground. If it does not succeed in that objective the allies will need to call in more tanks very swiftly, probably from the US 4th Infantry Division which having failed to get into northern Iraq via Turkey is now on its way to Kuwait. But whereas the Iraqi troops in the south that have been causing problems for the allied forces have not been hit hard by allied air strikes, the Republican Guard are taking a heavy pounding from B52 bombers and A10 "tankbuster" aircraft. Moreover, the loyalty of these units has been called into question. Senior figures in the Republican Guard took part in a failed coup attempt in 1996 and its divisions are banned from entering Baghdad itself. Saddam has been forced to create a genuine praetorian guard - the Special Republican Guard. These 15,000 soldiers, under the command of his second son, Qusay, are the only formations allowed inside Baghdad and will form the last line of defence.