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Saddam sets up inner circle for Baghdad
25/03/2003 20:16 - (SA)
Doha - The feared Republican Guard is Iraq's crack fighting force, an elite squad par excellence crammed full of the fittest, best-trained, best-equipped and most highly-motivated men in the country's army.
Coalition forces steaming towards Baghdad know that at least three divisions of this awesome army-within-an-army stand in their way before they can penetrate the gates of the Iraqi capital.
But the Americans have already sent their anti-tank Apache helicopters to work on bombarding the positions of the armoured Medina division, which are a major obstacle to their progress.
Russian-made T-72 tanks and an extremely dense and effective anti-aircraft defence system are the key weapons at the Guards' disposal, one of the reasons they are considered by western military experts as an elite force, a notch above the regular US Army and on a par with the Marines.
Nevertheless, the Republican Guard suffered heavy losses in the 1991 Gulf War and has never entirely been able to rebuild its strength or its artillery, let alone modernise, amid 12 years of international sanctions.
The force is composed of volunteers drawn from the serving army. But only Sunni Muslims need apply; Kurds and Shi'ites are generally not considered up to the task and are excluded.
The reward for acceptance to the Guard is access to a world of privilege, for this is the realm of the highest-paid career soldier with all manner of perks from a furnished apartment to a new car.
Set up by Saddam Hussein, initially as an elite presidential guard, the Republican Guard grew in strength throughout the war with Iran from 1980 to 1988, at its peak the ranks swelling to 150 000 men as a reliable alternative to the increasingly deficient regular army.
Independent of army command, it was the Republic Guard which carried out the invasion of Kuwait in 1990.
Considerably weakened by the last Gulf War, the Guard has been bolstered by the regime in recent years and handed the responsibility of defending the capital.
With a fighting force of just 60 000 men, the Guard is made up of eight divisions, three of them armoured.
And they do not come any tougher than the Medina Division. "It is one of the best of the Republican Guard divisions, one of the most powerful," Major General Stanley A. McChrystal, vice-director of operations for the US Joint Staff, explained. "It is a lynchpin to the consistency of the Republican Guard defence."
The division has already come up against the American military when, in 1991, it stood its ground and fought instead of turning tail and running as many other Iraqi forces did - and at a cost of considerable losses.
It was on February 27, 1991, that the Second Brigade of the US First Armoured Division took less than an hour to destroy an impressive array of artillery which had lined up against it, including 61 tanks and 34 armoured cars belonging to the Medina Division.
According to the Pentagon, the division has now established a line of defence about 80km south of Baghdad, with a second line on the immediate outskirts of the capital, the Nida division to the east and the Hammurabi division to the west.
But according to the influential British publication, Jane's Defence Weekly, these divisions can only call on 500 artillery units, about 800 tanks and 1 100 armoured vehicles.
Saddam Hussein is said to be wary of allowing the Guard to be deployed widely throughout the country and has set up an inner circle, the Special Republican Guard, a force of 15 000 men charged with guarding his various palaces and the only regular military presence in the capital itself.
- AFX
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