As the US Army closes in on Baghdad, the central question facing American commanders is how fiercely Iraq's Republican Guard will fight.
The roughly 100,000 soldiers in six Republican Guard divisions are considered Iraq's most loyal and capable force, better trained and better equipped than the rest of Saddam Hussein's 350,000-man army.
Three divisions are now guarding approaches to Baghdad. Perhaps the toughest unit, the Medina Division, is dug in with its Soviet-made T-72 tanks south of the capital.
"It is a linchpin to the consistency of the Republican Guard defense," Major General Stanley A. McChrystal, vice director of operations for the military's Joint Staff, told reporters on Monday.
Created from a small palace guard during Iraq's war against Iran in the 1980s, the Republican Guard came of age as a formidable fighting force in the last two years of that conflict. Its members were given bonuses, new cars and subsidized housing to join.
When the first former president Bush waged war in 1991 to evict Iraqi troops from Kuwait, battered Guard divisions retreated to Iraq when they saw they were outflanked after 38 days of airstrikes and artillery barrages.
"They made a valiant effort, but they were far less skillful than I anticipated," said retired general Ronald H. Griffith.
This time, however, the Republican Guard forces are fighting on their soil. Although their equipment is degraded after 12 years of sanctions, military commanders say they believe the Guard units around Baghdad are near full strength, and may have chemical weapons.
Apache attack helicopters, Army missiles and Navy and Air Force bombers have been pummeling the Guard divisions, especially the Medina, in the last several days in an effort to destroy not only their armor but also their will to fight.
An array of other security forces and militias carried out the guerrilla raids in Basra, Umm Qasr and Nasiriyah over the weekend. Pentagon officials said much of the resistance in southern Iraq was probably driven by fedayeen, a security force under the control of Saddam's son Uday whose units have been trained to operate independently of orders from Baghdad, US officials said.
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