- LONDON (Reuters) - President
Saddam Hussein has dug trenches around Baghdad and centralized the command
of the Republican Guards in preparation for a U.S. attack, Iraqi opposition
members said on Monday.
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- An official in the Iraqi National Congress main opposition
group, which claims to have operatives in Iraq, told Reuters 60,000 Republican
Guards troops have dug in 19 miles around the Iraqi capital, focusing on
entrances facing the Jordanian border and Kurdish controlled areas.
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- There was no independent confirmation of the troops deployment
or reorganization.
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- "Republican Guards brigades are reporting independently
and directly to Saddam now," the official said. "He has sacked
commanders to gain even more control and minimize the risk of conspiracy."
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- President Abdel Salam Aref set up the Republican Guards
after he seized power in 1963 and staffed it largely from his al-Jumayla
tribe to be the elite unit of the regime.
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- Saddam further developed the Republican Guards into a
Praetorian corps after the Baath party took government in 1968, giving
the brigades names from Mesopotamian history, such as Hammurabi, the king
who promulgated the first known legal code and Nabonassar, a conqueror
of Palestine.
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- TROOP MOVEMENTS
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- The troop movements around Baghdad were the latest precaution
taken by Saddam against a possible U.S. attack to remove him, exiled Iraqi
generals say.
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- The United States says Saddam is rebuilding his chemical
and biological weapons arsenal. Iraq has agreed to readmit arms inspectors
without conditions but said it would reject a U.N. resolution sought by
the United States on the issue if it did not conform to an agreement reached
with U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan last week.
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- The exiled Iraqi generals said there had been movement
among Iraqi troops facing Sulaymaniyah, Arbil and Dahuk -- Kurdish cities
in the north patrolled from the air by U.S. and British jets.
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- Kurdish leaders have denied that U.S. military advisers
were in northern Iraq but the opposition forces under their control are
likely to play a role if the United States attacks Iraq.
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- "Saddam is redeploying units he thinks are least
loyal and vulnerable to approaches from the Kurds toward the interior.
He is also moving troops all the time for strategic reasons -- to make
them less susceptible to attack." the general said.
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- He said the most loyal Republican Guards units were inside
Baghdad protecting vital installations and Saddam personally.
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- The Guards include an estimated 13 mechanized brigades,
eight infantry brigades and five special forces brigades.
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- The Iraqi president has purged the army and security
apparatus periodically and put his son Qusay in charge of the Republican
Guards few years ago.
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- Saddam is now focusing on warding off a U.S. attack aimed
at ending 34 years of his effective control of Iraq.
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