Iraqis move to bolster Republican Guard divisions

Iraqi commanders are pulling troops out of the north of the country to back up Republican Guard units crippled by days of US attacks in the south, US defence officials said today.

And American forces are doing what one senior Pentagon official called “aggressive armed reconnaissance” in a number of areas rimming the southern approaches to Baghdad in what could be a prelude to the battle for the capital.

A number of units have been sent on probing missions forward of fighting positions to assess Iraqi troop strength and cut Iraqi forces off where they can, two Defence Department officials said.

A week of heavy bombing has left some of Iraq’s Republican Guard units surrounding Baghdad at less than half strength, with the Medina and Baghdad divisions the most severely degraded, Pentagon officials said.

The military also was tracking five Guard brigades, including two infantry, seen on the move last week.

It was not exactly clear how they were repositioning themselves, though some Iraqis captured south of Baghdad were reported wearing the arm patches of the Nebuchadnezzar Division, which was supposed to have been guarding cities in the north.

This has led defence officials to believe reinforcements have been sent from the north to bolster the degraded southern Guard units. Officials said other Iraqi units have been seen pulling back, closer to Baghdad.

Meanwhile, as criticism continued to swirl around a war plan some say underestimated Iraqi resistance and the necessary US troop strength, Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld was meeting today with President President George Bush.

It was not a convening of national security advisers, but the long-standing weekly one-on-one meeting between the president and defence secretary.

Intense bombing continued on Monday. Over the weekend, Pentagon officials said that US troops were prepared for a major attack against Saddam Hussein’s Guard forces, but the heaviest attack may have to await pressure to build on the Iraqi leader.

“Their fighting capability is going down minute by minute, hour by hour. There’s not going to be much left to fight with,” General Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said.

“We have the power to be patient in this, and we’re not going to do anything before we’re ready,” he said. “We’ll just continue to draw the noose tighter and tighter.”

In the west, coalition aircraft today struck a gathering of paramilitary forces taking shelter in an unused prison in the town of Rutbah, the Air Force said. Paramilitaries used by the regime to maintain control of the population have been operating in the south as well, preventing Iraqi troops from surrendering, defence officials have said.

Air Force officials also said in a statement that for the first time in history, multiple B-1, B-2 and B-52 long-range strike aircraft targeted the same geographical area at the same time over the weekend.

It’s a complicated operation that requires precise choreography and allows them to hit a diverse package of targets at the same time.