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Saddam Fortifies Baghdad Says Iraqi Opposition

Saddam Fortifies Baghdad Says Iraqi Opposition
HIGHLIGHTS: Fortifications Focus on Entrances Facing Jordanian Border & Kurd Controlled Areas||Kurds Deny U.S. Advisers in the North||Security Apparatus Periodically Purged by Saddam with Qusai in Command of Republican Guard Now||Blair Accuses Iraq over Arms, to Make Promised Dossier on Iraq Public Tuesday While Bush Urges UN Action||Al-Gore Lashes out at Bush's Foreign Policy Calling it 'a go it alone cow-by style foreign policy'|| STORY: 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.

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.

There was no independent confirmation of the troops deployment or reorganization.

"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."

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.

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.

KURDS DENY US ADVISERS ALREADY IN THE NORTH

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.

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.

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.

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.

"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.

He said the most loyal Republican Guards units were inside Baghdad protecting vital installations and Saddam personally.
The Guards include an estimated 13 mechanized brigades, eight infantry brigades and five special forces brigades.

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.

Saddam is now focusing on warding off a U.S. attack aimed at ending 34 years of his effective control of Iraq.

BLAIR ACCUSES IRAQ OVER ARMS WHILE BUSH URGES UN ACTION

In London, Britain accused Iraq on Monday of actively seeking nuclear, germ and chemical arms and President George W. Bush pressed the United Nations to act before Saddam Hussein became a threat to civilization.

Bush's leading ally, British Prime Minister Tony Blair, told his cabinet there was no doubt Iraq was continuing to build weapons of mass destruction.

Blair, meeting his ministers to persuade some skeptical members that Saddam posed a serious threat to world security, showed them an intelligence dossier that will be made public on Tuesday ahead of a full parliamentary debate.

Bush, speaking at an Army National Guard hangar in Trenton, New Jersey, pounded his theme that Iraq is a test for the authority of the United Nations.

former Vice President Al Gore, said Bush had embarked on a dangerous course that could derail America's war on terror
Gore, who narrowly lost the 2000 presidential election to Bush, said in a speech in San Francisco that the Republican administration risked undermining international rule of law by setting its sights on "regime change" in Baghdad.

He lashed out at Bush support for preemptive strikes, calling it "a go it alone, cowboy-style" approach to foreign policy.

PHOTO CAPTION

Iraqi 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 September 23, 2002. Hussein(C) is seen during a meeting of top Iraqi leaders in Baghdad September 21, 2002. (INA/Reuters)

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