General Peter Pace, vice chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, told ABC television that the "ability to fight" of each of the four Republican Guard divisions around the Iraqi capital has been devastated in the war against US-led forces.

The force of each division of 6,000-12,000 men "has probably been reduced to no more than a battalion level, meaning that they could probably put together in any one location at any time somewhere around 1,000 people or less; that their main weapons systems, their tanks, their artillery, their armored personnel carriers have been completely destroyed.

Pace warned however that the ability to fight a conventional war has not yet been eliminated.

"They certainly have been reduced to about one-half of what they started with, but they can continue to fight. They shouldn't, because what will happen if they do will be what's happened to their comrades.

"But there's still fight left in them, potentially, and there's still a potential for a more difficult combat before this is finished."

Meanwhile, the United States has begun flying Iraqi opposition fighters from northern to southern Iraq, Pace said.

"These are Iraqi citizens who want to fight for a free Iraq, who will become basically the core of the new Iraqi army once Iraq is free," he said.

"To speak specifically about where they are or what they're about to do would be inappropriate, but they are the beginning of the free Iraqi army."

Pace said US tactics would remain the same as Iraqi troops are forced back into Baghdad.

"I think the tactics remain basically the same, although in a more confined space. So you have your airplanes that will continue to shape the battlefield and destroy enemy targets on the ground, and you have your ground forces that maneuver into place."

He said there would be more operations with large US formations "driving through the city, taking a long, slow sweep through the city and destroying all the enemy vehicles and personnel that it came in contact with. Those kinds of aggressive tactics, if needed, can be used."

He also warned that US-led forces could decide to target Baghdad's electrical grid to gain military advantage, even though they were trying to avoid destroying Iraq's infrastructure.

"Things like water purification plants, electricity generation plants, you try to protect these things for the Iraqi people," he told NBC's "Meet the Press."

But he added: "I'm not saying we would never target electricity" if that would give a military edge.

Pace said General Tommy Franks, who is in charge of the military campaign, had written letters to Iraqi commanders urging them to surrender. But no senior official from the divisions involved had given up, he added.

SPACE.WIRE