Volume 1 - Iraq Watch

The Republican Guard Forces CommandThe primary missionof the RepublicanGuard Forces Command(RGFC) wasto safeguard Regimestability and to protectthe Regime from bothforeign and domesticenemies. RGFC unitshelped repel the Iranianinvasion in the mid tolate 1980s, invadedKuwait in 1990, suppressedthe Shi’a andSayf Al-DinKurdish uprisings in the 1990s, and briefly defendedthe approaches to Baghdad in 2003. The mission ofthe RGFC resembled that of the Regular Army—tacticaldefense of the Regime and nation.The RGFC was composed of two corps-sized elementsthat were “supervised” by Qusay, but Staff Lt.Gen. Sayf-al-Din Fulayyih Hasan Taha Al Rawi, asChief of Staff, was the operational commander. Theoriginal corps, the Allahu Akbar Operations Command(1 st RG Corps), was dispersed in the northernhalf of Iraq and the other, the Fat’h Al MubayyinOperations Command (2 nd RG Corps), in the southernhalf of Iraq. Each corps had three division-sizedelements referred to as a “Forces Command” and anindependent Special Forces Brigade.Two of these divisions were garrisoned in Mosuland Krikuk to support the Regular Army in thenorth, three heavy (armored) divisions protected theapproaches to Baghdad, and one infantry division wasgarrisoned in Al Kut. The RGFC was the last and theheaviest armed tier of Regime security. While it wasessential to the protection of the Regime, Saddamkept the units away from Baghdad to prevent theirinvolvement in any military-led coups.Regime StrategicIntent95