2,500 Republican Guards surrender

Republican Guards have been surrendering in huge numbers as Allied forces close on Baghdad, military officials said today.

Around 2,500 Guards gave themselves up last night to US Marines who are moving on the Iraqi capital from the south east, officials said.

They were from the Baghdad Division of the Republican Guard which, along with the Medina Division, has been completely wiped out as a fighting force by Allied air strikes.

Both Republican Guard divisions, each up to 10,000-strong, had been expected to put up fierce resistance south of Baghdad.

A US spokesman at Central Command in Qatar said: "We have had reports of about 2,500 soldiers of the Baghdad Division surrendering and taking off their uniforms."

The surrenders came as, further to the west, the US 3rd Infantry Division overran Saddam International Airport.

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