American-led force faces surprising strength in Saddam's paramilitaries

WASHINGTON -- Surprised by the power of Iraq's paramilitaries, the Pentagon is adjusting its tactics in the push to Baghdad, defense officials said Wednesday.

Instead of racing to the capital, parts of the American-led invasion are being forced to focus much more on pockets of resistance and ambushes in the south, including from the Fedayeen Saddam, a militia that has been rallying other Iraqis to fight and in some cases, reportedly keeping them from surrendering.

Still, Pentagon spokeswoman Victoria Clarke said Wednesday the militia activity was not slowing the war, with U.S. Army and Marine forces closer to Baghdad continuing to make progress overnight.

While British forces battled more than 1,000 die-hard Iraqi loyalists for control of the southern city of Basra, the U.S. 7th Cavalry Regiment fought a tough battle near Najaf in central Iraq.

The unexpected level of resistance from militia and battering sandstorms are creating a drag on troops headed to Baghdad, where President Saddam Hussein and his regime are expected to make their last stand, said officials at the Pentagon and the U.S. military command center in Qatar.

Storms grounded scores of coalition aircraft Tuesday, blinded the array of electronic eyes needed to target Iraq and were gumming up guns, breaking down engines and generally slowing a military campaign designed for speed.

The Fedayeen -- which means "those ready to sacrifice themselves for Saddam" -- are accused of organizing such battlefield ruses as posing as civilians and faking surrenders in order to ambush invading forces.

Intelligence officials say there could be 30,000 to 60,000 of them, with chapters assigned to each Iraqi province to assure loyalty to Saddam. Other militia groups, including from Saddam's Baath Party, also are operating, and some have been captured, officials said.

One Defense Department official said commanders were surprised by the capability of the Fedayeen, another by its brutality in forcing regular Iraqi army troops to fight. Another official said the group has shown tenacity and that it was expected that it would present the biggest problem in Baghdad rather than in the south.

Meanwhile, the Air Force used an experimental bomb to try to knock out Iraq's state-run television. Officials declined to describe the weapon, though they have said in recent months that they were developing a bomb that would emit an electromagnetic pulse to disrupt computers, communications and other equipment.

Also in the package of strikes were Tomahawk cruise missiles and other precision-guided bombs. Television broadcast were back on the air about eight hours later.

Officials expressed caution about a report that some of the soldiers from a maintenance unit captured over the weekend were executed as they attempted to surrender.

Officials said they had one report and that they were looking into it. Five from the unit were shown on Iraqi television as prisoners of war.

Defense officials also revised to 350 the number of Iraqi forces killed in fierce fighting Tuesday for a key Euphrates River crossing about 90 miles south of Baghdad. The number had been widely estimated Tuesday at more than 150 Iraqi fighters and possibly as many as 500. No American casualties were reported from the battle, which pitted an American armored division against Iraqi infantry.

The prospect of a chemical attack loomed Wednesday. Marines in southern Iraq Tuesday found more evidence that Iraq was planning an attack with chemical weapons: caches of gas masks, protective gear and nerve agent antidotes in a hospital U.S. officials said Iraqi soldiers used as an illegal staging area.

Officials have said that the closer troops draw to Baghdad, the more likely the possibility a cornered regime will strike out with weapons of mass destruction. Saddam has said he has none and President Bush has said his refusal to disarm is the reason for the war.

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Associated Press reporter Ellen Knickmeyer, traveling with Marines in central Iraq, contributed to this report.