America's 'digital division' heads for Saddam's stronghold

Units from the hi-tech US 4th Infantry Division, which was blocked by a decision of the Ankara parliament from entering Iraq from Turkey, have begun a 350-mile dash north from Kuwait towards Tikrit, Saddam Hussein's home stronghold some 100 miles north of Baghdad.

Deployed in combat for the first time since the Vietnam War, the 4th Infantry is seen as a counterweight to Iraqi forces to the north of the capital and could be used if pro-Saddam forces tried to stage a last stand in Tikrit after the fall of Baghdad. Allied special forces have already set up checkpoints on the road between Baghdad and Tikrit to prevent members of the regime or its forces moving between them. Brigadier General Vincent Brooks, the US deputy chief of operations, said last week that Tikrit, which has been heavily bombed, was known to have housed command and control facilities for the regime.

The Republican Guard's Adnan Mechanised Division is based at Tikrit. The town also has a symbolic importance as the birthplace, in 1138, of Saladin, the legendary Muslim leader who defeated the Crusaders by seizing Jerusalem from the Christians.

The 4th Infantry, whose equipment began to be unloaded at the Kuwaiti port of Shuaiba last Tuesday, is known as the "digital division" because of its ultra-sophisticated communications systems. It is equipped with the M1-A2 SEP Abrams, the army's most modern tank. It is fitted with digital and thermal imaging and steel-encased depleted uranium armour, and is protected against nuclear, biological and chemical warfare. The division also uses Bradley fighting vehicles.

The division was the first to land at Utah Beach in Normandy on D-Day in the Second World War.

Unloading of the division's equipment began last week at a breakneck pace, despite the stifling heat, immediately after the first of its ships, the Houston-based Cape Texas, arrived at the port. The 4th Infantry's 2nd Battalion Field Artillery unloaded 550 vehicles in 12 hours, instead of the normal two days. Meanwhile, round-the-clock flights to Kuwait have been bringing troops from the division's base in Fort Hood, Texas.

The 4th Infantry was expected to form a northern front but the unexpected decision by Turkey last month to refuse a US request for its ground forces to use its basescaused US generals to rethink their strategy for the north. After a visit to Ankara by Colin Powell, the US Secretary of State, last week, the moderate Islamist government of Recep Tayyip Erdogan agreed to allow the use of Turkish bases for search and rescue and medical repatriation.