Major-General Tawfiq al-Yassiri, who helped lead an armed rebellion against Saddam immediately after the Gulf War in 1991, told Reuters the aim of the volunteer centers was to screen applicants and assess their combat ability. They are located in Washington, London and undisclosed places in the Middle East.

"Saddam has militarized the whole of Iraqi society. There are tens of thousands of defectors from the army who would take up the opportunity to fight him," Yassiri said, adding that 1,580 officers had defected from the Iraqi army but still commanded loyalty among their units.

Yassiri said the opening of the centers was not coordinated with the United States but he expected the US government to seek the military council's help if it decided to attack Saddam.

"Iraqi troops will defect more easily if they are approached by their former comrades," he said.

US President Bush has vowed to oust the Iraqi president, accused by Washington of trying to rebuild his chemical and biological weapons program, but says he has yet to decide whether to take military action against Iraq. Iraq has denied having such weapons.

SCORCHED EARTH

Yassiri said a US led military campaign to remove Saddam would succeed, although the Iraqi president planned to transform Iraqi cities into battlegrounds and avoid placing troops in the desert, where they could be easily attacked by US planes.

The general was injured when Iraqi helicopters attacked his rebel force in a southern Iraqi city during the Shi'ite rebellion that followed the Gulf War in 1991.

During the Gulf War, the United States relied heavily on air power to destroy Iraq's infrastructure and decimate Iraqi troops who were exposed in the desert of Kuwait after occupying the country.

This time Saddam, his survival at stake, would fight differently, said Yassiri.

"Saddam has vowed to fight from the windows of his palace and turn Iraq into scorched earth if he is facing defeat," the general told Reuters in an interview.

But he added: "An invading force could win city warfare. Cities do not only offer advantages for their defenders."

Saddam was "not a born military commander by instinct but he can be efficient," Yassiri said, adding that he had built up stocks of biological and chemical weapons in the last few years.

A prime objective of a US attack, he said, would be to cut off communications between Iraq's military command and the rest of the army.

"This would help weaken morale and limit Saddam's ability use his chemical and biological arsenal," Yassiri said.

(China Daily August 23, 2002)