BAGHDAD, April 2 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - An Iraqi military spokesman on Wednesday, April 2, repudiated claims about the destruction of the Baghdad division of the elite Republican Guard, as propagated by the U.S. Central Command.

"These allegations have no foundation and are part of the hostile campaign against Iraq," the spokesman told Agence France-Presse (AFP).

"To the contrary, the Baghdad Republican Guard division maintains its cohesion and has a morale of steel. It has not suffered any losses and is ready to confront the enemy and destroy it," he averred.

Commenting on the report, Gen. Mohammed Ali Belal, commanding officer of the Egyptian troops during the 1991 Desert Storm, told Al-Jazeera satellite channel that there is no Republican Guard units around or outside Baghdad.

"The (U.S.) claims are mere lies…There are only Iraqi reconnaissance patrols outside Baghdad," he said.

"These advancing units are not from the Republican Guard…The U.S. only wants to lower the morale of the Republican Guard and the Iraqi fighters," averred the war expert.

Earlier in the day, a senior U.S. commander alleged American invading troops destroyed the fortification of the Republican Guard, asserting that they were pointing a "dagger" at the heart of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein’s regime.

"The Baghdad Division has been destroyed. The First Marine Expeditionary Force attacked the Baghdad Division near the town of Al-Kut and has crossed the Tigris River," Brigadier General Vincent Brooks told a press briefing.

Brooks, however, did not pinpoint the location of U.S. forces that early Wednesday unleashed a major assault on the Iraqi elite divisions and advanced to, as they claimed, within 50 miles of Baghdad's southern outskirts.

"We will approach Baghdad. The dagger is clearly pointed at the heart of the regime and will remain pointed at it until the regime is gone.

"The dagger remains firmly in our grasp and under good control. When it's time to be applied further, it will be applied further," he added.

Brooks claimed other Republican Guard divisions under U.S. attack near Baghdad were in "serious trouble" and trying to regroup and reinforce with the intention of dragging U.S. and British troops into a bloody street-fight inside Baghdad.

"We have not seen a considerable amount of effort to withdraw into Baghdad and certainly that would be a very hazardous undertaking given the effect we are having at the current time," Brooks claimed.

"I don't want to appear over-confident. There's a lot of fighting that still has to occur out there... We have the situation under control."