The phrase "a handful of guards" is correct and usable in written English.
It can be used to describe a small number of guards, typically implying that the number is not large and is manageable.
Example: "The castle was protected by a handful of guards, making it easier for the intruders to sneak in unnoticed."
Alternatives: "a few guards" or "a small group of guards".
And the request that was denied was for a handful of guards, by all accounts not enough to have averted the attack.
Inaugurated four years ago in a burst of fanfare and hope, the airport had been deserted today, except for a handful of guards.
A smaller re-enactment of the Qaddafi government's collapse played out Wednesday at the Rixos Hotel, where a handful of guards had detained about 30 foreign journalists long after the senior officials working there had fled.
Vice Adm. Carlos Miguel Salazar was killed while traveling with his wife and a handful of guards, including one who was also killed, in a white S.U.V. without military insignia.
He lives in the previous official residence, and he walks to and from work every day, trailed by a handful of guards wearing sunglasses and with black wires in their ears.
A nuke is about to hit this town in seconds, there's a fallout shelter 50 metres away, and people are standing with their kids doing what a handful of guards tell them.
And a handful of security guards out front.
They make their way to the Crossroad Mall, where a handful of security guards led by the suspicious C. J. Michael Kellyy) have taken up residence.
(As it happened, the salesman, along with his colleagues and a handful of security guards, appeared to be the only people in the store).
It began about 9 30 p.m., roughly 15 minutes after Mr. Stevens had finished an evening meeting with the Turkish ambassador, bid him farewell and chatted briefly with a handful of Libyan guards at the gate of the compound.
Still, as the U.S. military prepares to depart from Iraq (leaving a handful of embassy guards), and the war in Afghanistan enters its last act, he owes the American people, U.S. allies and the world a speech that sets out why America will not again embark on this kind of inconclusive war and has instead adopted a new doctrine that has replaced fighting terror with killing terrorists.
