The battle for Iraq’s second city of Basra intensified today, with the British military reporting it had killed about 20 Iraqi fighters in the city and seized a senior politician of the ruling Ba’ath party in a nearby town.
Tonight brought reports that a popular uprising against the Ba’ath party had flared up, and that the Iraqi military had begun firing mortar rounds at the protestors. British reporter Richard Gaisford, with the Scots Dragoon Guards outside Basra, said British forces responded by firing heavy artillery at the mortar sites in support of the uprising.
Gaisford said British forces had bombed the Ba’ath party headquarters in Basra, destroying it. However he said British forces did not intend to enter the city in support of the protestors until tomorrow, as it would be too difficult tonight to distinguish supporters of Saddam Hussein from those rising up against him.
Maj Gen Peter Wall, the British chief of staff at Allied Central Command in Qatar, confirmed there appeared to be an uprising in Basra. He said it seemed to be in its ”infancy” and that British troops were ”keen to exploit its potential”.
The Iraqi information minister, Mohammed al-Sahhaf, denied any uprising in Basra.
British military representative Col Chris Vernon, speaking earlier in Kuwait, said that British forces had raided the local headquarters of Saddam Hussein’s Baath party in Az Zubayr, about 16km southwest of Basra.
Troops with the British 7th Armored and 3rd Commando brigades have been battling at least 1 000 irregular Iraqi units outside of Basra for two days. The units inside Basra are believed to include members of Saddam’s Fedayeen, the Ba’ath party paramilitary organisation, as well as President Saddam’s elite Republican Guard units.
Col Vernon said no artillery was being fired in central Basra ”even though we are being fired on from the centre by their artillery”.
British soldiers dead in ”friendly fire” incident
Two British soldiers died last night and two more were seriously wounded after a British tank mistakenly fired on them, a military representative said tonight.
The dead men, members of the Queen’s Royal Lancers, were part of a four-person Challenger 2 tank crew battling Iraqi forces near Basra. Another British Challenger fired on them in the dark.
British military spokesman Col Chris Vernon said: ”Despite careful planning, excellent training, top class night vision equipment and sophisticated combat ID measures, these events happen in the fog of war and the heat of battle. Our thoughts are with the families of those killed.”
The incident brought the total number of British war dead to 20.
Two British pilots were killed in another ”friendly fire” incident on Sunday, when a US Patriot missile mistakenly targeted a Tornado jet.
Bush: we will prevail
The US president, George Bush, today said he was certain of victory in Iraq but admitted he was not sure how long the war would last.
”We cannot know the duration of this war, yet we know its outcome: we will prevail,” Bush said in a televised briefing at the Pentagon.
”Our coalition is on a steady advance. We’re making good progress,” he added.
Bush today asked Congress for $74,7-billion to pay for six months of military action and humanitarian efforts in Iraq and elsewhere.
The White House said that $62,6-billion of the funds will support US troops both in Iraq and other operations related to the broader war on terrorism. The rest – $12,1-billion – will go to humanitarian assistance in Iraq, other foreign aid and homeland defence projects.
Today US Major-General Victor Renuart confirmed that coalition forces have not yet found any evidence that Iraq has weapons of mass destruction – although troops will continue to investigate sites ”that have raised suspicions in the past”, he added.
In southern Iraq, US marines finally overcame Iraqi resistance to cross the Euphrates river at Nassiriya. They then ran into more enemy soldiers on the road north, despite an air strike that killed at least 30 Iraqis apparently heading into battle.
US paratroopers last night seized a desert landing strip and destroyed six Iraqi jamming systems aimed at disrupting coalition satellite positioning equipment, the US military revealed today.
Blair warns of tough resistance
Tony Blair today warned that coalition troops would face ”resistance all the way to the end of this campaign” as British forces were again drawn into fierce fighting in southern Iraq.
Speaking at a press briefing in London, Blair said that the push to Baghdad was of ”vital strategic importance” to the campaign.
Despite recent setbacks and strong Iraqi resistance in some areas, the prime minister said that the coalition’s war strategy was ”unfolding exactly according to plan”. He denied that more troops were needed, saying: ”We have the forces we need to do the job.”
He added that past failures by the west to back uprisings against Saddam Hussein probably play a part in the seemingly lukewarm reception US and UK troops are receiving in Iraq.
Planes bombard Republican Guard
Amid severe sandstorms, US-led forces today advanced to within 50 miles of Baghdad, and waves of coalition warplanes continued a heavy bombardment of Republican Guard units surrounding the city.
The weather slowed US and British forces to a crawl and thwarted some air missions as the US chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, Richard Myers, today warned that ”the toughest fighting is ahead of us”.
Advanced coalition troops are said to be ”taking and consolidating” positions around the city, where they will wait for support lines to be strengthened before launching a final attack.
A British military source told Reuters that there were no plans to accelerate the air campaign into carpet-bombing of Iraq for fear of killing civilians.
The source said that the lack of a northern front for US-British forces meant troops approaching Baghdad from the south would meet tough resistance.
Earlier, US television networks reported that Saddam Hussein’s Republican Guards are preparing to unleash chemical weapons on coalition soldiers.
Pentagon officials believe that the Iraqi leadership has drawn a ”red line” around the city, with Republican Guards authorised to use chemical weapons as soon as coalition forces enter Baghdad, according to CBS News.
Aid hopes grow as marines secure key port
Vital humanitarian aid from Britain is expected to arrive in Iraq tomorrow, after Royal Navy and US minesweepers cleared a route through to the key port of Umm Qasr.
RFA Sir Galahad will dock at 1100 GMT and offload 231 tons of food, medicines, blankets and fresh water.
Specialist UK troops have been waiting since Saturday to begin preparing the port of Umm Qasr for huge aid shipments, but have been delayed by fighting on the outskirts of the town, which lies on the border between Iraq and Kuwait.
The port was finally declared secure this morning following sweeps by Royal Marine commandos – four days after initial military reports described the town as under coalition control.
Brigadier Jim Dutton, commander of the British Royal Marines’ 3 Commando Brigade, declared Umm Qasr ”safe and open”.
He said: ”We are beginning to deliver aid, or we will be shortly. We are finding out who the local movers and shakers are, so we can get things going.”
Earlier, Iraq’s trade minister, Mohammed Mehdi Saleh, accused the US and Britain of forcing the UN to stop a vital relief programme allowing the country’s 25 million people to receive food and medicine in return for oil sales.
‘500 Iraqi fighters killed’
About 500 Iraqis have been killed by US army infantry tanks and mechanised units as they swept through southern Iraq in the last two days, a top US commander said today.
The estimate came from Command Sergeant Major Kenneth Preston of V Corps, who oversees the 3rd Infantry Division.
Sgt Maj Preston said that US forces ran into ”a lot” of Iraqi tanks and anti-aircraft weaponry and ”thousands and thousands” of weapons around the city of Najaf.
”This could have been very ugly, but they’re not very motivated,” he said of the regular Iraqi army recruits. ”I think a lot of them wanted to go home.”
Many of the Iraqis appeared to have very low morale, he reported, adding that family members were seen to pick up dead soldiers and take them home for burial.
US troops were stopping civilian vehicles and interrogating people, he added. – Guardian Unlimited Â