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Journal Article
"British to Fight Militia Forces in Basra"
1 hour, 59 minutes ago
By NICOLE WINFIELD, Associated Press Writer
CAMP AS SAYLIYAH, Qatar - In an about-face, British forces said Tuesday they have decided to move against militia fighters who have prevented them from securing the southern Iraqi city of Basra.
Previously, coalition forces said they wanted to avoid urban combat in Iraq (news - web sites)'s second-largest city.
The decision to declare parts of Basra "military targets" came after U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan (news - web sites) said "urgent measures" had to be taken to restore electricity and water.
British forces have surrounded Basra and secured its airport but have continued to face resistance fighters, including members of Saddam Hussein (news - web sites)'s elite Fedayeen paramilitary force.
"We're obviously assessing the situation before we commence operations to take out the non-regular militia which seems to be set to opposing our taking of the objective," said Group Capt. Al Lockwood, spokesman for British forces in the Persian Gulf.
With 1.3 million people in Basra, "we need to secure the city for the inhabitants and to ensure that their basic necessities in life are taken care of, and obviously that the necessary humanitarian aid, (and) medical facilities are restored as quickly as possible," he said.
British military officials said several days ago that they would prefer to negotiate surrenders with Iraqi troops rather than move into Basra itself to secure it. But with resistance persisting, they apparently concluded that something more decisive was necessary.
It was not clear if British forces would move into Basra. They have said they wanted to avoid urban combat for as long as possible.
Humanitarian organizations warned of disaster if water and electricity aren't restored quickly.
"In a few weeks, when the population has exhausted its supplies, we will need to intervene," said Christiane Berthiaume of the World Food Program, which distributed food under the U.N. oil-for-food program. Government warehouses are "practically empty," she said.
Ian Simpson of the World Health Organization (news - web sites) said his agency was concerned that poor-quality water could cause a major outbreak of diarrhea — which already is responsible for 75 percent of deaths of children under 5 in Iraq. Cholera is another worry.
A two-person team from the International Committee of the Red Cross had used generators to re-establish some water pumping operations at Basra's main station by Tuesday, Red Cross spokesman Florian Westphal said. Power had been cut Friday as coalition forces tried to secure Basra. Other disabled pumping stations were operating again by Monday, restoring the water supply to 40 percent, the Red Cross said.
Basra is Iraq's main seaport and lies in southern Iraq's oil-producing region. It is a mostly Shiite Muslim city; a 1991 uprising by Shiites in Basra was crushed by the Iraqi military during the Gulf War (news - web sites).
A British military spokesman said Basra itself was a military target. But later he said only parts of the city — regime and military infrastructure — were so designated.
In a separate attack on militiamen loyal to Saddam, members of Britain's 7th Armored Brigade captured a member of the Baath Party in nearby Az Zubayr on Monday night, the spokesman said. The goal of the operation was to "separate the party members from the military," the spokesman said.
Also in Az Zubayr late Monday, a soldier with another British unit was killed. It was the second combat death for Britain.
Also late Monday, 25 Iraqi armored vehicles, including a number of T-55 battle tanks, were destroyed after British forces called in air support over the al-Faw peninsula, the British spokesman said. The Iraqis were firing mortar rounds and artillery.
Journal Question
Why is it so important for the British to secure Basra?
Class Article
"US and British forces gear up for battle for Baghdad"
18 minutes ago
BAGHDAD (AFP) - US and British forces were gearing up for the battle for Baghdad launching air strikes just south of the city in a bid to soften up frontlines for hundreds of tanks pushing across the desert.
On the sixth day of the US-led war to topple Iraqi President Saddam Hussein (news - web sites), the allied forces reported gains in the south, seizing the key, but small, port of Umm Qasr on the border with Kuwait and crossing the Euphrates river at the town of Nasiriyah to press northwards.
In a multi-pronged offensive, the US Army's Third Infantry Division was closing in on Baghdad, field reports said. The 101st Airborne Division was moving up from the southwest.
But their advance through the desert could be slowed by howling winds and swirling sand, which elsewhere in southern Iraq (news - web sites) have grounded helicopters and brought tanks and amphibious vehicles to a standstill.
The unexpectedly tough resistance met in the desert towns which US war planners had thought would be a walkover for US troops, has raised fears for what the coalition forces could meet in Baghdad.
US troops backed by Apache helicopter gunships were primed for an all-out assault on Iraq's elite Republican Guard defending the capital, and intense bombardments were heard Tuesday afternoon, appearing to strike its southern suburbs.
US officers said about 30 to 40 Apaches, the US military's most fearsome attack helicopter, had already made initial runs against the Republican Guard as the prelude to what could be an epic tank battle.
"The toughest fight is ahead of us," General Richard Myers, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, told ABC television. "We know it will be a very tough battle.
"We also anticipate that (in) this next phase, as we get closer to Baghdad, that the resistance will get tougher," he said, adding the Republican Guard were "best trained, best equipped and reportedly the most loyal to the regime."
Casualty tolls remain unreliable, with the Iraqis saying 30 have been killed and more than 400 wounded in the bombings of Baghdad, while the American and British troops have sustained an undetermined number of losses.
But Meyers added Operation Iraqi Freedom was going pretty much to plan, even though Saddam has remained defiant and has predicted that Iraq would win the war.
Iraqi officials have hinted they could try to draw US and British forces into dangerous street battles risking high civilian and military casualties -- under the glare of the world's cameras with hundreds of "embedded" journalists riding pillion with the troops.
Already US and British officials have been surprised at the determined fight put up in both Umm Qasr and Nasiriyah.
It took the coalition troops six days to capture Umm Qasr, as small numbers of Iraqi soldiers using guerrilla tactics embarrassed the might and technology of the world's superpower and its military ally.
Overwhelming firepower and numbers eventually flushed out the final pockets of resistance. "Umm Qasr is under total control," a senior British officer told AFP on Tuesday. "The clean-up operation is over."
In Nasiriyah it was the same picture, as a column of about 4,000 US marines ran the gauntlet of heavy Iraqi fire to cross the Euphrates River in the city located about a third of the way north from Kuwait to Baghdad.
As a howling dust storm cut visibility to 25 meters (yards), about 500 marines and some 50 tanks and armored vehicles held the two kilometers (1.2 miles) of dangerous ground between the bridges.
"It was about as dangerous as it comes," said Commander Ken Kelly.
The battle of Nasiriyah was the first trial for the US-British forces of the nasty urban warfare which they had vowed to avoid.
More than 100 Iraqi bodies were left littering the road north from Nasiriyah after the six-day standoff and the odour of burnt flesh filled the air.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair (news - web sites), announcing he was to go to Washington on Wednesday for talks with US President George W. Bush (news - web sites), said coalition forces were advancing towards Baghdad in a two-pronged assault.
"Our aim remains as has been stated -- to remove Saddam as the route to disarming Iraq of weapons of mass destruction -- so the progress towards Baghdad is of vital strategic importance."
He said he would also meet with UN Secretary General Kofi Annan (news - web sites).
Bush was due to head to the Pentagon (news - web sites) Tuesday to tout the "steady advance" of US-led forces and unveil a 74.7-billion-dollar emergency spending bill to cover war costs this year.
The bill will include some 63 billion dollars for fighting the war, as well as about eight billion dollars for rebuilding Iraq.
The situation in Basra remained precarious Tuesday where the Britain's 7th Armoured Brigade or Desert Rats, which is spearheading the drive on the city, were encountering fierce resistance on the outskirts.
Arabic satellite channel Al-Jazeera reported Western warplanes dropped cluster bombs over Basra overnight amid intense ground fighting on its outskirts.
Umm Qasr and Basra are seen as vital to establishing a humanitarian corridor for non-governmental organisations to deliver aid to the rest of the country.
Desperately needed aid will arrive in Umm Qasr on Wednesday after British and US Navy minesweepers cleared a shipping channel, officers said.
But concern mounted for the 1.2 million residents in Basra, where power and water supplies have been cut for several days.
The UN Children's Fund (UNICEF (news - web sites)) warned that at least 100,000 children in Iraq's second city were at risk of disease after water supplies were cut following air strikes.
US Army General Tommy Franks told a press conference at his command headquarters in Qatar Monday that: "Humanitarian assistance ships are loaded and we'll begin to deliver needed humanitarian assistance -- food, water, medicine -- to Iraqis within the next few days."
Blair pledged to the Iraqi people that the US-led coalition will "this time" not let them down in following through on its quest to topple Saddam, adding his talks with Bush would focus on reconstruction.
"It is to discuss the humanitarian situation and the important and complex issues that have to be addressed for the post-Saddam era, that I intend to visit the US tomorrow," Blair said.
In other developments a second British soldier was reported killed in action overnight southwest of Basra. A journalist said the soldier had been fatally shot during attempts to calm rioting Iraqi civilians.
Two other British soldiers have been missing since Sunday when their convoy came under fire, while 14 perished in two helicopter accidents and two airmen were killed when their Tornado bomber was hit by a US missile.
Anger at the war meanwhile has refused to die down, as hundreds of thousands of demonstrators again took to the streets of Middle East capitals to protest.
Class Questions
1. Why, according to British Prime Minister Tony Blair, is the progress towards Baghdad of vital importance?
2. What was the first urban combat battle the British troops were involved in?
3. Why are Umm Qasr and Basra so important to take control of?
4. What's the number of days it took to capture Umm Qasr?
5. How do you think the British role in Operation Iraqi Freedom differs from the United States' role?
