Posted on 03/22/2003 7:18:30 AM PST by JohnHuang2
British Forces: Basra Won't Be Stormed
By PATRICK McDOWELL .c The Associated Press
KUWAIT CITY (AP) - Seeking to avoid bloody urban warfare, U.S. and British forces will not immediately storm and capture the southern Iraqi city of Basra, a British military spokesman said Saturday.
At the key Iraqi port city of Umm Qasr that the allies have struggled for two days to take, troops have been facing street-to-street fighting against soldiers wearing civilian clothes and using guerrilla tactics, Lt. Col. Chris Vernon said.
``Military commanders do not engage in urban areas unless they have to,'' Vernon told a news briefing. ``It was necessary in Qasr because of the port.''
The military plan calls for Umm-Qasr's port to quickly be opened to humanitarian aid organizations to bring in food, water and other aid to millions of people in southern Iraq.
The military hopes that aid agencies will quickly ``fill the vacuum'' to relieve the civilian population so the soldiers can be freed to fight, Vernon said.
A battle for Basra, the biggest city in southern Iraq, would have no strategic objective, Vernon said. Commanders do not want to risk as they press onward with their key mission - toppling Saddam Hussein, Vernon said.
They hope that leafleting Iraqi military units and calling officers on their satellite phones will gradually persuade military and civil leaders to capitulate as they see Saddam has lost power, Vernon said.
The Iraqi army's 51st Division positioned west of Basra just ``disintegrated,'' Vernon said. Some soldiers surrendered and others simply dissipated.
In Umm Qasr, where a U.S. Marine was killed in fighting Friday, local forces had used ``guerrilla tactics'' to slow the allied advance, Vernon said.
``It's easy to sit in a window and fire a rifle,'' Vernon said. ``That does not constitute organized, structured resistance.''
The resistance seemed to be coming from local forces, Vernon said, but they were ``definitely soldiers.''
Some had changed into civilian clothing to blend in with the population, Vernon said, taking advantage of an allied desire to minimize civilian casualties and win over the Iraqi population.
``The Americans would actually say, `We've seen this guy, we let him go, and here he pops up again fighting,'' Vernon said. ``They literally have to clear almost street by street.''
The Americans have taken prisoners in civilian clothes, Vernon said.
Commanders hope to mop up the last resistance and secure the city by midnight Saturday, Vernon said. Aid supplies of water and rations would be able to reach the city within 72 hours.
No Iraqi missile fired at neighboring Kuwait since Thursday was an actual Scud missile - which would have amounted to an open-and-shut case that Saddam possessed weapons forbidden by the United Nations, Vernon said. None carried chemical or biological warheads.
Military officials are currently negotiating with neighboring Kuwait to set up a water pipeline to run to Umm Qasr, Vernon said.
Allied troops successfully secured the Ramallah oil fields and six important gas-and-oil separation points, limiting the damage to Iraq's oil industry to a few fields set afire by Saddam's troops.
Destruction of the separation points could have take eight to 12 months to repair, Vernon said.
Vernon should check with Tommy Franks, I heard him confirm they were scuds and that a number of scud launchers were still unaccounted for by the un.
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