Posted on 03/26/2003 1:29:20 PM PST by kattracks
Allies Pound Iraqi Vehicles in Basra
By DOUG MELLGREN and NICOLE WINFIELD .c The Associated Press
NEAR BASRA, Iraq (AP) - British and U.S. aircraft pounded a convoy of Iraqi tanks and armored vehicles that was streaming out of the besieged southern city of Basra late Wednesday, British military sources said.
The sources estimated the column at about 120 vehicles, heading southeast along the main road toward Abadan. They said it appeared the Iraqis were using the sandstorm that had blanketed the region to try to sneak out.
Basra had been largely quiet for much of the day Wednesday, with British forces trading occasional fire with some of the estimated 1,000 die-hard Iraqi loyalists fighting for control of the country's second-largest city. The British said they were coming to the defense of inhabitants who rose up in the streets against Saddam's regime.
Britain's 7th Armored Brigade - the famed Desert Rats - was said to be awaiting orders to enter the heart of the city.
``Things are the same as they've been for the last 36 hours. The forces in Basra are being engaged. We're not going in. We wait for them to come to us. Where we get targets of opportunity, we take it. It's a waiting game,'' said a British military official in Kuwait.
Inhabitants of the mostly Shiite Muslim city started attacking members of Saddam's Baath Party and other Iraqi fighters Tuesday, who responded by firing mortars at their own people, the British military said. The British, in turn, shelled the mortar positions and bombed Baath headquarters.
The uprising came as the British tried to gain control of Basra and relieve the city's trapped civilian population of 1.3 million, which was fast running out of food and was in danger of outbreaks of cholera and diarrhea from contaminated water.
U.S.-led forces have hoped to spur such uprisings in the strategic southern city and elsewhere in Iraq. During the 1991 Gulf War, Basra's Shiite Muslims rose up against Saddam's Sunni Muslim regime. Government forces crushed the rebellion, slaughtering thousands across the south.
``We are assessing the situation very carefully to see how we can capitalize on it and how we can assist,'' said British spokesman Group Capt. Al Lockwood.
Most of the day Tuesday, the Iraqis were firing artillery from the center of the city at British troops, said British spokesman Col. Chris Vernon, while the British confined their artillery to the city's outskirts, trying to identify clear military targets, especially tanks, and avoid civilian casualties.
British troops stationed also set up loudspeakers and broadcast messages urging Basra residents to come out and receive food and water. Leaflets carrying the same message were also dropped in the city.
``The bunch of desperadoes who've lived above the law rule the roost in this dictatorship, this regime that Saddam Hussein has been running,'' said Lt. Col. Ronnie McCourt, spokesman for British forces in the Gulf. ``They're obviously resorting to desperate measures and trying to intimidate the population, and we are making certain that we neutralize them as quickly as possible.''
U.S. warplanes also dropped satellite-guided bombs on central Basra, targeting military sites hidden in civilian buildings, according to British accounts.
Gunner Neil Hughes of the Royal Horse Artillery said the Iraqis were using civilians as shields. ``There's some tanks refueling - five or six of them - but we couldn't engage them because they were right next to a built-up area, a hospital,'' he said.
For days, coalition forces had hoped to avoid entering Basra for fear of getting bogged down in urban warfare. But tenacious resistance in the city - there are an estimated 1,000 militia fighters, plus an unknown number of regular troops - and fears for the trapped civilians led them to change their strategy.
03/26/03 16:21 EST
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