Posted on 03/26/2003 1:59:42 PM PST by kattracks
British forces entered the outskirts of Iraq's second largest city of Basra after Iraqi troops reportedly fired mortars at their own people to quell an uprising.
Aid agencies were also trying to rush water to the besieged population of some 1.2 million people amid fears of a humanitarian crisis in the mainly Shiite city unless water supplies can be restored soon.
British Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon said Iraqi militia had begun to flee in the teeth of artillery and air strikes, and cited reports that an attempted rebellion by local people had been brutally snuffed out.
"We know there have been attempts by militia to attack their own people," he told BBC radio, adding that the information came "from various sources".
"Certainly there have been disturbances, local people rising up against the regime. We know that there have been attempts by regime militia to attack those same people, their own people, to attack them with mortars, machine-gun fire, rifles."
Baghdad had vehemently dismissed the claims of a revolt as US "lies" aimed at demoralising the Iraqi people, while US Secretary of State Colin Powell said it was too early to say how the situation would unfold.
On the ground, Desert Rat units from 7th Armoured Brigade were fighting rain and mud as well as roaming bands of dedicated Saddam loyalists as they manoeuvred around the city on search and destroy patrols.
By the afternoon, they were involved in fighting on the outskirts of the town.
"The war is entering a phase where we are seizing tactical opportunities as they occur. Aggressive patrols are being mounted across all the territory controlled by 7th Armoured Brigade," British Army spokesman Colonel Chris Vernon said.
"And as soon as we see targets we are taking them on."
As ground troops ringed the city, two Harrier jets used satellite-guided bombs to obliterate the Basra headquarters of Saddam's ruling Baath party in the middle of the town, British commanders said.
"It was a way of saying to the rioters on the streets of Basra that the Baath party is not a threat to them any more," said Wing Commander Andy Suddards, the officer commanding the raid.
Residents of Basra are largely Shiite Muslims long held down by Saddam's mainly Sunni Muslim regime.
Hardline Iraqi troops, including irregular Fedayeen volunteer militia controlled by one of Saddam's sons, are understood to have been sent to the town to stiffen its defence and keep the local population under control.
Washington encouraged Shiites in Basra to revolt against Saddam after the last Gulf War in 1991 but failed to back them with military support. Many were slaughtered in the ensuing crackdown.
US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and British Prime Minister Tony Blair, in separate comments, hinted coalition forces surrounding the city may not yet be ready to provide full support to a fresh revolt.
"Let there be no doubt -- these are an oppressed people," Rumsfeld said. "But I hope and pray they'll do it at a time when there are sufficient forces nearby to be helpful to them."
Iraqi Information Minister Mohammad Said al-Sahhaf however denied that there was any sign of an uprising.
"I categorically deny these provocative lies the Americans are trying to spread through CNN," Sahhaf said on Al-Jazeera television.
International Committee for the Red Cross (ICRC) spokesman Roland Huguenin-Benjamin said that following repairs to the main pumping station, "The city is now receiving half the water that was available before the beginning of the conflict."
The ICRC has warned of a civilian crisis in Basra where water supplies have been severely disrupted, but coalition commanders have pledged to deliver aid supplies within days.
An AFP correspondent at the Kuwaiti-border reported that a convoy of around 30 US and British military vehicles with emergency water supplies was crossing from Kuwait into Iraq on Wednesday.
This is a win-win proposition. And we're hanging back? What the beejeebers is going on?
Congressman Billybob
Latest column, not yet up on UPI, and FR, "The A-MAA-zing War Wizard"
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