Uprising By Shiites in Basra Underway; British Pouring Artillery into City

Sky News Live Feed ^ | 03/25/03 | TonyInOhio

[TonyInOhio]

Just monitored on Sky News: embedded reporter says Shiites in Basra have begun, in his words, a "popular uprising" against the Saddam forces still in the city. British Army units are "pouring" artillery into the city (likely isolated areas) preparing to move in.

[rj45mis]

"The Brits better get in there NOW, by morning there may be nobody left to save."

That's okay. I think we can repopulate the city with hundreds of thousands of anti America protestors.

[mabelkitty]

Actually, the $5,000 reporting requirement is two-fold.

Cuts down on money laundering and makes rax reporting more honest.

If you want large stashes of cash around, but don't want the government to know about it, then you have something else going on entirely.

Otherwise, if it is part of a corporation that you operate, you shouldn't have a problem with it.

If you do, then keep it under your mattress.

You don't have a "right" to be protected from having the government find out if your wealth of cash is drug related or not.

[Oldeconomybuyer]

British Troops Plan Move Into Iraq's Second Largest City

By PATRICK E. TYLER, NY Times

UWAIT, March 25 — Caught between their worry of a humanitarian disaster and stiffening resistance in Basra, Iraq's second-biggest city, the British Royal Marines said today that they had changed strategy and would now take the southern capital by force if necessary.

The marine force is now repositioning itself around Basra, artillery exchanges have taken place and the British force is getting ready to move in.

Up until now, coalition forces said they wanted to avoid urban combat in the center of Basra, where fedayeen militia forces have been operating.

The marines are carrying out "surgical and precise" operations around Basra, a spokesman said at a British military briefing today, and they are trying to avoid firing into the center of the town to limit civilian casualties.

The spokesman, Col. Chris Vernon, said groups of "pretty scared" civilians were being used as human shields by the fedayeen guerrillas, who quickly came around the groups to fire at the British and then pulled back into the city. Colonel Vernon said that Iraq had been sending forces out from Basra and that over the last 24 hours the British had knocked out 20 tanks.

The decision to fight at Basra follows an urgent plea by Secretary General Kofi Annan of the United Nations that Basra faced "a humanitarian crisis" because of a shortage of water and electricity.

"We're obviously assessing the situation before we commence operations to take out the nonregular militia which seems to be set to opposing our taking of the objective," said Group Capt. Al Lockwood, a spokesman for British forces in the Persian Gulf.

British military officials said several days ago that they would prefer to negotiate surrenders with enemy troops rather than move into Basra itself to secure it. But the growing crisis has changed their minds.

Farther south, British and American commanders said today that they had crushed the last remaining resistance by Iraqi fighters in the port town of Umm Qasr, and that aid supplies badly needed by local people were expected to arrive within 48 hours once waterways leading to the port had been searched and cleared of mines.

Other progress was reported at Nasiriya, northwest of Basra, where United States marines finally forced their way across the Euphrates River after a fierce street battle that opened up a new line of advance northward toward Baghdad.

Two days after a first bid to cross the river and the blocking of the Saddam Canal by Iraqi irregulars, the marines laid down a two-mile corridor of armored vehicles and the convoy charged through the streets under cover of helicopter rockets and a barrage of artillery, tank and heavy machine-gun fire.

Once the trucks and other vulnerable vehicles were across, the tanks and other armor rolled out behind, leaving Iraqi fighters still operating in Nasiriya, a dusty city of more than a quarter of a million, 225 miles south of the capital.

In a briefing in Qatar today, the Pentagon said bad weather was having an impact on the battlefield, but despite that and Iraqi resistance the the military action remained on track. A spokesman, Maj. Gen. Victor E. Renaurt, also said six jamming systems used to disrupt allied satellite positioning equipment had been destroyed.

In Baghdad, Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan dismissed claims that Umm Qasr had been taken, saying, "They hovered around the airport of Umm Qasr but have not entered it."

Coalition forces have asserted before that Umm Qasr had fallen, but later conceded that Iraqi gunmen were still fighting on.

Defenses on the outskirts of Baghdad, meanwhile, were pounded by waves of air attacks today in what seemed a major effort to break opposition to a coalition drive on the Iraqi capital.

By early afternoon, a sandstorm was roaring across the city, leaving a yellow pall and dramatically reducing visibility. Strong winds howled across the city, adding to the discomfort of residents.

Prime Minister Tony Blair of Britain said today that he would visit the United States on Wednesday and Thursday "to discuss the humanitarian situation and the important and complex issues that have to be addressed in the post-Saddam era."

[jjm2111]

I never thought so many clueless people could congregate (digitally, at least) in one place. I guess I was wrong.

[Wolfstar]

Amazing, isn't it. The news outlets are all falling back on their old, worn-out shtick of having one talking head interview another. They are all wringing their hands over anything negative they can think of, and not putting the few setbacks in full perspect of the overwhelming successes of the coalition forces so far.

[FITZ]

It's kind of like mixing up Koreans and Japanese. They hate when that happens.

[rumrunner]

Shiite group says revolt under way in Basra 32 minutes ago

TEHRAN (AFP) - An uprising against Iraqi President Saddam Hussein (news - web sites)'s regime is under way in the southern city of Basra, the main Shiite Iraqi opposition group said.

"A revolt is taking place in Basra," Mohammad Hadi, spokesman of the Iran-based Supreme Assembly for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (news - web sites) (ASRII), told AFP.

"We have no more details for the moment."

snip

[oyez]

You are right. I need to grab a map and take some notes, because thing are happening so fast. So many things are fluid. I don't wan't get too far ahead, as it not wise. Somethings aren't explaned. They reveal themselves later.
The media is no help. A crew of mechanics get captured and a chopper is lost so they think its another Tet Offensive.

[m1911]

Amendment IV

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.



I don't see anything about a warrant for my papers in the PATRIOT banking acts. Read the Bill of Rights before you spout.

[CurlyBill]

The Iraqi troops are using civilians as human shields, physically standing behind their bodies, and also mortaring the population who are rising up against them.

That't why there are snipers...

[TheDon]

Ya know...it would be interesting to have a thread discussing the coverage of the war by the networks. I mean, how good of a job does everyone think they are doing? And how could they do a better job?

[k2blader]

A bit of related news...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - World oil prices fell back on Tuesday as British television networks said there were reports of an uprising against President Saddam Hussein in Iraq's second city of Basra.

U.S. light crude CLc1 fell 51 cents to $28.15 a barrel after a $1.75 jump on Monday. London Brent crude LCOc1 dropped $1.04 a barrel to $25.05.

Source

[Timesink]

Hmmmm. DU Dummies have a lot of puke faces posted. They say it's the beginning of the end.

It is. For them.

They've already lost all power. The only hope they had left was for all their 18 months of screeching about the horrible results of a US invasion to prove true. Instead, they're being shown up for the purebred liars they are, and the world is seeing that they couldn't give a flying f--- about a single Iraqi life except where it might help them embarrass Bush into losing the 2004 election.

DU, YOU LOSE! And you don't get to spin the Big Wheel in a few minutes either. Here's your can of Turtle Wax, here's your Mr. Coffee machine. Now GET THE HELL OUT OF MY STUDIO, you damn hippies!

[San Jacinto]

That't why there are snipers...

In this case the 'snipers' were manning artillery pieces zeroed in on the origin of the mortar fire.

[Yankee]

Thank God for FOX News Channel.

For some perverse reason I flipped over to CNN (1st time since the hostilities began) just in time to catch Judy Woodruff report on the Iraqis firing mortars on their own civilians with the same degree of passion that she would show when giving the score of a baseball game.

The only indignation and sense of outrage that those anti-American bastards ever seem to muster is for collateral damage or friendly fire incidents by U.S. forces.

I despise CNN. I wouldn't even bother checking PMSNBC.

Go FOX!!! Our troops network of choice.

God help the oppressed people of Basra.

[Timesink]

Actually, MSNBC has been quite fair and pro-American throughout the war, IMHO. CNN has been hideously anti, though.

[Porterville]

I agree, I bet that some, like Hannity and Drudge employees are watching this sight to see what the attitude of the general conservative populus is thinking. We tend to be exactly right on the Free Republic. You want to start the thread??

[Alberta's Child]

These aren't the bank's rules -- they are the rules that the U.S. government forces on them.

And there is a difference between a public health code and a stupid "Patriot Act" banking regulation that wouldn't have caught any terrorists before 9/11 and won't catch any now, either.

[mabelkitty]

How about this little ditty I just found. It is in response to the Iraqi Army using civilians as human shields. She apparently thinks this is a bad PR move!!

liberalmuse #6
23. How are we going to get the truth?
I'd hate to think of ANY military being so chickenshit they'd use women and children as human shields. The Iraqi people would hear about this, and it would be bad for Saddam's forces, you'd think!