- The Observer,
- Sunday March 30 2003
The tanks destroyed the Fedayeen militia HQ, a TV mast and a statue of Saddam Hussein that dominates a park in the city centre. The troops then retreated without suffering any casualties.
The move represents an escalation of British activity around Basra which has been static for almost a week. Its targets are significant in that they hit at propaganda tools and the hugely symbolic statue.
The mission began at dawn as tanks and Warrior armoured vehicles crossed a bridge over the Shatt al Basra waterway and into town. Bands of Iraqi militia fired rocket-propelled grenades but none penetrated the armour of the tanks.
The units then split up to destroy their individual targets. The communications mast with its solid concrete base resisted a dozen direct hits until each of its steel mesh legs was shot away and the 200-feet tower collapsed, blacking out Iraqi state television and radio from the airwaves around Basra. 'When we took out the final leg it just fell down in the right direction - away from us,' said Major Tim Brown, who led the mission.
Yet there is still no sign of a major British push into Basra, and the heavy fire which met the tanks on this mission could dissuade army planners from launching a major invasion in the immediate future.
Bullets have been flying all week around Basra, where an awesome battle has been raging for control of the city. British troops had dramatic accounts of one battle in which engineers and infantry came under sudden Iraqi fire. The men were pinned down and desperate, ears echoing with the thump of mortars and the rattle of machine guns. Without waiting for orders, two tanks charged over a bridge and opened fire on the Iraqis. 'We gave covering fire to get the guys out of trouble,' said Corporal Tony Upritchard, 33, manning one of the tanks.
A few seconds later their orders came crackling over the radio. 'I need armour on the other side of the bridge,' came the voice. 'We are already here, sir,' Upritchard replied. A few moments later the Iraqis were in full retreat under fire from the Challenger tanks. None of the infantry or engineers had been hit. The verdict on the bravery of the tank crews was immediate. 'You are either very brave or very stupid,' their commanding officer told them. The bridges into Basra were secure.
But that was five days ago, and only a handful of British troops ever crossed the river. Now the frontlines lie further back, and the Shatt al Basra waterway, a branch of the Euphrates, still marks the line between British forces and the Iraqi regime.
As each day passes the Battle of Basra becomes more and more vital to both sides. For the coalition it would be the biggest prize so far: Iraq's second largest city, filled with a supposedly sympathetic Shia population. But for the diehard Iraqi regime, Basra cannot be allowed to fall easily. They want to make taking the city as bloody and costly as possible.
Squinting into the heat haze from just over the river, the signs of ordinary life can be made out. Civilians walk the streets, and apart from the ominous plumes of smoke, it looks almost like an ordinary scene of city life. But the city is firmly in the grip of Iraqi militiamen, many of them elite Republican Guards who have cast off their uniforms to wage war in civilian clothes.
It is a reign of terror. Intelligence reports coming out of the city, coupled with accounts of refugees who slip across the river, describe an iron grip of fear. The militia have smuggled weapons and tanks into heavily populated civilian areas. Tanks have been parked in underground car parks. Others have been driven directly into shop windows and parked inside. Many civilians and some soldiers have had their families taken hostage or threatened with execution if they do not side with the militia.
Food and clean water are scarce. Power is intermittent at best and non-existent in large areas of the city. Last week some 2,000 refugees, most of them women and children, tried to leave the city on one of the four British-guarded bridges but were kept back by a hail of mortars and machine gun fire from militiamen. Most fled back into the city's suburbs but a few hundred escaped, aided by covering fire from the British Blackwatch regiment.
British army spokesmen will not confirm it, but Special Forces are almost certainly operating inside Basra, testing the waters for a possible ground attack, collecting intelligence and taking out selected targets. It is believed they have identified the notorious 'Chemical' Ali in the city, a man who gassed Kurdish rebels in the 1980s and is now Saddam's southern military commander.
There are fierce and regular artillery duels, with shells soaring over houses on to Iraqi positions. It is believed that most Iraqi forces have withdrawn to the eastern side of the city. The western side near the river has simply become too dangerous.
Basra has suffered from the air too. Bombs and cruise missiles have taken out buildings associated with the Baathist party, including an enormous bunker buster that destroyed the party HQ. On Friday night two huge bomb blasts wiped out a building where 200 militia were thought to be meeting.
The mood of people inside Basra appears to be neither anti-Saddam nor pro-coalition. They just want to get through the war alive.
The battle does not stop at the city limits. In the countryside of the Shia south a new kind of war is breaking out, a war of guerrilla fighters hitting the British rear, ambushing supply columns and striking soft targets. Landrovers roaming in the countryside have come under fire. One vehicle met gunfire half a dozen times in one night.
The truth is that no one knows what the Iraqis are thinking or planning. On at least one occasion Iraqi soldiers waving white flags have sought to lure British troops into an ambush.
The nights are the worst. The full moon is fading and the nights are getting blacker. One night last week a group of soldiers sought solace from their chaplain, Daniel Connolly. 'Dear Lord, we ask you to keep us safe,' he prayed as the men bowed their heads.
Out there, in the fields and villages, the Battle for Basra and the rest of the Shia south is alive. It is deadly. It is not going away.
