BRITISH forces battled more than 1,000 die-hard Iraqi loyalists for control of Basra yesterday , coming to the defence of inhabitants who rose up against President Saddam Hussein in the streets of Iraq’s second-largest city.

British troops in Iraq yesterday mounted aggressive patrols to track down Saddam Hussein’s henchmen and looters.

British forces were waiting for the order today to enter Basra in support of an apparent uprising by Iraqi civilians against Saddam Hussein’s militias.

The population of Iraq’s second city was tonight attempting to throw off the shackles of Saddam Hussein’s regime, according to reports.

A member of Saddam Hussein’s ruling Baath Party was captured by British forces in a raid at Al Zubayr last night.

BRITISH Prime Minister Tony Blair last night said coalition forces were preparing for “a crucial moment” when they take on the Medina Division of Saddam Hussein’s Republican Guard in the battle for Baghdad.

The US Army’s 3rd Infantry Division dashed north today toward the Shiite holy city of Karbala, only 50 miles south of Baghdad, but was stalled by a sandstorm that blew out of the desert in the afternoon.

US and British troops have captured the strategic port in the southern Iraqi city of Umm Qasr, a British military spokeswoman said today.

A huge deployment of British tanks and armoured personnel carriers were today being loaded on to ships in Germany headed for the Gulf.

Foreign Secretary Robin Cook has pledged Britain’s ‘‘full support’’ for the government of Macedonia in its struggle with ethnic Albanian separatists who have begun an armed insurrection in the north of the country.