Desperate Iraqi fighters prepare for a last stand in Basra

CIVILIANS fleeing Iraq’s main southern city of Basra said yesterday increasingly desperate Iraqi fighters were preparing for a last stand against a swelling force of British troops and tanks being readied to fight their way into the city.

Many of the hundreds streaming out of the city over a bridge leading south said the Iraqi soldiers, paramilitary troops and Ba’ath party members loyal to President Saddam Hussein who have held off the coalition forces since the start of the war nearly two weeks ago were trying to stop the exodus.

“They believe that if Basra empties of civilians it will be easy for the foreign troops to take the city,” one man said, echoing the comments of many.

Inhabitants headed out in cars, bicycles or on foot formed an almost constant stream over the bridge past British checkpoints at which soldiers checked for fleeing Iraqi fighters.

Many gave the same account: the British forces had not yet entered the city proper, which remained in the hands of the Iraqi fighters.

Saddam’s followers were rounding up unwilling recruits to combat the invaders.

“The soldiers know all of us. They go from house to house and say to us ‘Why are you sitting here doing nothing? Grab a weapon and fight with us,’ explained one 33-year-old who gave his name as Yassem.

“If anybody refuses, they are made to go along, or they are killed,” he said.

British soldiers said Iraqi mortar positions and snipers had fired on the fleeing civilians in the last few days to stem the human flow.

They added that they were awaiting more reinforcements with a view to a full-fledged assault that would give them control of the city.

“We are building a major military force here. I can’t say any more than that,” said Captain Patrick Truman.

Tanks from Britain’s celebrated Desert Rats unit have already made an incursion into the city to destroy a statue of President Saddam Hussein.

An act that was a pointed message from the coalition forces that this fight is against Saddam and his administration, and not against the general populace. The local television station was also hit in the strike.