British fight 1,000 troops for Basra control
Inhabitants of the mostly Shi'ite Muslim city started attacking members of Saddam's Ba'ath Party and other Iraqi fighters, who responded by firing mortars on Tuesday at their own people, the British military said.
The British, in turn, shelled the mortar positions and bombed Ba'ath headquarters. British Prime Minister Tony Blair, promised backing for the insurgents yesterday.
"Truthfully, the reports are confused, but we believe there was some limited form of uprising," Blair told the House of Commons. "It is important that we give support to those people in Iraq who are rising up to overthrow Saddam."
The uprising came as the British tried to gain control of Basra and relieve the city's trapped civilian population of 1.3 million, which was fast running out of food and was in danger of outbreaks of cholera and diarrhoea from contaminated water.
During the battle for control of Basra, the Iraqis were firing artillery from the centre of the city at British troops, said British spokesman Colonel Chris Vernon, while the British confined their artillery to the city's outskirts, trying to identify clear military targets, especially tanks, and avoid civilian casualties.
US warplanes also dropped satellite-guided bombs on central Basra, targeting military sites hidden in civilian buildings, according to British accounts.
Britain's 7th Armoured Brigade the famed Desert Rats was said to be awaiting orders to enter the heart of the city last night.
On Tuesday night, thousands of Basra residents rampaged through the streets and set dozens of buildings ablaze, according to British reporters attached to military units.
The exiled Iraqi National Congress opposition party called it a large uprising and said it involved fierce hand-to-hand combat and bayonets.
In a telephone interview with al-Jazeera television, Iraqi Information Minister Mohammed al-Sahhaf denied there was an uprising in Basra.
The number of casualties in Basra was not immediately known. But the Arab TV network Al-Jazeera quoted Iraqi medics on Saturday as saying 50 people were killed in US bombings there.
International relief agencies in phone contact with aid workers in the city expressed deep concern about the fate of trapped civilians.
"It's very alarming, very critical," said Veronique Taveau of the UN humanitarian office for Iraq.
The city's electricity was knocked out on Friday in US-British bombing. That in turn shut down Basra's water pumping and treatment plants. The UN Children's Fund estimated up to 100,000 Basra children under 5 were at immediate risk of severe disease from the unsafe water.
During the 1991 Gulf War Basra's Shi'ite Muslims rose up against Saddam's Sunni Muslim regime. Government forces crushed the rebellion, slaughtering thousands across the south.
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