Difficult days ahead warns Blair

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.

Mr Blair told MPs that allied forces were now parked 60 miles south of the Iraqi capital, near the town of Karbala.

"It is a little way from there that they will encounter the Medina Division of the Republican Guard who are defending the route to Baghdad. This will be a crucial moment," he said.

The premier gave away no further details of when he expects that clash to be, but he said in a Commons statement: "Saddam will go, this regime will be replaced. The Iraqi people will be helped to a better future.

"The weapons of mass destruction for which a peaceful Iraq has no use will be eliminated. That we will encounter more difficulties and anxious moments in the days ahead is certain. But no less certain, indeed more so, is coalition victory."

As if to confirm his comments about difficult days ahead, news came through even as Mr Blair was speaking of the first known death in action suffered by British forces in the Gulf.

It was confirmed by British military sources that a soldier had been killed early this morning during an operation near Al Zubayr in southern Iraq.

The prime minister spent the day being briefed on developments after chairing a meeting of his War Cabinet yesterday morning.

Today, he will hold one of his regular monthly press conferences inside 10 Downing Street to face an hour of questions on the conduct of the conflict.

Yesterday afternoon, he told MPs that key oil installations on the Al Faw peninsula were secure. He said the port of Umm Qasr "despite continuing pockets of resistance is under allied control but the waterway essential for humanitarian aid may be blocked by mines and will take some days to sweep".

Mr Blair also insisted: "Basra is surrounded and cannot be used as an Iraqi base, but in Basra there are pockets of Saddam's most fiercely local security services who are holding out.

"They are contained but still able to inflict casualties on our troops and so we are proceeding with caution. Basra international airport has been made secure." His comments clashed with at least one report from the area which said elements of the 7th Armoured Brigade, the Desert Rats, had been forced to withdraw, having had Basra surrounded.

The prime minister also told MPs: "The western desert is largely secure. In the north there have been air attacks on regime targets in Mosul, Kirkuk and Tikrit.

"We have been in constant contact with the Turkish government and the Kurdish authorities to urge calm."

Mr Blair highlighted the importance of the race to the capital city saying: "The vital goal is to reach Baghdad as swiftly as possible, thus bringing the end of the regime close. The two main bridges over the Euphrates south of Baghdad have been taken intact. This is of critical significance."

The premier said more than 5,000 coalition air sorties had been flown and that "thousands" of Iraqi soldiers had surrendered.