Bomb destroys Iraq ruling party headquarters

Troops on the edge of the southern Iraqi city of Basra destroyed the ruling Ba’ath Party headquarters overnight in preparation to take over the city, it emerged today.

The Royal Scots Dragoon Guards fired a 2,000lb bomb which smashed through the building, reducing it to rubble, GMTV’s Richard Gaisford said.

“It went straight through the ceiling, went through and destroyed the whole building and really nothing of it at all left in the middle of Basra, we are told,” he said.

The Scots Guards are perched outside the city waiting for the order to move in and invade, which they expect to come some time in the next 24 hours.

Gaisford said: “The heavy armour is just waiting here, ready to go if the generals and the brigadiers and all those military top brass decide to send them in.

“At the moment there’s no decision on that, no decision at all and we are sitting here waiting for that to come through.”

British intelligence confirmed that the Iraqis had fired upon their own people overnight.

“We were told that they did open fire on their own people using mortar rounds and possibly artillery,” Gaisford said.

“Big guns that normally shoot into the sky were turned horizontal and fired into the crowd – that’s what the intelligence reports were coming through.”

Gaisford said the coalition commanders were “possibly” more optimistic about taking over Basra, but still had to defeat soldiers dressed as civilians and hiding out in civilian houses.

He said: “They still have a lot to deal with. It is a very difficult situation for them to fight in, I think if they know they can clear the Iraqi army units out, if they can get rid of the ruling party, remove some of the fear people are facing there.…

“People are very scared about rising up – remember 12 years ago, they were encouraged to do so by the Americans and yet given no military back-up.

“They don’t want to go through the same thing again. It appears it certainly started last night and now the people of Basra need the military back-up of the coalition forces to actually finish the job.

“It is very likely that will happen in the next 24 hours, it is just a matter of how it is going to happen.”