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Aljazeera denies basra uprising lie Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://santafenewmexican.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=7497654&BRD=2144&PAG=461&dept_id=367954&rfi=6In a telephone interview with Al-Jazeera television, Iraqi Information Minister Mohammed al-Sahhaf denied there was an uprising in Basra.
"The situation is stable," he said. "Resistance is continuing and we are teaching them more lessons."
http://santafenewmexican.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=7497654&BRD=2144&PAG=461&dept_id=367954&rfi=6
SOUTHERN IRAQ British Forces Engage Iraqi Fighters Around Basra; Reports of Civilian Opposition to Saddam
By DOUG MELLGREN | Associated Press 03/26/2003
NEAR BASRA, Iraq - British forces battled more than 1,000 die-hard Iraqi loyalists for control of Basra on Wednesday amid reports of an uprising against Saddam Hussein in the streets of the country's second-largest city.
Residents of the mostly Shiite Muslim city Tuesday started attacking members of Saddam's Baath Party and other Iraqi fighters, who responded with mortar attacks, said British spokesman Group Capt. Al Lockwood. The British shelled the mortar positions and dropped a bomb on Baath headquarters, he said.
"We are assessing the situation very carefully to see how we can capitalize on it and how we can assist," Lockwood said.
Coalition forces have made no secret of their hopes to spur such uprisings in the strategic southern city. The British were distributing leaflets and telling citizens on loudspeakers that aid was waiting outside Basra.
The uprising came amid British artillery attacks aimed at relieving Basra's trapped civilian population of 1.3 million, which was fast running out of food and was in danger of outbreaks of cholera and diarrhea from contaminated water.
The Iraqis were firing artillery from the center of the city at British troops, said British spokesman Col. 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.
U.S. warplanes also dropped satellite-guided bombs on central Basra, targeting military sites hidden in civilian buildings, according to British accounts.
Gunner Neil Hughes of the Royal Horse Artillery said the Iraqis were using civilians as shields. "There's some tanks refueling - five or six of them - but we couldn't engage them because they were right next to a built-up area, a hospital," he said.
Britain's 7th Armored Brigade - the famed Desert Rats - was said to be awaiting orders to enter the heart of the city later Wednesday.
For days, coalition forces had hoped to avoid entering Basra for fear of getting bogged down in urban warfare. But tenacious resistance in the city - there are an estimated 1,000 militia fighters, plus an unknown number of regular troops - and fears for the trapped civilians led them to change their strategy.
During the 1991 Gulf War, Basra's Shiites rose up against Saddam's Sunni Muslim regime in Baghdad. Government forces crushed the rebellion, slaughtering thousands across the south.
Thousands of Basra residents rampaged through the streets Tuesday night and set dozens of buildings ablaze, according to British reporters attached to military units.
"It appeared some of the population rose up and started attacking elements that are defending the city. These elements more and more as we're investigating them appear to be mostly criminal elements and ruling Baath party members," Lockwood said. "The attack from the local population obviously gave them cause for concern to the extent that they started mortaring them."
The exiled Iraqi National Congress opposition party said "a large uprising has taken place in Basra," calling it a "fierce battle" involving 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 situation is stable," he said. "Resistance is continuing and we are teaching them more lessons."
Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said he had not seen reports of an uprising in Basra, but was aware that Fedayeen guerrillas loyal to Saddam were infiltrating the city.
Rumsfeld said he was reluctant to encourage uprisings. "I guess those of us my age remember uprisings in Eastern Europe back in the 1950s when they rose up and they were slaughtered," he said. "I am very careful about encouraging people to rise up. We know there are people in those cities ready to shoot them if they try to rise up."
But he added: "Anyone who's engaged in an uprising has a whole lot of courage, and I sure hope they're successful."
Earlier Tuesday, British forces staged a raid into Az-Zubayr, a Basra suburb, and captured a senior Baath party politician while killing 20 of his bodyguards, Vernon said.
On Monday evening, two British soldiers were killed by friendly fire near Basra when their tank was mistakenly targeted by another tank.
As for Basra's casualties, the Arabic-language Al-Jazeera TV network quoted Iraqi medics on Saturday as saying 50 people were killed in U.S. bombings. The network broadcast grisly footage of civilian casualties in Basra, including a dead child.
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 U.N. humanitarian office for Iraq.
The city's electricity was knocked out Friday during U.S.-British bombing. That in turn shut down Basra's water pumping and treatment plants. The U.N. Children's Fund estimated up to 100,000 Basra children under 5 were at immediate risk of severe disease from the unsafe water.
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AP Special Correspondent Charles J. Hanley contributed to this report from Amman, Jordan.
©Santa Fe New Mexican 2003
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