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British advance into basra { April 6 2003 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,930983,00.htmlhttp://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,930983,00.html
British troops advance into Basra
· 10 dead in 'friendly fire' incident
· Russian diplomatic convoy 'attacked'
· Mortar fire heard in Baghdad
Jason Deans, Tom Happold and agencies
Sunday April 6, 2003
Royal Marine Commandos today launched a second major offensive in the south-western outskirts of Basra.
The attack began with heavy shelling at about 3.30pm local time (13.30 BST), as British forces edged ever closer to Iraq's second city.
Artillery support, which can be heard across the suburbs, is being provided by 29 Commando.
This action follows an early morning armoured raid into central Basra by British forces.
British forces are reported to have reached the city centre following the initial incursion, which involved Challenger tanks and Warrior armoured vehicles, military officials said.
The commander of the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards, one of the British units involved in the Basra fighting, said UK forces had a "very strong foothold in south-west Basra".
"It started off as a raid. But now we're really seeing how far we can push it," the British officer told Sky News.
"Across the brigade, there are large elements of the city that are secured. The vast majority of the population seem delighted to see us," he added.
British forces had initially targeted a Fedayeen militia HQ in a factory, but had now moved on to clear a second Iraqi command centre, the officer said.
British military spokesman Group Captain Al Lockwood said UK forces had met "initial resistance", but added "that now appears to have disappeared".
"At the start of the operation today, 7th Armoured Brigade on three different axes moved in towards the centre. Our initial objective was to control the outskirts of Basra, set up vehicle and civilian checkpoints and stabilise that area," Mr Lockwood said.
"We met some light resistance and I understand now we are continuing the approach in towards the centre of Basra."
The initial early morning raid began at around 5.30am local time (2.30am BST).
Also in Basra, US central command claimed to have killed a bodyguard of Ali Hassan al-Majid, one of Saddam Hussein's chief henchmen nicknamed Chemical Ali, during an air strike on his residence. Chemical Ali was responsible for the gassing of the Kurdish town of Halabjah in 1988.
10 dead in 'friendly fire' incident
A convoy carrying Kurdish fighters and US special forces came under attack from an American warplane in northern Iraq today, a BBC correspondent with the troops reported.
The younger brother of Kurdish Democratic party (KDP) leader Massoud Barzani was critically injured in the attack.
A highly placed Kurdish source told Reuters news agency that Wajeeh Barzani "was in the convoy, he was injured, he was in a critical condition".
The KDP is one of the two Kurdish parties that control northern Iraq and are in alliance with US-led forces.
The BBC world affairs editor, John Simpson, was also injured, though not critically - via satellite phone he told the BBC that he counted at least 10 bodies amid the burning vehicles.
"An American plane dropped the bomb right beside us. I saw it land about 10 feet away," he said.
The BBC said the incident occurred in a Kurdish-controlled area of northern Iraq.
Simpson said the convoy contained between eight and 10 cars, two of which carried US special forces troops.
"This is just a scene from hell here," Simpson said. "All the vehicles are on fire, there are bodies burning all around me, bits of bodies all around ... the Americans saw this convoy and they bombed it. They hit their own people."
The BBC said Simpson had been wounded in the leg by shrapnel. His translator was seriously injured, he said.
There was no immediate confirmation of the incident from US or British officials.
Russian diplomatic convoy 'attacked'
Russian diplomatic convoy 'attacked'
A convoy of Russian embassy diplomats came under fire today as they were evacuating from Baghdad, the Kremlin said. The American military has said that initial findings indicate that their forces were not responsible.
The convoy was attacked as it was heading towards the Syrian border and casualties were reported, according to official Russian sources. The Interfax news agency quoted an unnamed source travelling in the convoy as saying that the group was first fired on about 5 miles outside of Baghdad after it attempted to drive around shooting that it saw on the road ahead.
The convoy continued after the wounded were treated and stopped when it saw a column of jeeps, about 9 miles from the city, the source said. The group stopped, sending ahead one car with a flag to explain who they were.
"They started to shoot at it [the car]," the source was quoted as saying. "Thank God no one was killed. Then the jeeps left."
Rebutting claims that American forces were responsible, US central command in Qatar released a statement saying "initial field reports reveal that no coalition forces were operating in the area of the incident".
"Based on the reported location, the incident is believed to have taken place in territory controlled by the Iraqi regime. The inquiry into this incident continues and more details will be made available as soon as possible."
Most staff at the Russian embassy have already left Baghdad, but a core team had remained until today, including the ambassador. Russia's foreign ministry said that the American and Iraqi ambassadors in Moscow would be asked urgently to take all measures necessary to guarantee Russian citizens' safety in Iraq, to investigate the circumstances of the attack and punish those responsible.
Leaving the foreign ministry, American ambassador Alexander Vershbow said the US government was investigating the incident and trying to gather information from allied commanders in the area.
"We are obviously very concerned about those who have been wounded," he said. "We still do not know which forces were involved, we don't know anything about the circumstances of the incident."
Mr Vershbow confirmed that the US had been aware of the planned evacuation ahead of time and said coalition forces would do its best to expedite the evacuation. "Iraqi forces are active and there are many military exchanges going on, but we will do as much as we can to facilitate their safe departure," he said.
The alleged attack came four days after Russia protested about American air strikes that allegedly targeted a Baghdad neighbourhood where the Russian embassy was located. Russia did not report any casualties in connection with the strikes.
It also comes as US national security adviser Condoleezza Rice arrives in Moscow for discussions on deepening Russo-American cooperation.
Russia is opposed to the war, but Russian president Vladimir Putin has adopted a softer tone toward the US in recent days, saying that a US defeat would not be in Russia's interests and pledging continued cooperation on arms control, the fight against terrorism and other issues.
Mr Putin has been informed about the incident, the Kremlin press service said.
Iran: Basra bodies are ours
Bodies found by British forces near Basra were Iranian soldiers killed during the Iran-Iraq war, Iran's state-run radio station has reported today.
British forces in southern Iraq said yesterday they found hundreds of boxes containing human remains in a warehouse near Zubayr.
They appeared to be the remains of people who had died some time ago - not in the current fighting.
Iran's state run Tehran radio quoted the head of Iran's committee for searching for the missing in action, General Mirfeisal Baqerzadeh, as saying the bodies had been located earlier during joint Iranian-Iraqi search missions in recent months in regions near Basra, Zubayr and the Faw peninsula.
But the eruption of war, and what Gen Baqerzadeh called the procrastination of the Iraqi government, delayed their repatriation.
Gen Baqerzadeh, who said an estimated 100 bodies were discovered at a military hospital near Basra, appeared to be referring to the same discovery, though the details he gave differed somewhat.
Iran and Iraq have exchanged thousands of prisoners and remains of dead soldiers since the 1980-1988 war ended supervision of the Red Cross, most recently just a day before the US-led invasion of Iraq began.
US and Kurds advance on Ain Sifni
US special forces and more than 1,000 Kurdish peshmerga are battling to flush Iraqi soldiers out of the northern Iraqi town of Ain Sifni, about 250 miles north of Baghdad.
The Kurds and the Americans said they were trying to take Ain Sifni to secure a ridge beyond which Iraqi artillery has been used to threaten the larger city of Dohuk, 40 miles north of the commercial centre of Mosul.
US soldiers said they believed that fewer than 100 Iraqi government soldiers were holed up in Ain Sifni - including some 30 sheltered in a mosque and another 40 shooting from a hospital.
The Kurds are now less than 20 miles from the main northern Iraqi cities of Mosul and Kirkuk.
Mortar fire heard in Baghdad
Mortar and artillery fire could be heard in Baghdad today, as US forces continue to probe around the outskirts of the city.
The city was again bombed overnight with new targets including the national assembly, across the street from the Rasheed hotel, a police headquarters in central Baghdad and the Maamoun telephone exchange.
For most of the night, Baghdad was relatively quiet. The drone of aircraft flying overhead was frequently heard, but there was no anti-aircraft fire.
Then at around 6am local time today (3am BST), there was a series of loud explosions.
Lieutenant Commander Charles Owens, a US central command spokesman, said he could not explain the reported lack of anti-aircraft fire overnight, but said it was too soon to say the Iraqis had given up.
"Yes, we have established air superiority," Mr Owens said. "But at the same time, we can still expect a tough fight ahead."
Alleged WMD site found
US Marines raided a town early this morning that contained a suspected weapons of mass destruction site dating back to 1991, US military officials said.
The Marines destroyed the headquarters for the Republican Guard Second Corps in Salman Pak, on the Tigris river south of Baghdad.
They also destroyed what Marines were told was a terrorist training camp and seized one of the Iraqi president's palaces.
US: We still hold Baghdad airport
US army officials have dismissed Iraqi claims that their troops had retaken Baghdad's international airport, saying American forces now have 7,000 troops at the site, 12 miles south-west of the city centre.
Elements of the 3rd Infantry and 101st Airborne are at the airport, according to the US military.
The Reuters news agency reports that a stream of US tanks and armoured vehicles rumbled across the Euphrates river south of Baghdad in the early hours of this morning to reinforce positions around the city.
Units of the 3rd Infantry were probing to the west and north of the airport, while one Marine unit was now probing about one mile from the north-eastern city outskirts, according to US military sources.
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