Conghaileach
27th March 2003, 18:37
Sky News, the British equivalent of the pro-war Fox News
in the US, dropped a bomb on the world's media today,
reporting a popular uprising against Saddam Hussein in the
city of Basra, all according to plan:
"Undercover British intelligence offers [sic] were said to
have been working inside the city of 1.5 million people for
weeks in a bid to engineer the unrest." (article #2 below)
My guess is that all the British have engineered is this
rumor, which was naturally repeated in dozens of news
reports. The Sky News article was in turn based on an
anonymous British "intelligence source," then denied by
the US and British governments. Good enough for a rumor,
I guess. More news articles are being written around the
world on this theme as I write this email.
According to Sky News Foreign Editor Tim Marshall, if the
reports are true, "it could trigger more uprisings across
parts of Iraq." Wishful thinking? Perhaps it is the
secret strategy.
Also today, the coalition announces the bombing of civilian
buildings in Basra and fighting guerrillas who don't wear
uniforms and tend to blend in with the civilians. (#7 below)
Rumsfeld and others keep saying there is no question as to
the outcome of the war, just the timetable, body count, and
price tag. My guess is that whatever military victory is
achieved by the US/UK will be followed by many years of
guerrilla warfare just like what the British are about to
face when they enter Basra.
As the Syrians warn:
"The day they defeat the Iraqi regime and take control
is the day the disaster begins. ... In Baghdad, they will
find themselves facing daggers drawn from every corner."
1. BASRA: ANTI-SADDAM RIOTS
2. Carnage predicted after uprising
3. Saddam's troops 'fire on rebels'
4. Iraq denies reports about uprising in Basra
5. British forces engage Iraqi fighters around Basra
6. Iraqwar.ru 3/25 excerpt on Basra
7. US drops 1000-pound bomb[s] on Basra targets
8. Syria warns U.S. of a new Vietnam
http://www.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,3020...1085087,00.html (http://www.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30200-1085087,00.html)
BASRA: ANTI-SADDAM RIOTS, March 25, 2003
Rioting is taking place in Basra by locals opposed to Saddam Hussein,
reports say.
Iraqi troops are reported to be firing on the rioters with mortars in
an attempt to crush the uprising.
British forces are firing back at the Iraqi positions with heavy
artillery, reports say.
They said they have dropped a bomb on the ruling Ba'ath Party HQ. Two
large explosions have been heard in the city centre.
Reporter Richard Gaisford, who is with troops just west of Basra, said
British intelligence officers there told him about the civil uprising.
He said the officers said intelligence from the city suggested that
local people had indicated they would welcome the Allied forces but
were in fear of Saddam loyalists.
"Now it seems they have had the courage to stand up to Saddam Hussein
and his regime and they will be supported by British forces," Gaisford
said.
Gaisford said British troops were preparing to enter the city centre
when daw breaks in Iraq. Sky News Foreign Editor Tim Marshall said
that if the reports were true, it would be a "crucial moment" in the
Iraq war.
He said it could trigger more uprisings across parts of Iraq.
Marshall said the majority of the people around Basra were Shi'ite
Muslims, who had been oppressed by Saddam's regime.
Saddam's ruling Ba'ath Party are predominantly made up of Sunni Muslims.
Earlier, British military sources said about 20 of Saddam Hussein's
henchmen were killed and a key party official captured in a night-time
raid by British forces near Basra.
Soldiers from the 7th Armoured Brigade - the Desert Rats - raided a
regional Ba'ath Party headquarters in Al Zubayr, near Basra, where
there has been fierce resistance from Iraqi troops, the source said.
They moved in on the complex in the early hours with the aim of
capturing the high-ranking party figure. He was guarded by members
of Saddam's Special Security Organisation and fanatical Fedayeen
fighters loyal to the Iraqi president, the source at the Coalition
Command HQ in Qatar said.
The Desert Rats surrounded the building with Challenger 2 tanks before
the lightning raid. As the British soldiers swooped, a fierce gunfight
broke out and dozens of Iraqis were hit. There were no British
casualties.
The senior party figure, thought to be responsible for helping organise
resistance in the Al Zubayr and Basra area, was successfully snatched
and taken prisoner.
A military source said the Ba'ath Party officials in Al Zubayr were
terrorising the local population.
British commanders also want to separate the political and military
leaders of Saddam's regime.
Carnage predicted after uprising, AFP March 26, 2003
BRITISH forces have predicted carnage as Iraqi troops fire on their
own people to quell a rebellion in Basra.
Troops stationed outside the city said a violent uprising against
Saddam Hussein's regime had erupted today, and that Iraqi troops
opened fire to put down the revolt.
"There has been a civilian uprising in the north of Basra. We have
seen a large crowd on the streets," said one British officer.
"The Iraqis are firing their own artillery at their own people. There
will be carnage."
Iraqi Information Minister Mohammad Said al-Sahhaf denied the report
in a statement to Al-Jazeera television.
But British intelligence reports said thousands of people were
rampaging through parts of the city known to be populated by loyal
supporters of Saddam's regime. They said Iraqi artillery opened fire
on the rebels.
Dozens of buildings were said to be in flames in the city, a centre
of Shiite Muslims long repressed by Saddam's ruling Sunni Muslim
Baath Party.
"I categorically deny these provocative lies the Americans are trying
to spread through CNN," Sahhaf told Al-Jazeera.
"These are lies issued by the US administration and British government
... with the aim of demoralising (the Iraqi population)."
US and British commanders have been looking for Iraqis to rise up
against the regime as their troops push their way into the country in
a bid to topple Saddam and his inner circle from power.
Undercover British intelligence offers were said to have been working
inside the city of 1.5 million people for weeks in a bid to engineer
the unrest.
British tanks were massed outside the city and preparing to move in.
British troops described the Iraqi artillery fire as "horrific".
The main Shiite Iraqi opposition group, based in Iran, also said the
revolt was under way.
"A revolt is taking place in Basra," Mohammad Hadi, spokesman of the
Supreme Assembly for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq said in Tehran.
"We have no more details for the moment."
Agence France-Presse
Saddam's troops 'fire on rebels', AFP March 26, 2003
IRAQIS staging a popular uprising against Saddam Hussein in the key
city of Basra have come under mortar fire from forces loyal to
Baghdad, according to media reports.
"It appears that the people of Basra have basically had enough of the
Saddam regime," a journalist for the British-based Sky News TV channel
said in a report from the region today.
However, Iraqi Information Minister Mohammad Said al-Sahhaf denied
reports of the uprising in a statement to Al-Jazeera television.
The Sky News reporter said British military intelligence had reported
that "Iraqi forces are firing mortar rounds on protestors who are
actually rebelling against the ruling Baath party".
He said British forces were "firing heavy artillery on the locations
of those mortars".
"Specific radar equipment can tell (the British forces) actually
where those mortars are being fired".
In Qatar, a British military spokesman at allied field command
headquarters said: "I cannot confirm the report."
But Lieutenant Colonel Ronnie McCourt added: "If it is true, then
this must support the logic of what coalition forces have been saying
all along, that the Iraqi people wish to be liberated from Saddam
Hussein's regime."
Sky News said there were also British air strikes in Basra.
Its correspondent spoke of "a popular uprising against the Baath
party of Saddam Hussein".
He said British forces were holding off on entering Basra because of
difficulties in distinguishing between rebels and Saddam faithfuls.
They would wait until morning when the situation had calmed down and
then might enter the city, he said.
Before reports of the uprising, spokesmen for coalition forces in the
Gulf had said their troops faced the prospect of street fighting in
Basra after meeting fierce resistance on the outskirts.
Relief agencies meanwhile warned of a humanitarian crisis in the
metropolis.
Military planners had expected little resistance in the city,
pinning their hopes on the Shiite Muslim majority who have long been
repressed by President Saddam Hussein's mainly Sunni regime.
The British army is reported to have three brigades to the south and
west of Basra, where an estimated 1000 so-called Iraqi "irregulars"
were resisting the coalition advance.
Agence France-Presse
http://www.albawaba.com/news/index.php3?si...lang=e&dir=news (http://www.albawaba.com/news/index.php3?sid=245241&lang=e&dir=news)
Powell says forces face difficulties;
Iraq denies reports about uprising in Basra
25-03-2003, 20:32
US Secretary of State Colin Powell conceded that the American-led
invasion of Iraq had experienced difficulties but he said he was
confident it would ultimately succeed.
"Obviously there have been problems. When you get going in a battle
like this, there will be ambushes, there will be irregular forces
attacking, there will be difficulties in particular places such as
there is now in Basra," Powell said in an interview with France 3
television news.
"I'm quite confident that the strategy we have -- to take our time
and to do it well -- is a strategy that will work, it will prevail
and it will have its ups and downs," the secretary of state said.
The American-British army has abandoned plans to bypass the southern
city of Basra and is instead now bent on taking it, because of
continuing harassment of its supply lines by snipers and irregular
Iraqi forces.
Powell said it was only a matter of time before the fall of Baghdad.
"We control almost all of the country except for the area around
Baghdad. We have coalition forces in the west, we have coalition
forces in the northern areas with the Kurds, we control the whole
southern part of the country, so we are now slowly encircling
Baghdad," he said.
Meanwhile, Iraqi forces in Basra were firing mortars on fellow
Iraqis who were rebelling against them in Basra and British forces
were firing artillery on these mortar positions.
This report was aired on the Sky News TV channel in London Tuesday
evening. It said British military intelligence had reported that
"Iraqi forces are firing mortar rounds on protestors who are
actually rebelling against the ruling Baath party."
In Qatar, a British military spokesman at allied field command
headquarters said he could not confirm reports of the uprising.
"I cannot confirm the report," Lieutenant Colonel Ronnie Mc Court
told AFP.
Iraq's main Shi'ite opposition group also said that people in Basra
had risen up against forces loyal to President Saddam Hussein.
"We confirm an uprising is taking place in Basra, but we cannot
give more details for the time being," said Mohamed Hadi Asadi, a
spokesman for the Iran-based Supreme Council of the Islamic
Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI).
On his part, Iraqi Information Minister Mohammad Said al-Sahhaf on
Tuesday denied reports of an uprising in the southern city of Basra,
in a statement to Al-Jazeera television.
"I categorically deny these provocative lies the Americans are
trying to spread through CNN," he said in a live telephone
interview with the Qatar-based network. "These are lies issued by
the US administration and British government ... with the aim of
demoralizing" the Iraqi population, Sahhaf added. "I want to affirm
to you that Basra is continuing to hold steadfast," al-Sahhaf
conveyed. (Albawaba.com)
http://www.aeronautics.ru/news/news002/news078.htm
March 25, 2003, 1230hrs MSK (GMT +3)
[excerpt on Basra]
Positional warfare continues near Basra. The coalition forces in
this area are clearly insufficient to continue the attack and the
main emphasis is being placed on artillery and aviation. The city
is under constant bombardment but so far this had little impact on
the combat readiness of the Iraqi units. Thus, last night an Iraqi
battalion reinforced with tanks swung around the coalition
positions in the area of Basra airport and attacked the coalition
forces in the flanks. As the result of this attack the US forces
have been thrown back 1.5-2 kilometers leaving the airport and
the nearby structures in the hands of the Iraqis. Two APCs and one
tank were destroyed in this encounter. According to radio
intelligence at least two US soldiers were killed and no less than
six US soldiers were wounded.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?...1703EST0746.DTL (http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2003/03/25/international1703EST0746.DTL)
British forces engage Iraqi fighters around Basra; civilians appear to
show opposition to Saddam
Associated Press, March 25, 2003
NEAR BASRA, Iraq (AP) -- British forces at the gates of Basra engaged
in fierce battles Tuesday with more than 1,000 Iraqi militia fighters,
supporting what they said appeared to be civilian unrest developing
against Saddam Hussein in the key southern city.
Maj. Gen. Peter Wall, second in command of British troops, said
Basra's civilians were out in the streets "in significant numbers"
and were "essentially being less compliant with the regime than they
are normally."
"We don't know what has spurred them, we don't know the scale, we
don't know the scope of it," he said. "We don't know where it will
take us."
Coalition forces have made no secret of their hopes to spur such
uprisings. The British were distributing leaflets and telling
citizens on loudspeakers that aid was waiting outside the city,
where many of the million-plus residents are drinking contaminated
water and living under threat of outbreaks of diarrhea and cholera.
The main military goal remained the capital, Baghdad, and allied
forces were closing in, their progress thwarted by blinding
sandstorms. U.S.-led warplanes bombed targets in northern Iraq,
and U.S. troops in control of a vast Iraqi air base sealed 36
bunkers, earmarked as possible sites of Saddam's elusive weapons
of mass destruction.
Marines in the southern city of An Nasiriyah secured a hospital
being used as a military staging area for Iraqi forces, capturing
about unarmed 170 Iraqi soldiers and confiscating over 3,000
chemical suits with masks, stockpiles of ammunition and military
uniforms, U.S. officials said. The Marines also found a T-55 tank
on the compound.
The Marines had been fired at from the hospital the day before,
officials said in a statement. The building had been clearly
marked as a hospital by a flag with a Red Crescent, the symbol
used in the Muslim world for the Red Cross.
Two British soldiers were killed by friendly fire near Basra.
Col. Chris Vernon said the two men died when their Challenger
II tank was mistakenly targeted by another Challenger crew on
Monday evening.
American F/A-18 Super Hornet warplanes dropped satellite-guided
bombs on central Basra, according to British reporters attached
to military units -- the first strikes into the center of the
city, aimed at military sites hidden in civilian buildings.
The British pool reports described thousands of residents of
Iraq's second-largest city rampaging through the streets in the
early evening and setting dozens of buildings ablaze. Basra's
population is predominantly Shiite Muslim, and during the 1991
Gulf War the city took up arms against Saddam's Sunni Muslim
regime in Baghdad. Government forces crushed the rebellion,
killing thousands across the south.
In a telephone interview with Al-Jazeera television, Iraqi
Information Minister Mohammed al-Sahhaf denied any 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
explicitly. "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
for the region while killing 20 of his bodyguards, said Vernon,
the British army spokesman. The official was in custody. Vernon
also said armed irregular units were firing at British forces
outside Basra, and that the Iraqis were apparently using
civilians in front of them as human shields.
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 pro-Saddam fighters,
plus an unknown number of regular troops -- and growing
shortages of food and clean water have compelled them to change
their strategy.
The Iraqis were firing artillery from the center of the city at
British troops, Vernon said, while the British confined their
artillery to the city's outskirts, trying to identify clear
military targets, especially tanks, and avoid civilian
casualties.
The health threats in Basra appeared dire.
"The humanitarian situation in Basra is difficult, and very,
very tense," said Muin Kassis of the International Committee
of the Red Cross (ICRC) in neighboring Jordan.
Attempts by The Associated Press to reach Basra residents by
telephone were unsuccessful, but international relief agencies
had satellite-phone contact with aid workers in the city and
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 electrical power was knocked out Friday during U.S.-
British bombing, apparently because high-voltage lines were
destroyed. 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 the age of 5 were at immediate risk of severe disease
from the unsafe water, especially life-threatening diarrhea.
The Red Cross reported Tuesday that its technicians reached the
Wafa al-Quaid plant, north of the city, after getting security
assurances from both sides. But the generators are only a
stopgap.
As for Basra's casualties in the current conflict, no official
word was directly available, although the Qatar-based Al-Jazeera
television quoted Iraqi medics on Saturday as saying 50 people
were killed in U.S. bombings.
The Arab network also broadcast grisly footage of civilian
casualties in Basra, including a dead child with a horrible
head wound -- a picture that aroused anger across the Arab
world.
As coalition forces pressed on to Baghdad, British Prime Minister
Tony Blair stressed Tuesday that the final miles on the road to
the capital would be the most challenging, as U.S. Army troops
faced the Medina division of Saddam's Republican Guard.
"This will plainly be a crucial moment," he said.
The Army met sporadic resistance on its journey north. Military
reports estimated 500 Iraqis were killed during a two-day sweep
by the Army's 3rd Infantry Division past the holy Shiite city of
Najaf, said Command Sgt. Maj. Kenneth Preston of the Army's V
Corps. At least 20 U.S. troops have been killed and 14 captured
or missing since the operation began.
http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/181_221...01300180013.htm (http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/181_221328,001300180013.htm)
US drops 1000-pound bomb[s] on Basra targets: British officers
Agence France-Presse, Basra, March 25
A US warplane dropped 1,000-pound satellite-guided J-Dam bombs on
military sites hidden in civilian buildings in Basra on Tuesday
as British forces battled to take control of the city, British
officers reported.
They said the bombs, released by a US F-18 Super Hornet warplane,
targeted a large ammunition dump containing weapons, shells and
other munitions, as well as a building thought to be used by Iraqi
fighters still defending Iraq's second-largest city.
Heavy fighting raged meanwhile on the outskirts of Basra, with
British forces firing across the Shatt al-Basra waterway at Iraqi
armour on the other side.
Two Iraqi T55 tanks were destroyed during the engagements,
spearheaded by Challenger tanks from Britain's Desert Rats, the
7th Armoured Brigade.
British gunners also turned their fire toward Iraq's BMP1 armoured
personnel carriers and D30 towed artillery guns, which fire 122mm
shells.
There were no British casualties in the exchanges.
The decision to drop J-Dams marked a distinct escalation of the
assault on Basra.
British commanders attempting to secure the city had previously
refrained from ordering attacks directly into Basra to avoid
alienating its large Shia Muslim population, which rose up against
Saddam in 1991 and is believed to be broadly hostile to the Iraqi
leader.
The change in tactics, according to British military analysts, has
likely been prompted by fears that Republican Guards and Fedayeen
paramilitaries are operating from the city, hiding in civilian
buildings and having swapped their uniforms for ordinary
clothing.
Captain Johnny Williamson, a spokesman for the 7th Armoured
Brigade, said the introduction of J-Dams, which were used
extensively in Afghanistan and use satellite positioning to
operate with extreme accuracy, was designed to help allied forces
destroy enemy targets inside Basra without causing large numbers
of civilian casualties.
He warned that many of the buildings likely to be hit in
coming days might appear to be non-military targets but
insisted it was because Iraqi forces were hiding among the
civilian population.
"It is fair to say that the targets that we are engaging
will not be conventional military targets. They will not
be barracks or proper weapons facilities and chances are
that it could be someone's house. But they are military
sites.
"When you are fighting non-conventional forces it is
inevitable that there are going to be targets that people
would not normally consider to be military targets," he
said.
US and British officers are anxious to control Basra, which
according to relief agencies is facing acute shortages of food
and water, in order to allow the arrival of humanitarian aid.
Eventually, Basra and its port facilities would be part of an
aid corridor for the rest of the country.
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentSe...ol=968793972154 (http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1035779834869&call_pageid=968332188492&col=968793972154)
Syria warns U.S. of a new Vietnam
MITCH POTTER IN SYRIA. Mar. 25, 2003. 05:35 AM
DAMASCUS -- American forces in Iraq are unwittingly marching
into a "small-scale Vietnam" that won't begin until U.S.
victory is declared, a senior Syrian official warned yesterday.
And mounting U.S. losses will continue long after the Iraqi
regime is gone until the last American soldier leaves the
country, said Syrian Information Minister Adnan Omran.
"The day they defeat the Iraqi regime and take control is the
day the disaster begins," Omran told the Star in a private
briefing.
"In Baghdad, they will find themselves facing daggers drawn
from every corner. It will be a small-scale Vietnam. Small
cuts will be made day after day and week after week until
the Americans are gone.
"It is incredible that George Bush has been deceived by his
advisers into believing he is poised for victory," Omran said.
"This advice is based on the most stupid calculations ever
made of the social dynamic in Iraq."
Syria stands alone in the Arab world for its blanket
condemnation of the Washington-led invasion.
But most senior Syrian leaders just echo the defiance of
Baghdad.
They express confidence in the Iraqi regime's dubious
ability to withstand the coalition onslaught.
Omran's comments amount to a tacit acknowledgement that the
Iraqi regime is likely to fall. But the aftermath will cost
American lives as Iraqis reassert their claim to self-
determination with guerrilla-style attacks against the
"foreign invaders," he said.
The Syrian minister's warning came on a day of mounting fury
as Syrians absorbed the news of deadly air strikes Sunday
night on a busload of Syrians fleeing war-torn Iraq.
Five Syrians were killed and 13 injured in the attack by U.S.
and British jets at Al-Rutba, 160 kilometres from the Syrian
border.
Syria condemned the attack as a "brutal aggression against
unarmed civilians," summoning the U.S. and British ambassadors
to lodge a formal protest and to serve notice it would claim
damages.
"This is a dangerous matter and refutes claims that the
American and British only hit military targets," Omran said.
"I don't know how a bus carrying people returning home and
escaping bombardment and destruction can be mistaken as a
military target. These were civilians."
The bus was loaded with manual labourers racing to flee the
conflict. Syrian Television interviewed survivors, who said
the attack occurred during a stop to allow more passengers on
board.
"Suddenly, we heard an enormous explosion and then the noise
of a plane, but we couldn't see it," a witness told Syrian
Television.
Maj.-Gen. Stanley McChrystal, vice-director of operations for
the U.S. military's Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the bombing
was an accident.
"Unintended casualties like this are regrettable. We extend
our sympathies to the families of those civilians who were
accidentally killed," he told Reuters News Agency.
National grief over the attack is expected to fuel a demonstration
in Damascus this morning, the sixth major street protest since the
outbreak of war. But unlike earlier demonstrations, today's march
is expected to be carefully controlled by Syrian authorities.
"For the first few days, the marches were very spontaneous, with
people from all walks of life who don't normally take to the
streets carrying homemade signs," a Western diplomatic source
said yesterday.
"Now, there's a sense that the Syrian government has it under
control. It's like fine-tuning a faucet. This march will be very
organized and directed, to allow people a release for the sadness
and anger they feel, but not to let things get out of hand."
Relatively few of those joining the protests are Iraqis, despite
the fact that Syria is now home to an estimated 500,000 Iraqis,
many of whom fled their homes in the run-up to war. Most are
staying with friends or in rented homes, waiting for the conflict
to end.
Most of the displaced Iraqis are believed to be Shiite Muslims
from southern Iraq.
Although Shiites comprise a majority in Iraq, they have long
suffered discrimination under Saddam Hussein's Sunni Muslim-
dominated regime and are unlikely to lament its passing.
in the US, dropped a bomb on the world's media today,
reporting a popular uprising against Saddam Hussein in the
city of Basra, all according to plan:
"Undercover British intelligence offers [sic] were said to
have been working inside the city of 1.5 million people for
weeks in a bid to engineer the unrest." (article #2 below)
My guess is that all the British have engineered is this
rumor, which was naturally repeated in dozens of news
reports. The Sky News article was in turn based on an
anonymous British "intelligence source," then denied by
the US and British governments. Good enough for a rumor,
I guess. More news articles are being written around the
world on this theme as I write this email.
According to Sky News Foreign Editor Tim Marshall, if the
reports are true, "it could trigger more uprisings across
parts of Iraq." Wishful thinking? Perhaps it is the
secret strategy.
Also today, the coalition announces the bombing of civilian
buildings in Basra and fighting guerrillas who don't wear
uniforms and tend to blend in with the civilians. (#7 below)
Rumsfeld and others keep saying there is no question as to
the outcome of the war, just the timetable, body count, and
price tag. My guess is that whatever military victory is
achieved by the US/UK will be followed by many years of
guerrilla warfare just like what the British are about to
face when they enter Basra.
As the Syrians warn:
"The day they defeat the Iraqi regime and take control
is the day the disaster begins. ... In Baghdad, they will
find themselves facing daggers drawn from every corner."
1. BASRA: ANTI-SADDAM RIOTS
2. Carnage predicted after uprising
3. Saddam's troops 'fire on rebels'
4. Iraq denies reports about uprising in Basra
5. British forces engage Iraqi fighters around Basra
6. Iraqwar.ru 3/25 excerpt on Basra
7. US drops 1000-pound bomb[s] on Basra targets
8. Syria warns U.S. of a new Vietnam
http://www.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,3020...1085087,00.html (http://www.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30200-1085087,00.html)
BASRA: ANTI-SADDAM RIOTS, March 25, 2003
Rioting is taking place in Basra by locals opposed to Saddam Hussein,
reports say.
Iraqi troops are reported to be firing on the rioters with mortars in
an attempt to crush the uprising.
British forces are firing back at the Iraqi positions with heavy
artillery, reports say.
They said they have dropped a bomb on the ruling Ba'ath Party HQ. Two
large explosions have been heard in the city centre.
Reporter Richard Gaisford, who is with troops just west of Basra, said
British intelligence officers there told him about the civil uprising.
He said the officers said intelligence from the city suggested that
local people had indicated they would welcome the Allied forces but
were in fear of Saddam loyalists.
"Now it seems they have had the courage to stand up to Saddam Hussein
and his regime and they will be supported by British forces," Gaisford
said.
Gaisford said British troops were preparing to enter the city centre
when daw breaks in Iraq. Sky News Foreign Editor Tim Marshall said
that if the reports were true, it would be a "crucial moment" in the
Iraq war.
He said it could trigger more uprisings across parts of Iraq.
Marshall said the majority of the people around Basra were Shi'ite
Muslims, who had been oppressed by Saddam's regime.
Saddam's ruling Ba'ath Party are predominantly made up of Sunni Muslims.
Earlier, British military sources said about 20 of Saddam Hussein's
henchmen were killed and a key party official captured in a night-time
raid by British forces near Basra.
Soldiers from the 7th Armoured Brigade - the Desert Rats - raided a
regional Ba'ath Party headquarters in Al Zubayr, near Basra, where
there has been fierce resistance from Iraqi troops, the source said.
They moved in on the complex in the early hours with the aim of
capturing the high-ranking party figure. He was guarded by members
of Saddam's Special Security Organisation and fanatical Fedayeen
fighters loyal to the Iraqi president, the source at the Coalition
Command HQ in Qatar said.
The Desert Rats surrounded the building with Challenger 2 tanks before
the lightning raid. As the British soldiers swooped, a fierce gunfight
broke out and dozens of Iraqis were hit. There were no British
casualties.
The senior party figure, thought to be responsible for helping organise
resistance in the Al Zubayr and Basra area, was successfully snatched
and taken prisoner.
A military source said the Ba'ath Party officials in Al Zubayr were
terrorising the local population.
British commanders also want to separate the political and military
leaders of Saddam's regime.
Carnage predicted after uprising, AFP March 26, 2003
BRITISH forces have predicted carnage as Iraqi troops fire on their
own people to quell a rebellion in Basra.
Troops stationed outside the city said a violent uprising against
Saddam Hussein's regime had erupted today, and that Iraqi troops
opened fire to put down the revolt.
"There has been a civilian uprising in the north of Basra. We have
seen a large crowd on the streets," said one British officer.
"The Iraqis are firing their own artillery at their own people. There
will be carnage."
Iraqi Information Minister Mohammad Said al-Sahhaf denied the report
in a statement to Al-Jazeera television.
But British intelligence reports said thousands of people were
rampaging through parts of the city known to be populated by loyal
supporters of Saddam's regime. They said Iraqi artillery opened fire
on the rebels.
Dozens of buildings were said to be in flames in the city, a centre
of Shiite Muslims long repressed by Saddam's ruling Sunni Muslim
Baath Party.
"I categorically deny these provocative lies the Americans are trying
to spread through CNN," Sahhaf told Al-Jazeera.
"These are lies issued by the US administration and British government
... with the aim of demoralising (the Iraqi population)."
US and British commanders have been looking for Iraqis to rise up
against the regime as their troops push their way into the country in
a bid to topple Saddam and his inner circle from power.
Undercover British intelligence offers were said to have been working
inside the city of 1.5 million people for weeks in a bid to engineer
the unrest.
British tanks were massed outside the city and preparing to move in.
British troops described the Iraqi artillery fire as "horrific".
The main Shiite Iraqi opposition group, based in Iran, also said the
revolt was under way.
"A revolt is taking place in Basra," Mohammad Hadi, spokesman of the
Supreme Assembly for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq said in Tehran.
"We have no more details for the moment."
Agence France-Presse
Saddam's troops 'fire on rebels', AFP March 26, 2003
IRAQIS staging a popular uprising against Saddam Hussein in the key
city of Basra have come under mortar fire from forces loyal to
Baghdad, according to media reports.
"It appears that the people of Basra have basically had enough of the
Saddam regime," a journalist for the British-based Sky News TV channel
said in a report from the region today.
However, Iraqi Information Minister Mohammad Said al-Sahhaf denied
reports of the uprising in a statement to Al-Jazeera television.
The Sky News reporter said British military intelligence had reported
that "Iraqi forces are firing mortar rounds on protestors who are
actually rebelling against the ruling Baath party".
He said British forces were "firing heavy artillery on the locations
of those mortars".
"Specific radar equipment can tell (the British forces) actually
where those mortars are being fired".
In Qatar, a British military spokesman at allied field command
headquarters said: "I cannot confirm the report."
But Lieutenant Colonel Ronnie McCourt added: "If it is true, then
this must support the logic of what coalition forces have been saying
all along, that the Iraqi people wish to be liberated from Saddam
Hussein's regime."
Sky News said there were also British air strikes in Basra.
Its correspondent spoke of "a popular uprising against the Baath
party of Saddam Hussein".
He said British forces were holding off on entering Basra because of
difficulties in distinguishing between rebels and Saddam faithfuls.
They would wait until morning when the situation had calmed down and
then might enter the city, he said.
Before reports of the uprising, spokesmen for coalition forces in the
Gulf had said their troops faced the prospect of street fighting in
Basra after meeting fierce resistance on the outskirts.
Relief agencies meanwhile warned of a humanitarian crisis in the
metropolis.
Military planners had expected little resistance in the city,
pinning their hopes on the Shiite Muslim majority who have long been
repressed by President Saddam Hussein's mainly Sunni regime.
The British army is reported to have three brigades to the south and
west of Basra, where an estimated 1000 so-called Iraqi "irregulars"
were resisting the coalition advance.
Agence France-Presse
http://www.albawaba.com/news/index.php3?si...lang=e&dir=news (http://www.albawaba.com/news/index.php3?sid=245241&lang=e&dir=news)
Powell says forces face difficulties;
Iraq denies reports about uprising in Basra
25-03-2003, 20:32
US Secretary of State Colin Powell conceded that the American-led
invasion of Iraq had experienced difficulties but he said he was
confident it would ultimately succeed.
"Obviously there have been problems. When you get going in a battle
like this, there will be ambushes, there will be irregular forces
attacking, there will be difficulties in particular places such as
there is now in Basra," Powell said in an interview with France 3
television news.
"I'm quite confident that the strategy we have -- to take our time
and to do it well -- is a strategy that will work, it will prevail
and it will have its ups and downs," the secretary of state said.
The American-British army has abandoned plans to bypass the southern
city of Basra and is instead now bent on taking it, because of
continuing harassment of its supply lines by snipers and irregular
Iraqi forces.
Powell said it was only a matter of time before the fall of Baghdad.
"We control almost all of the country except for the area around
Baghdad. We have coalition forces in the west, we have coalition
forces in the northern areas with the Kurds, we control the whole
southern part of the country, so we are now slowly encircling
Baghdad," he said.
Meanwhile, Iraqi forces in Basra were firing mortars on fellow
Iraqis who were rebelling against them in Basra and British forces
were firing artillery on these mortar positions.
This report was aired on the Sky News TV channel in London Tuesday
evening. It said British military intelligence had reported that
"Iraqi forces are firing mortar rounds on protestors who are
actually rebelling against the ruling Baath party."
In Qatar, a British military spokesman at allied field command
headquarters said he could not confirm reports of the uprising.
"I cannot confirm the report," Lieutenant Colonel Ronnie Mc Court
told AFP.
Iraq's main Shi'ite opposition group also said that people in Basra
had risen up against forces loyal to President Saddam Hussein.
"We confirm an uprising is taking place in Basra, but we cannot
give more details for the time being," said Mohamed Hadi Asadi, a
spokesman for the Iran-based Supreme Council of the Islamic
Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI).
On his part, Iraqi Information Minister Mohammad Said al-Sahhaf on
Tuesday denied reports of an uprising in the southern city of Basra,
in a statement to Al-Jazeera television.
"I categorically deny these provocative lies the Americans are
trying to spread through CNN," he said in a live telephone
interview with the Qatar-based network. "These are lies issued by
the US administration and British government ... with the aim of
demoralizing" the Iraqi population, Sahhaf added. "I want to affirm
to you that Basra is continuing to hold steadfast," al-Sahhaf
conveyed. (Albawaba.com)
http://www.aeronautics.ru/news/news002/news078.htm
March 25, 2003, 1230hrs MSK (GMT +3)
[excerpt on Basra]
Positional warfare continues near Basra. The coalition forces in
this area are clearly insufficient to continue the attack and the
main emphasis is being placed on artillery and aviation. The city
is under constant bombardment but so far this had little impact on
the combat readiness of the Iraqi units. Thus, last night an Iraqi
battalion reinforced with tanks swung around the coalition
positions in the area of Basra airport and attacked the coalition
forces in the flanks. As the result of this attack the US forces
have been thrown back 1.5-2 kilometers leaving the airport and
the nearby structures in the hands of the Iraqis. Two APCs and one
tank were destroyed in this encounter. According to radio
intelligence at least two US soldiers were killed and no less than
six US soldiers were wounded.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?...1703EST0746.DTL (http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2003/03/25/international1703EST0746.DTL)
British forces engage Iraqi fighters around Basra; civilians appear to
show opposition to Saddam
Associated Press, March 25, 2003
NEAR BASRA, Iraq (AP) -- British forces at the gates of Basra engaged
in fierce battles Tuesday with more than 1,000 Iraqi militia fighters,
supporting what they said appeared to be civilian unrest developing
against Saddam Hussein in the key southern city.
Maj. Gen. Peter Wall, second in command of British troops, said
Basra's civilians were out in the streets "in significant numbers"
and were "essentially being less compliant with the regime than they
are normally."
"We don't know what has spurred them, we don't know the scale, we
don't know the scope of it," he said. "We don't know where it will
take us."
Coalition forces have made no secret of their hopes to spur such
uprisings. The British were distributing leaflets and telling
citizens on loudspeakers that aid was waiting outside the city,
where many of the million-plus residents are drinking contaminated
water and living under threat of outbreaks of diarrhea and cholera.
The main military goal remained the capital, Baghdad, and allied
forces were closing in, their progress thwarted by blinding
sandstorms. U.S.-led warplanes bombed targets in northern Iraq,
and U.S. troops in control of a vast Iraqi air base sealed 36
bunkers, earmarked as possible sites of Saddam's elusive weapons
of mass destruction.
Marines in the southern city of An Nasiriyah secured a hospital
being used as a military staging area for Iraqi forces, capturing
about unarmed 170 Iraqi soldiers and confiscating over 3,000
chemical suits with masks, stockpiles of ammunition and military
uniforms, U.S. officials said. The Marines also found a T-55 tank
on the compound.
The Marines had been fired at from the hospital the day before,
officials said in a statement. The building had been clearly
marked as a hospital by a flag with a Red Crescent, the symbol
used in the Muslim world for the Red Cross.
Two British soldiers were killed by friendly fire near Basra.
Col. Chris Vernon said the two men died when their Challenger
II tank was mistakenly targeted by another Challenger crew on
Monday evening.
American F/A-18 Super Hornet warplanes dropped satellite-guided
bombs on central Basra, according to British reporters attached
to military units -- the first strikes into the center of the
city, aimed at military sites hidden in civilian buildings.
The British pool reports described thousands of residents of
Iraq's second-largest city rampaging through the streets in the
early evening and setting dozens of buildings ablaze. Basra's
population is predominantly Shiite Muslim, and during the 1991
Gulf War the city took up arms against Saddam's Sunni Muslim
regime in Baghdad. Government forces crushed the rebellion,
killing thousands across the south.
In a telephone interview with Al-Jazeera television, Iraqi
Information Minister Mohammed al-Sahhaf denied any 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
explicitly. "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
for the region while killing 20 of his bodyguards, said Vernon,
the British army spokesman. The official was in custody. Vernon
also said armed irregular units were firing at British forces
outside Basra, and that the Iraqis were apparently using
civilians in front of them as human shields.
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 pro-Saddam fighters,
plus an unknown number of regular troops -- and growing
shortages of food and clean water have compelled them to change
their strategy.
The Iraqis were firing artillery from the center of the city at
British troops, Vernon said, while the British confined their
artillery to the city's outskirts, trying to identify clear
military targets, especially tanks, and avoid civilian
casualties.
The health threats in Basra appeared dire.
"The humanitarian situation in Basra is difficult, and very,
very tense," said Muin Kassis of the International Committee
of the Red Cross (ICRC) in neighboring Jordan.
Attempts by The Associated Press to reach Basra residents by
telephone were unsuccessful, but international relief agencies
had satellite-phone contact with aid workers in the city and
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 electrical power was knocked out Friday during U.S.-
British bombing, apparently because high-voltage lines were
destroyed. 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 the age of 5 were at immediate risk of severe disease
from the unsafe water, especially life-threatening diarrhea.
The Red Cross reported Tuesday that its technicians reached the
Wafa al-Quaid plant, north of the city, after getting security
assurances from both sides. But the generators are only a
stopgap.
As for Basra's casualties in the current conflict, no official
word was directly available, although the Qatar-based Al-Jazeera
television quoted Iraqi medics on Saturday as saying 50 people
were killed in U.S. bombings.
The Arab network also broadcast grisly footage of civilian
casualties in Basra, including a dead child with a horrible
head wound -- a picture that aroused anger across the Arab
world.
As coalition forces pressed on to Baghdad, British Prime Minister
Tony Blair stressed Tuesday that the final miles on the road to
the capital would be the most challenging, as U.S. Army troops
faced the Medina division of Saddam's Republican Guard.
"This will plainly be a crucial moment," he said.
The Army met sporadic resistance on its journey north. Military
reports estimated 500 Iraqis were killed during a two-day sweep
by the Army's 3rd Infantry Division past the holy Shiite city of
Najaf, said Command Sgt. Maj. Kenneth Preston of the Army's V
Corps. At least 20 U.S. troops have been killed and 14 captured
or missing since the operation began.
http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/181_221...01300180013.htm (http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/181_221328,001300180013.htm)
US drops 1000-pound bomb[s] on Basra targets: British officers
Agence France-Presse, Basra, March 25
A US warplane dropped 1,000-pound satellite-guided J-Dam bombs on
military sites hidden in civilian buildings in Basra on Tuesday
as British forces battled to take control of the city, British
officers reported.
They said the bombs, released by a US F-18 Super Hornet warplane,
targeted a large ammunition dump containing weapons, shells and
other munitions, as well as a building thought to be used by Iraqi
fighters still defending Iraq's second-largest city.
Heavy fighting raged meanwhile on the outskirts of Basra, with
British forces firing across the Shatt al-Basra waterway at Iraqi
armour on the other side.
Two Iraqi T55 tanks were destroyed during the engagements,
spearheaded by Challenger tanks from Britain's Desert Rats, the
7th Armoured Brigade.
British gunners also turned their fire toward Iraq's BMP1 armoured
personnel carriers and D30 towed artillery guns, which fire 122mm
shells.
There were no British casualties in the exchanges.
The decision to drop J-Dams marked a distinct escalation of the
assault on Basra.
British commanders attempting to secure the city had previously
refrained from ordering attacks directly into Basra to avoid
alienating its large Shia Muslim population, which rose up against
Saddam in 1991 and is believed to be broadly hostile to the Iraqi
leader.
The change in tactics, according to British military analysts, has
likely been prompted by fears that Republican Guards and Fedayeen
paramilitaries are operating from the city, hiding in civilian
buildings and having swapped their uniforms for ordinary
clothing.
Captain Johnny Williamson, a spokesman for the 7th Armoured
Brigade, said the introduction of J-Dams, which were used
extensively in Afghanistan and use satellite positioning to
operate with extreme accuracy, was designed to help allied forces
destroy enemy targets inside Basra without causing large numbers
of civilian casualties.
He warned that many of the buildings likely to be hit in
coming days might appear to be non-military targets but
insisted it was because Iraqi forces were hiding among the
civilian population.
"It is fair to say that the targets that we are engaging
will not be conventional military targets. They will not
be barracks or proper weapons facilities and chances are
that it could be someone's house. But they are military
sites.
"When you are fighting non-conventional forces it is
inevitable that there are going to be targets that people
would not normally consider to be military targets," he
said.
US and British officers are anxious to control Basra, which
according to relief agencies is facing acute shortages of food
and water, in order to allow the arrival of humanitarian aid.
Eventually, Basra and its port facilities would be part of an
aid corridor for the rest of the country.
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentSe...ol=968793972154 (http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1035779834869&call_pageid=968332188492&col=968793972154)
Syria warns U.S. of a new Vietnam
MITCH POTTER IN SYRIA. Mar. 25, 2003. 05:35 AM
DAMASCUS -- American forces in Iraq are unwittingly marching
into a "small-scale Vietnam" that won't begin until U.S.
victory is declared, a senior Syrian official warned yesterday.
And mounting U.S. losses will continue long after the Iraqi
regime is gone until the last American soldier leaves the
country, said Syrian Information Minister Adnan Omran.
"The day they defeat the Iraqi regime and take control is the
day the disaster begins," Omran told the Star in a private
briefing.
"In Baghdad, they will find themselves facing daggers drawn
from every corner. It will be a small-scale Vietnam. Small
cuts will be made day after day and week after week until
the Americans are gone.
"It is incredible that George Bush has been deceived by his
advisers into believing he is poised for victory," Omran said.
"This advice is based on the most stupid calculations ever
made of the social dynamic in Iraq."
Syria stands alone in the Arab world for its blanket
condemnation of the Washington-led invasion.
But most senior Syrian leaders just echo the defiance of
Baghdad.
They express confidence in the Iraqi regime's dubious
ability to withstand the coalition onslaught.
Omran's comments amount to a tacit acknowledgement that the
Iraqi regime is likely to fall. But the aftermath will cost
American lives as Iraqis reassert their claim to self-
determination with guerrilla-style attacks against the
"foreign invaders," he said.
The Syrian minister's warning came on a day of mounting fury
as Syrians absorbed the news of deadly air strikes Sunday
night on a busload of Syrians fleeing war-torn Iraq.
Five Syrians were killed and 13 injured in the attack by U.S.
and British jets at Al-Rutba, 160 kilometres from the Syrian
border.
Syria condemned the attack as a "brutal aggression against
unarmed civilians," summoning the U.S. and British ambassadors
to lodge a formal protest and to serve notice it would claim
damages.
"This is a dangerous matter and refutes claims that the
American and British only hit military targets," Omran said.
"I don't know how a bus carrying people returning home and
escaping bombardment and destruction can be mistaken as a
military target. These were civilians."
The bus was loaded with manual labourers racing to flee the
conflict. Syrian Television interviewed survivors, who said
the attack occurred during a stop to allow more passengers on
board.
"Suddenly, we heard an enormous explosion and then the noise
of a plane, but we couldn't see it," a witness told Syrian
Television.
Maj.-Gen. Stanley McChrystal, vice-director of operations for
the U.S. military's Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the bombing
was an accident.
"Unintended casualties like this are regrettable. We extend
our sympathies to the families of those civilians who were
accidentally killed," he told Reuters News Agency.
National grief over the attack is expected to fuel a demonstration
in Damascus this morning, the sixth major street protest since the
outbreak of war. But unlike earlier demonstrations, today's march
is expected to be carefully controlled by Syrian authorities.
"For the first few days, the marches were very spontaneous, with
people from all walks of life who don't normally take to the
streets carrying homemade signs," a Western diplomatic source
said yesterday.
"Now, there's a sense that the Syrian government has it under
control. It's like fine-tuning a faucet. This march will be very
organized and directed, to allow people a release for the sadness
and anger they feel, but not to let things get out of hand."
Relatively few of those joining the protests are Iraqis, despite
the fact that Syria is now home to an estimated 500,000 Iraqis,
many of whom fled their homes in the run-up to war. Most are
staying with friends or in rented homes, waiting for the conflict
to end.
Most of the displaced Iraqis are believed to be Shiite Muslims
from southern Iraq.
Although Shiites comprise a majority in Iraq, they have long
suffered discrimination under Saddam Hussein's Sunni Muslim-
dominated regime and are unlikely to lament its passing.