BASRA,
April 3 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - Met with gritty
resistance, British forces came under Iraqi fire Thursday, April 3, as
they made further incursions into Basra, Iraq’s second largest city,
where British officials warned some 1,000 Iraqi fighters were still
holding out.
Iraqi
fighters aimed rocket-propelled grenades (RPG) and machine-gun fire at
British positions and an Iraqi T-55 tank was seen advancing towards the
frontline, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.
However,
the British troops have reportedly made little headway, advancing only
one kilometer (less than a mile) from the south in the direction of the
city center.
"It's
quite clear that elements of (the Iraqi army's) 51 brigade that we gave
an opportunity to capitulate have pulled back inside," the British
forces' chief spokesman Colonel Chris Vernon said.
The
spokesman added it was impossible to put a figure on the number of
regular troops still inside the city, claiming many were changing in and
out of uniform.
British
troops, known as Desert Rats, alleged destroyed an Iraqi tank, a bunker
and capturing 12 Iraqi prisoners of war as they established what they
called an advanced vehicle checkpoint.
"The
purpose is to get information from the civilians going in and out of the
city about what is happening right inside," Lieutenant Colonel
David Paterson said.
"We
need to establish that interface because we need to know the conditions
there before we go into Basra," he added.
All-Out
Assault Pending
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A
British soldier looks from his armored vehicle as Iraqi resistance
in Basra gets stiffer
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Vernon,
however, said that the British military had no immediate plans to launch
an all-out assault on the city but British troops were able to stage
incursions on a regular basis.
"We
are in and out as we see fit. We will go in, come out, and one day we
will stay," he said.
Britain's
Defense Secretary Geoff Hoon said the campaign to take control of Basra
was well on course.
"Key
suburbs of Basra have been taken. We can move further into the
city," Hoon told the House of Commons Thursday.
Vernon
denied that British troops were besieging Basra, saying that a passage
in the northeast had been left "entirely open" for residents
to come and go.
Iraqi
Information Minister Mohammad Said al-Sahhaf repudiated reports that
Basra was on the verge of being captured.
"Basra
is still there. She is strong. All the Iraqi units are there,"
Sahhaf told a press conference in Baghdad Thursday.
Sahhaf
said the 442nd regiment of the Iraqi army pushed back an occupation
attack near the southern city of Basra on Wednesday, April 2.
"Basra
is in good shape and our fighters remain there," he said, adding
that even in the port city of Umm Qasr resistance continues.
British
forces have staged a series of raids into the city, destroying a giant
statue of President Saddam Hussein and infrastructure such as radio
masts as well as bombing offices of the ruling Baath party.
"Some
3,500 Iraqi prisoners of war were being held at a British detention
centre around the southern port of Umm Qasr, including several senior
military and Baath party officials who were "giving some pretty
good intelligence", Vernon claimed.
ICRC
To Send Aid Convoy Into Basra
In
another development, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC)
said Thursday that a convoy carrying medical supplies will leave Kuwait
on Friday, April 4, and try to enter the embattled southern Iraqi city
of Basra for the first time.
Two
trucks will be carrying supplies and water containers for the wounded in
the city’s hospitals, the Swiss-based aid agency said in a statement.
"After
two weeks marked by heavy fighting, the ICRC remains extremely concerned
by the situation of the civilian population in towns and rural areas
close to the front lines, particularly south of Baghdad," it said.
"It
is the first time we have a convoy into Basra," ICRC spokeswoman
Nada Doumani noted.
The
ICRC has received security guarantees from the U.S.-led forces and Iraqi
forces in the city to cross the frontline there, she asserted.
The
aid agency also sounded the alarm about the situation in other Iraq
cities including Nasiriya, Najaf and Kerbala.
