AL-SALIYAH, Qatar, March 21 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - British Royal Marines established a beachhead on the strategic Fao peninsula of southeast Iraq and taken control of key oil pumping equipment, a British military spokesman said Friday, March 21.

Group Captain Al Lockwood of the Royal Air Force said that elements of the marines' Three Brigade encountered only light resistance after crossing the northern Gulf late Thursday, March 20, to land on the peninsula.

No casualties were reported and "operations are continuing as planned," Lockwood said at the As-Saliyah command post of the U.S. Central Command, which is directing the invasion of Iraq, according to Agence France-Presse (AFP).

British military spokesmen were unable to say if the town of Fao itself had been captured.

The Fao peninsula is south of the Iraqi port of Basra, which if taken by invading forces would be a major prize, since it is the country's main access to the sea.

The tiny peninsula seems of little strategic importance to the Iraqi forces, as it was seized dozens of times by the Iranian troops during the eight long war between the two neighbors in the 1980s.

Some military planners had feared that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein could unleash an environmental catastrophe with oil spills as U.S. and British troops came after him.

U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld on Thursday said as many as four Iraqi oil fields may have already been set ablaze.

Kuwaiti environment officials, meanwhile, also said that Iraqi forces had set fire to oil wells in southern Iraq, the emirate's official KUNA news agency reported.

However, they gave no further details about the number of burning wells, and there was no confirmation of the reports.

Lockwood said the British troops on the Fao peninsula had "taken the oil pumping equipment that leads into the northern Arabian Gulf and secured it."

"So the prospect of pollution into the Gulf available to Saddam Hussein is no longer a problem," he added.

More Explosions Rock Mosul

In the northern front, several explosions were heard Friday morning in or around Mosul, the major city in northern Iraq, according to an AFP journalist in Kalak, a nearby town under Kurdish control.

Plumes of smoke from three planes were seen around the time of three initial blasts at 7:45 am (0445 GMT). The exact location of the explosions was unclear.

The Qatar-based satellite network Al-Jazeera reported that warning sirens went off in Mosul at the same time.

A second series of explosions rocked the city later the same morning, it said, again followed by sirens.

Kalak, which has been controlled by Kurdish rebels since the 1991 Gulf War, is about 40 kilometers (25 miles) from Mosul.

Sirens Go Off In Kuwait

Air raid sirens sounded Friday in Kuwait, an AFP correspondent reported, after 10 Iraqi missiles landed on the U.S. military bases in the emirate in the first 24 hours of the U.S.-led invasion.

Several minutes later, the all-clear sounded and officials said the alarm was merely a precaution.

Kuwaiti army spokesman Colonel Yussif al-Mulla told the official KUNA news agency the latest sirens, which went off around 09:20 am (0620 GMT), were "precautionary and nothing was intercepted."

"There was no Scud or any other projectile which had been intercepted and the sirens went off as a precautionary measure."

It was the eighth time that warning sirens had sounded across Kuwait since Thursday. They were also heard at around 01:30 am Friday but the all-clear sounded a few minutes later.

Australian Troops Inside Iraq

In Canberra, defense officials said Friday that Australia's crack Special Air Services (SAS) troops have crossed into Iraq, probably on long-range reconnaissance and surveillance missions.

However, Defense spokesman Brigadier Mike Hannan declined to comment on the exact role of the 150-strong SAS squadron deployed as part of the 2,000 military contingent attached to the so-called ‘coalition of the willing’.

"I can tell you that our special forces task group has transitioned from the battle preparation phase ... and is now undertaking active operations inside Iraq," Hannan told reporters.

In general, the SAS was likely to be involved in long-range reconnaissance and surveillance behind enemy lines, seeking detailed information on enemy troop movements, and helping identify targets and key military installations, he said.

Australian warships are also deployed in the Gulf, checking Iraqi merchant ships for mines and fugitive members of the Iraqi leadership, Hannan revealed.