As the British forces declare taking Basra a military target, innocent civilians brace for a looming humanitarian crisis

BAGHDAD, March 25 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - As the British forces Tuesday, March 25, declared taking Iraq's southern city of Basra a military objective after meeting ferocious resistance, the United Nations has warned of a potential humanitarian crisis in Iraq's second city where fighting is preventing aid reaching its 1.5 million citizens.

Some 100,000 children are at risk of disease as the battle-scarred city goes into its fourth day with disrupted supplies of drinking water, the BBC News Online quoted a U.N. spokesman as saying.

According to a U.N. official in Amman, many people in Basra are now taking water from the river where sewage is dumped.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has managed to restore some of the water supply but only to less than half of the population.

The ICRC said a humanitarian crisis is looming in Basra with more than a million civilians have been without clean water or electricity in the city since Friday as fighting rages outside, The Independent reported.

"This is an emergency situation," ICRC spokesman Nadia Doumani said.

Florain Westphal, also of the ICRC, said "We have not been able to gain access to the main water station today, so we will try to do it tomorrow. Sixty per cent of the population are still without access to a regular water supply. This could develop into a humanitarian crisis."

The United Nations secretary general, Kofi Annan, made an urgent appeal on Monday, March 24, for water supplies to be rushed in.

Annan called for urgent action but, given the military situation, it will be difficult for humanitarian supplies to reach the area in the immediate future.

"Urgent measures should be taken to restore electricity and water to that population. A city of that size cannot afford to go without electricity or water for long. Apart from the water aspect, you can imagine what it does for sanitation."

"Military Objective"

British invasion forces declared Basra a military objective

Outside Basra, British troops pulled back after they met ferocious resistance when they tried to enter the city where the U.S. and Britain had predicted their forces would be welcomed as liberators, reported the British paper.

But the British forces said taking Basra has now become a military objective in order to get humanitarian aid to civilians there.

A spokesman for the British forces in Doha told al-Jazeera satellite channel that the British forces do basically care about the Iraqi civilians in the city.

“The city inhabitants are prevented from welcoming the British forces by some of pro-Saddam fighters,” he claimed.

Asked how many days the invasion forces need to secure the city, the spokesman evaded a direct answer, only saying "we carefully assess the situation."

Some British commanders concede that the Iraqis are dictating the battle plan in Basra, playing their strongest suit by drawing the British into urban warfare, the BBC News Online reported.

"The British wanted to handle Basra as gently as possible - they hoped the people would welcome them but this did not happen because of resistance which came out of the city," it added.

The first British combat soldier was killed during attempts to push in the city and two others are still missing.

Iraqi officials also affirmed that the city residents would not give up resistance to the invading forces, as the government are sending basic needs to the area.

"We have 22 roads leading to Basra through which we send to the inhabitants food stuffs and other needs. Every family in the city has stockpiled supplies enough for a long six months," Iraqi Trade Minister Mohamed Mahdi Saleh said in a press conference Tuesday.

Saleh charged that the U.S.-led invasion forces are hampering delivering supplies to the inhabitants, saying that ships carrying humanitarian relief were seized by the American forces in Umm Qasr port.

More "Child Deaths"

Desperate civilians are drinking water from the river in Basra, the United Nations Children's Fund joined in the warning as raw sewage is dumped in the river roused fears of a disease outbreak.

The UNICEF warned in a statement that at least 100,000 small children in Basra are at risk of disease after the water supplies were cut on the besieged southern Iraqi city.

"There must now be a threat of disease as tens of thousands of people in their homes, hospitals and care institutions attempt to cope and find what water they can from the river and other sources," read the statement carried by Agence France-Presse (AFP).

"Unfortunately the river is also where sewage is dumped."

It said children were most vulnerable to contaminated water.

"Not only are they suffering from high rates of malnutrition, in Basra there is the very real possibility now of child deaths, not only from the conflict, but from the additional effects of diarrhea and dehydration."

UNICEF said it estimated that "at least 100,000 children under the age of five are at risk".

Fadela Chaib, a spokeswoman for the World Health Organization in the Jordanian capital, said teams from the ICRC have restored the water supply for about 40 percent of the population.

However, she said this only partially met the city's needs.

"The WHO is worried about the impact that the lack of access to potable and clean water will have on the health situation, which could deteriorate quickly."

The Wafa al-Qaed water treatment plant, which usually supplies most of Basra, has been out of action since Friday when the electricity cables to the plant were destroyed.

As the people in the city put up resistance to the invading forces, they suffered a higher death toll.

Iraqi Information Minister Mohammed Said Monday Al-Sahhaf said 24 people had been killed and 411 injured in bombardments of Baghdad, Karbala, Basra and Babel and another five civilians, including a woman, died when a missile hit a densely-populated area of Baghdad.