Posted on 03/27/2003 3:38:18 AM PST by kattracks
Iraqis leave Basra, tank convoy destroyed
By David Fox
SOUTH OF BASRA, Iraq, March 27 (Reuters) - Thousands of tired and thirsty Iraqi civilians trudged out of Basra on Thursday, seeking water and shelter from air raids, as British forces shot up more Iraqi tanks leaving the city.
Spokesman Captain Al Lockwood said British forces destroyed 14 Iraqi tanks and four armoured personnel carriers, foiling a fresh attempt by troops loyal to President Saddam Hussein to break out of the southern city, Iraq's second largest.
"It was a very quick, short, sharp engagement. They were all destroyed," Lockwood said, adding the convoy was intercepted by British tanks as it headed southeast towards the Faw Peninsula.
"They did not surrender and therefore 14 tanks and a number of APCs were destroyed, with no losses to ourselves," he said.
U.S.-led forces earlier said they destroyed most of a column of between 70 and 120 Iraqi tanks and armoured vehicles that tried to move south from Basra overnight.
On Tuesday, a British naval commander said his forces, which control most of the area south of Basra, had blocked an attempted Basra breakout of up to 50 tanks.
Lieutenant-Colonel Ronnie McCourt told Reuters at Central Command in Qatar: "They seem to be resorting to desperate measures. It may be they are just looking for a way of breaking out of where they are.
"Another reason might be that they're launching probing attacks. It might suggest they don't really have a coherent thought-through plan and are just taking opportunities as and when they can."
REFUGEES SEEK WATER
A British military official near Basra said around 3,000 Iraqis, mostly men, had crossed a bridge south of the city between 6 and 10 a.m. joining some 10,000 who left earlier.
A Reuters reporter saw a steady trickle leaving town on foot across a bridge over the Euphrates river just south of Basra.
Every one of them asked for water. A smaller number of Iraqis, around 200, were heading into the city on Thursday, concerned for family and friends after recent air raids.
Basra was the scene of a failed Shi'ite uprising against Saddam's Sunni-dominated government after the 1991 Gulf War.
Lockwood told BBC radio on Thursday there had been a popular uprising on Tuesday, in one isolated part of the city.
Al Jazeera, one of few broadcasters with reporters in Basra, said there were intensive air raids by U.S.-led forces on the city on Thursday.
The Arabic-language satellite channel showed footage of at least four injured civilians, including a woman and a small boy.
The United Nations has expressed alarm at a humanitarian crisis in Basra, which has been short of water and cut off from electricity for days. Red Cross officials have now partially restored water.
(Additional reporting by John Chalmers in Qatar)
03/27/03 06:32 ET
It's a little late for the U.N. to be showing sympathy for the plight of the Iraqi people. The case was made many times, very explicitly, that the Iraqi's were in need of deliverance from their 'humanitarian crisis.' That the U.N. waited until now to 'express alarm' is only more proof that they are not only irrelevant, they are evil, harmful, opposed to freedom and liberty and utterly anti-American.
The same might be said for the Rep. Guard moving out of Baghdad to confront the good guys. They should make more attractive targets for various air attacks.
Every one of them asked for water.
Is the river water unfit to drink, or does Reuters have some other motive in suggesting a greater problem than actually exists?
Yes, the river water has sewage dumped directly into it. Cholera is a real possibility.
Excellent point. Even if the river is poluted, the water could be boiled.
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