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Great news and excellent report. We are praying specifically for the liberation of Basra - over Here Please keep us posted on the progress. Looks like a paticularly dense location of "evil" given this information: "The man leading the fightback, General Ali Hassan al-Majid - known as Chemical Ali - is said to have ordered soldiers to sign up every day to promise to fight on.

Drafted in to bolster the resistance and retake the south of the country, he is believed to have brought with him 500 men from a special security guard based in Saddam’s home town of Tikrit, placing two of them with each military commander with orders to shoot him if he shows signs of capitulating. "

Go, Brits, Go!

And now they have sent in the royal marines

byebye murdering scum

K forces attack Iraqi stronghold

Basra campaign is going well say UK military
British forces have raided an Iraqi military stronghold south of the country's second city.
Five Iraqi officers were captured and a colonel of the Republican Guard killed in the attack on the village outside Basra, according to a senior British military official.

RAF Harrier pilots also claim to have successfully attacked a fuel storage depot used by tank units of the Republican Guard.

The British say their forces now hold the four bridges on the outskirts of Basra and continue to launch what they describe as aggressive patrols into and out of the city.

British forces military spokesman Group Captain Al Lockwood said there was still resistance by "illegal criminal elements" but this would be met.

'Disorganised resistance'

At dawn companies of the British 3 Commando moved into the village of Abu al-Qassib and captured prisoners of war they say are senior Iraqi army officials, said BBC correspondent Kylie Morris.

In the Rumaila oil fields, another Ba'athist official has been captured by British forces as they continue their campaign to destroy Saddam Hussein's Ba'ath party in Basra, she said.

THE BATTLE FOR BASRA

Click here for the military position
Enlarge image

See also: Why Basra matters
Meanwhile, the BBC's Hilary Andersson said British Royal Marines outside Basra have taken on Iraqi forces overnight and captured tanks, armoured vehicles and prisoners.

Gp Cpt Lockwood said the operation around Basra was going well and resistance was disorganised.

"They are these illegal criminal elements who have decided they have no future in Iraq," he said.

"If they are prepared to fight instead of surrendering to us we will engage them".

Speaking about the fuel depot hit overnight, Wing Commander Andy Suddards, said it was in the desert outside Karbala, 80 kilometres (50 miles) southwest of Baghdad.

'Harassing tactics'

Fuel depots attacks are aimed at stranding Republican Guard tanks in the desert or at least reducing their mobility.

"I fired one Maverick missile into the heart of a fuel dump west-north-west of Karbala used by the Republican Guard.

Harrier pilots are seeking to destroy supply lines
"The visibility was good and I saw the bang," he said.

He said the formation dropped four laser-guided bombs and some free-fall bombs to take out the rest of the storage area.

Amid suggestions - denied by the Pentagon - that the coalition ground offensive has ground to a halt with overstretched supply lines and unexpected Iraqi harassing tactics, the RAF commander said air was having an effect.

"While the army is not moving forward it is the turn of the air to shape the battle space," he said.

The RAF is also involved in attacks on the Republican Guard's armoured Medina Division, which is guarding Karbala and is understood to be one of the best equipped and best manned of the Guard's six divisions.

Pilots say they have destroyed some of its biggest guns, using laser-guided bombs and Maverick missiles.

A US military spokesman said 30 Apache helicopters also attacked the positions southwest of Baghdad, killing at least 50 troops and destroying about 25 vehicles.