Myth 2: The taking of Umm Qasr
As coalition ground forces poured across the Iraqi border from Kuwait on the first night of fighting on March 20, a pooled despatch from a reporter with the Royal Marines gave an action-packed and detailed account of the British assault on the Faw peninsula and the port of Umm Qasr. The marines, the report said, had successfully secured the port.
A couple of hours later, an advisory note was sent out by the Press Association telling newsdesks to hold the Umm Qasr copy because the taking of the town was not yet complete. By that time it was too late: most newspapers had gone to press and both Sky and BBC News 24 were reporting that Umm Qasr was in British hands, reading verbatim from the pooled report. By the next morning, it seemed academic anyway: Admiral Sir Michael Boyce, chief of the defence staff, announced that Umm Qasr had been "overwhelmed" by coalition forces, a claim repeated again by both US and British commanders on Saturday.
But last Sunday, it became clear that Umm Qasr was far from being under control, as television news broadcast dramatic live pictures of a prolonged firefight between US marines and about 150 Iraqis, who held out against artillery shelling and intense air strikes until Tuesday, when the port, finally, was secured. Whitehall admits it was a "bit forward" about Umm Qasr. |
