Basara is coming under Coalition control right now:
UK troops storm Basra
British soldiers have met little opposition
Hundreds of British tanks and armoured personnel carriers are pouring into the southern Iraqi city of Basra.
The 7th Armoured Brigade, the Desert Rats, have stormed the city with several thousand troops in an attempt to take it over and secure it.
Three units, the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards, Royal Fusiliers and the Black Watch, have advanced into the city, meeting only "isolated pockets" of resistance, correspondents say. The airport has also been secured.
The dramatic push follows days of caution while the mood of Iraq's second biggest city and its defences were assessed.
In other military developments:
American forces are massing in huge numbers around Baghdad, while mortar bombs are reportedly hitting the heart of the city.
Kurdish and American forces in northern Iraq suffer a setback as a convoy is bombed by US aircraft in another "friendly fire" incident; the BBC's John Simpson, at the scene, reports several dead
The US military says it has captured and killed a number of foreign fighters during clashes in Iraq, and that it destroyed a camp at Salman Pak believed to have been used by the Iraqi regime to train foreign volunteers in terrorist tactics.
The US military says further fighting is expected in Karbala, about 60 kilometres (37 miles) south of Baghdad; the American advance into the town, to stop Iraqi paramilitaries from threatening supply lines which stretch hundreds of kilometres up from southern Iraq, was halted on Saturday.
It remains unclear how many Iraqi militia remain in Basra.
British troops say they are being welcomed by civilians waving, cheering and sounding the horns of their cars.
But Iraqis wearing civilian clothes have also thrown a bomb into a building where marines were taking cover.
Captain Roger McMillan of the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards told BBC News no casualties had been suffered and added this was a vindication of the British policy of "advancing slowly and softly as opposed to hitting the door from day one".
SOUTHERN IRAQ
Map: Military operations
Fear haunts Basra
The situation was becoming "increasingly benign", he added.
"We have pushed on the door of Basra and it opened.
"We are going to be staying."
Heavy fighting erupted as the sun rose at 0200 GMT.
British tanks and American Cobra helicopter gunships repeatedly pounded a factory complex as Iraqi militiamen responded with machinegun and sniper fire.
While the fighting raged, looters descended on the building to steal whatever they could lay their hands on.
Then, just after dawn, RAF Chinook helicopters flew in reinforcements of Royal Marines.
British forces spokesman Group Captain Al Lockwood told BBC News the troops "had moved on three to four fronts into Basra".
Their "aggressive patrolling" was intended to "penetrate deeper into the city" and "finally sort out" the paramilitaries, he added.
The aim this time is to take and hold the city
"Our intention is to move in, set up check points and control points."
The resistance encountered had been "generally disorganised, with no real command and control", Group Capt Lockwood added.
"We're encountering some skirmishes and we're dealing with them.
"We're providing humanitarian aid, talking to them, showing them we're doing everything we can but that our greatest concern is them.
"We will liberate Basra.
"We will get things back to normal for the people - but free of Saddam Hussein's regime."
Group Capt Lockwood said it appeared Basra's Baath party leadership had been eliminated or fled.
And the British forces were "very keen" to talk to party members in the city "and tell them it would be better for everyone, particularly the civilian population, if Basra surrendered".
HUMAN COST OF WAR
US: 71 dead (including 16 in non-combat accidents, 4 to 'friendly fire', 2 under investigation), 7 missing
UK: 27 dead (including 16 in non-combat accidents, 5 to 'friendly fire')
Iraq: At least 1200 civilian deaths, military deaths unknown
*Figures from each government
One of several people leaving Basra told BBC News there had been very little resistance to the British advance.
"A lot of fighters have run away.
"There was a little bit of shell fire - but now it is quiet."
Soldiers in city are handing out copies of a statement from Tony Blair.
The single sheet with a black and white photograph of a pensive prime minister promises the Iraqis a peaceful and wealthy life.
Neither Britain, the US nor the UN will control Iraq, it says.
The British forces are also broadcasting their message to Basra's 1.5 million population from a radio station set up outside the city.
The troops have also been ordered not to destroy or desecrate Iraqi flags or war memorials.
Troops have been destroying symbols
Only symbols of the Iraqi regime are deemed justifiable targets.
Early on Saturday, British forces attacked a Baath party building where the Iraqi commander known as "Chemical Ali", who is in charge of the south of the country, was believed to be hiding.
The building which Ali Hassan al-Majid had reportedly been seen entering was hit by both two air strikes and artillery.
On Sunday US Central Command spokesman Jim Wilkinson said the bodies of al-Majid's bodyguards had been found in the building.
The BBC's Caroline Wyatt, with the British troops, also said sources had suggested there was "good reason" to think he may have been killed, "and that would be very, very significant".
Thousands of people reportedly cheered when the building was destroyed.
In other developments:
An Iranian general says that hundreds of bodies discovered in a makeshift morgue by British forces near Basra are those of Iranian soldiers killed in the 1980s Iran-Iraq war
American officials say the US is to start moving its planned post-war civil administration, led by retired general Jay Garner, into Iraq within the next few days.
Sheikh Muhammad Sayyed Tantawi, the grand imam of Egypt's al-Azhar Mosque - seen as the highest spiritual authority for Sunni Muslims - says Saddam Hussein was wrong not to go into exile to avert the US-led war.
Russian diplomatic convoy evacuating staff from Baghdad attacked, with several people reportedly injured. |
