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Politics : Stop the War! -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Karen Lawrence who wrote (5217)	3/29/2003 1:25:02 PM
From: Karen Lawrence	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 21614

Myth 5 Basra uprising that wasn't With coalition forces brought to a halt by a fierce sandstorm and facing repeated guerilla attack by Iraqi forces, both the military and the media were searching for a breakthrough in the campaign. That came on Tuesday evening when BBC News 24 began broadcasting reports of an uprising against Saddam Hussein's forces in the southern city of Basra. This was momentous news. About 1,000 troops and militia loyal to President Saddam had held off the British forces dug in around the city for almost five days. Inside, a humanitarian crisis was unfolding as many of the 1.2 million residents were forced to survive without water or power. The story was broken by Richard Gaisford, a GMTV correspondent embedded with the British. He cited "military intelligence" as the source, and soon television news and wire services were running reports of British artillery hitting Iraqi mortar positions which had been firing on civilians. Pooled despatches from reporters with other British units around Basra added weight to the story. On Wednesday morning, the Daily Telegraph greeted the uprising in a leader article as "the best news of the war so far for the allied forces". Except it was not so straightforward. Four days later, the much heralded uprising is yet to happen. The city remains under the control of Saddam Hussein's forces and the British remain camped on the outskirts.