battleplan:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/ar ... 3Apr2.html
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/ar ... 3Apr2.htmlAlso, the Iraqis know that with a U.S. approach designed to end the war as quickly as possible, the U.S. military is unlikely to follow the example of the British forces outside Basra and sit at the city limits, refusing to take the bait
British Use Raids to Wear Down Iraqi Fighters
By Keith B. Richburg
Washington Post Foreign Service
Thursday, April 3, 2003; Page A25
ON THE OUTSKIRTS OF BASRA, April 2 -- British soldiers ringing Basra have begun regular raids into the city, pushing deeper and deeper with each incursion to gather information on Iraqi fighters inside and destroy Iraqi firing positions before withdrawing to secure areas on the outskirts.
The tactic is dictated as much by necessity as by design. As long as President Saddam Hussein's Baath Party remains in control of Basra -- residents and even some British officers agree that the two-week siege has yet to dent the party's hold -- British commanders are loath to order a full-scale assault that would entail bloody street battles and doubtless cause civilian casualties.
The siege of Basra -- and the guerrilla tactics used by the Iraqi army and the militia group Saddam's Fedayeen inside -- could be an indication of what U.S. Marines and soldiers will encounter when they reach Baghdad, the Iraqi capital. Iraqi defenders inside Basra have stymied the better-equipped British troops outside by interspersing themselves, their artillery and their tanks among the civilian population, almost daring the British to come inside the city for a showdown.
Just before dawn this morning, British forces in armored vehicles raced across the southernmost main bridge into Basra and punched about three miles into town, drawing fierce Iraqi mortar fire in retaliation. Officers said the aim of that raid was to gather intelligence, and they called it a success.
Two hours later, British troops, including engineers, went across the bridge to try to cut the oil pipeline feeding into a trench that was set ablaze by the Iraqis, sending plumes of black smoke billowing over the city. The British troops withdrew about 30 minutes later under heavy Iraqi mortar fire, an officer said.
British troops from Zulu Company, based at Basra International Airport, launched a raid across the river during the night to secure control of a large food warehouse at the edge of the city. The warehouse contained an estimated 300 tons of food stocks, believed to have been delivered under the U.N. oil-for-food program.
A unit of British Warrior armored vehicles raced across a field under the bridge to battle Iraqi fighters who were holed up in a sprawling factory compound and firing rocket-propelled grenades and assault rifles at British troops on the bridge. One officer estimated that between 10 and 20 Iraqis were killed inside the factory. The soldiers allowed an Iraqi civilian to collect one dead body that lay outside the factory, but other Iraqis were told to wait until after the war to collect the dead inside.
With these repeated incursions across the river -- and the immediate withdrawals back across the bridges that form the entrances to Basra -- the British say they are trying to slowly wear down the Iraqi resistance and demonstrate that there are no "safe areas" for Iraqi fighters to challenge British positions.
"All the companies have mounted several raids into the city, gathering intelligence and finding out how much resistance there is," said Maj. John Cotterill, a 26-year army veteran who speaks Arabic and is attached to the Irish Guards as an interpreter. "We want to destroy their mortars and find out more about their positions."
He called the tactic "reconnaissance by force." Asked why the British troops did not try to remain in the city and establish a foothold, he replied, "We're quite happy here. We don't want to go in there. Just kill the bad guys and come out again. And go in and kill some more and come out again."
As long as Hussein remains in power in Baghdad, his Baath Party is likely to retain its grip on this predominantly Shiite Muslim city in the south, British officers said. A brief revolt against Hussein's rule after the Persian Gulf War in 1991 was crushed after it failed to win U.S. backing; this time Basra residents are believed to be reluctant to show any anti-government sentiment until the course of the war becomes clearer.
Asked who controls Basra, Aaed Manuel, an engineer who works for the International Red Cross and who lives in the center of the city, replied without hesitation: "The government. Until now, it's the government. Outside, it's the British."
"The Baath Party and the Fedayeen are still in control," said Maj. Aidan Stephen, a civil liaison officer of the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards. "Until you can actually get a foot on the ground, that element will stay."
"At a political level, there's a tie-in" between Basra and Baghdad, Stephen said. "The Americans are going towards Baghdad. We've been outside of Basra. Which one goes first?"
If the British do storm and take Basra, many of the Iraqi fighters now entrenched in the city could end up moving north, he said, "complicating things for the Americans."
Part of the British effort is to win the trust of the population and convince them that, unlike in 1991, they intend to stay in Iraq and fight until Hussein is ousted. Small fliers being distributed in the area show a drawing of a bearded Iraqi shaking hands with a British soldier and carry the message, in Arabic: "We will not desert you this time. Trust us and be patient."
Iraqis inside the city have not only taken defensive positions; they are also attempting to take the fight to the British, and trying to taunt them into a full-scale battle in the city. They fire mortars regularly. British troops on the bridge say they have become more accurate in recent days. Early this morning an Iraqi mortar landed about 30 feet from where British troops were sleeping.
The Iraqi fighters have also placed land mines on the side of the bridge closest to the city. This morning British troops on the bridge discovered a mine attached to a tripwire in a field close to their position. An officer speculated that the mine was placed there as a booby trap, since Iraqis knew that when they fired mortars at the bridge, the British troops jumped into that field for cover.
"They were hoping that when we ran for cover, someone would trip it and lose a leg," Cotterill said.
British engineers detonated the mine in a controlled explosion this afternoon.
Cotterill said Iraqi resistance to the incursions depends on the time of day. The most resistance is at night, he said. Occasionally, the British have launched incursions at midday and found no Iraqi fighters. "In the middle of the heat of day, there was no resistance at all," he said. "I think it was siesta time."
**************
Great, no fucking wonder why Basra hasn't been taken in two fucking
weeks, the british are dicking around taking it inch by inch...this
entire cockup by them is starting to remind me of one of the late
Sir Bernard Law Montgomery's battleplans: intricately complex,
and takes forever to work.
