Invasion Forces Target Baath Party in Basra as Civilians Stream Back into City

30/03/2003| IslamWeb

Invasion troops surrounding Basra targeted Iraq's ruling Baath party by wiping out a gathering of some 200 members as thousands of civilians re-entered the country's second city. A US general showed footage of a building, which was destroyed by a coalition attack while hosting a meeting of some 200 Baath members in the Basra region. Footage of a missile or bomb dropped on the building was also shown.

The demonstration of coalition firepower came after the British, who are besieging Basra, said that the Baath party apparatus in the city was now their chief target.

The invading British troops meanwhile said a captured senior unnamed Baath party official was being interrogated while British forces had destroyed two statues believed to have been of Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein on Saturday.

Such an operation was designed to deal a psychological blow to the ruling Baath party and show that the British can now operate "with a degree of impunity" around Basra.

According to British sources, the party's headquarters in Basra and in the nearby town of Al-Zubair "no longer exist."

The sources added that the radio and television stations in Basra were no longer operating. Baath party members were now communicating by telephone and the British were now considering targeting the phone system.

Thousands of civilians, most of them men, took advantage of a pause in shelling on Basra to stream past British military checkpoints and back into town.

British invasion soldiers on the city's outskirts told AFP that many of the men re-entering were looking for family members to bring them out to safety.

However, there were also fears that some of the men might be Iraqi soldiers in civilian clothes drifting into the city, which is still in Iraqi hands, to help reinforce its defenses.

The British were carefully checking the few vehicles allowed to go into Basra for weapons and uniforms, and most people were made to leave their cars and walk the four kilometers (two miles) to the city.

Several large explosions could also be heard.

The US military meanwhile said US F/A-18 fighter jets used precision-guided weapons to bomb three Al-Samoud 2 missile launchers in a strike near Basra.

The coalition had been hoping that Basra's mainly Shiite population would rise up against Saddam Hussein's rule, which is dominated by Sunnis in Baghdad.

But Iraqi regular army deserters said that Saddam loyalists were now seeking to tighten their reign on Basra, by ordering them to carry out Palestinian-style resistance bombings on motorbikes packed with explosives.

PHOTO CAPTION

An Iraqi man walks past two British soldiers manning a checkpoint on the outskirts of the southern Iraqi city of Basra. (AFP/Roberto Schmidt)