- BASRA, Iraq (Reuters) - British
paratroopers guarded by tanks and helicopter gunships walked unopposed
into the center of Iraq's second city of Basra on Monday, meeting a warm
reception in the narrow streets of the old quarter.
-
- On the outskirts of the city, dozens of mainly young
men and boys used the breach in control to loot. Using wheelbarrows and
trailers, they stole anything they could carry, including office equipment,
furniture, and household appliances. One distraught Iraqi said: "They
(the British) have to stop this stealing, they are not doing anything about
it."
-
- British Air Marshal Brian Burridge said looting was almost
"an inevitability."
-
- "There is a release of pent-up annoyance and hatred
against the Ba'ath Party and the Ba'ath regime but once that safety valve
is blown ... the business of protecting property becomes easier,"
he said.
-
- Walking past the bodies of Iraqi militiamen lying in
wasteland on either side of the main road from the south, about 700 British
troops armed with automatic weapons entered the city in the early afternoon
in single-file columns.
-
- Not a shot was fired as men, women and children came
out on the street, some to welcome their new occupiers and others to simply
stand and stare.
-
- Four U.S. Cobra helicopters swooped overhead as the troops
made their advance to Siyamar Square in the heart of the dilapidated southern
city. Criss-crossed by canals, it was once labeled the "Venice of
the East."
-
- Burridge said British forces were still expecting some
resistance from what he described as a "hard core" of Ba'ath
Party members loyal to Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.
-
- "The 3rd Battalion of the Parachute Regiment are
in the process now of sweeping the old town in Basra which is a myriad
of narrow streets and winding alleys and this has to be done on foot,"
Burridge told reporters at war headquarters in Qatar.
-
- But officers on the ground said they were confident the
bulk of resistance had been subdued in a raid on Sunday involving more
than two dozen tanks and armored personnel carriers.
-
- "This (reception) is more than we could have hoped
for. We took part in the raid yesterday and today it's a completely different
city," said Major Chris Brannigan of the Royal Scots Dragoons Guards,
manning a tank at an intersection on the main boulevard, Baghdad Street.
-
- Soldiers took positions along the road, some lying on
their bellies facing out toward tumble-down houses and dusty side streets
too narrow for tanks.
-
- Most made their way to the main square, and were thronged
by locals under a giant portrait of Saddam.
-
- "Welcome, welcome, very good!" shouted some.
Others begged the troops for water in a city that has been virtually under
siege since the war began 19 days ago.
-
- Shouting commands on his radio, paratrooper Dan Worthington
said they were unsure whether they would remain in the city. But in London,
British Defense Secretary Geoff Hoon said the troops were there to stay.
-
- Basra residents said they were happy to see the back
of Saddam's Fedayeen militia but were wary about the future.
-
- "What will happen now we have no government?"
asked 47-year-old Majid Abas. "Will we get water and medical supplies?
We are poor, we have nothing."
-
- On the road running south, a fleet of armored vehicles
marked with red crosses entered a large college compound from where Fedayeen
militia had been targeting British positions with mortars and gunfire,
pinning them back to the city's outskirts.
-
- "We're going in to collect bodies (of Iraqi militia),"
said one British soldier. "This is the place we raided yesterday and
basically we neutralized them."
-
- Earlier on Monday in Qatar, British Central Command spokesman
Captain Al Lockwood confirmed three British soldiers were killed in fighting
for the city.
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