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| Iraq |
| British commandos to spearhead assault on Basra in US battle plan |
| 2003-02-20 |
| As 1,000 paratroopers flew to Kuwait yesterday to join an escalating number of British soldiers in the Gulf, battle plans for an invasion of Iraq were being refined. Royal Marine commandos will spearhead an amphibious assault on Basra, Iraq's second city and only port, a crucial objective geographically and psychologically. They will be supported by US marines, airborne troops, and elements of a British armoured brigade now building up in Kuwait, which will attack Basra from the west. The rest of the British armoured brigade, equipped with Challenger 2 battle tanks, will be deployed at the rear of the much larger American force. Hey Saddam: this might be the plan. It might not. Commandos, possibly joined by other highly mobile forces, including elements of the 16 Air Assault Brigade now being deployed to Kuwait, will also move in quickly to secure the 1,000 oil wellheads in the Al Faw peninsula, another key objective. Other units in Britain's helicopter-borne assault brigade will secure towns and deal with local resistance, helping to give the main US force a clear drive to Baghdad. From the north, depending on Turkey's agreement, thousands of American airborne troops will protect the oilfields in northern Iraq and take the cities of Mosul and Kirkuk. US special forces are already in Kurdish-controlled areas, advising local commanders. Air cover provided by the Kurdish air force. From Jordan in the west, special forces, including the SAS, will be dropped by helicopter in the wide open spaces of Iraq's western desert looking out for mobile Scud missile batteries which could pose a threat to Israel and Jordan. Or they could be coming in from Iran, Saddam. You'd better cover both. But first there will be a large bombing campaign, with "precision" weapons, including cruise missiles, some from two Royal navy submarines already in the Gulf, attacking symbolic targets such as Saddam Hussein's presidential palaces and headquarters. Might use up all the cruise missiles in the inventory if we attack all the presidential palaces. This will not only land a psychological blow but also prevent the regime's leadership from communicating with military commanders around a country with a highly centralised Soviet-style, command and control system. Thus the south and north of Iraq will collapse, and the centre - Baghdad - will follow. These, at least, are the assumptions based on talks with defence officials and a series of leaks from the Pentagon to American newspapers over the past few months, presumably designed to step up psychological pressure on the Iraqi regime. They will certainly include an element of misinformation. However, there are some targets which must be a priority. Basra is one. Its importance, and the threat posed by Iraqi forces there, is demonstrated by the stepping up of bombing by British and US aircraft on targets within the no-fly zone over southern Iraq. Forces there are mostly cannon fodder. On two consecutive days last week they attacked missile batteries near Basra which could threaten allied forces in Kuwait as well as troops invading Iraq from the south. In further, hitherto unreported, attacks this week, British and American planes bombed five communication centres and a mobile early warning radar in southern Iraq. Basra is a formidable target, not least because it is surrounded by marshes and water, defence analysts warned yesterday. "The Iranians spent many years trying to take Basra and never did," Andrew Brookes, of the International Institute for Strategic Studies, said, referring to the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war. We're not going to use human wave attacks using 14 year olds, so there's no comparison. |
| Posted by:Steve White |
| #1 I understood Saddam drained all the marshes as part of the campaign to wipe out Marsh Arabs. Duh! |
| Posted by: john 2003-02-20 20:31:43 |