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| Iraq |
| British Forces Fight Tank Battle South of Basra |
| 2003-03-25 |
| British forces south of Basra have blocked an attempted breakout by up to 50 Iraqi tanks seeking to press southward from the edge of the city, a British naval commander said on Tuesday. Captain Alan Massey of the flagship aircraft carrier Ark Royal said British light tanks from the Queen's Dragoons' Guard and marines from two battalions on the Faw Peninsula had halted the advance of the Iraqi tanks overnight and on Tuesday morning. "They were aided by small helicopter gunships and further surveillance helicopters stationed on board ships in Britain's amphibious task force off the Iraqi coast," he told Reuters. "We can't attack them directly because of fear of collateral damage (civilian casualties) so we get them when they poke out," Massey added. There's a trend here I don't like. He said the helicopter and ground forces had destroyed five to seven Iraqi tanks in the fighting so far. British troops have taken over all responsibility for southern Iraq as U.S. forces press on toward the north in their campaign to oust President Saddam Hussein. Earlier, a British spokesman at Central Command headquarters in Qatar said British troops would not enter Basra, Iraq's second city, to battle "Fedayeen" irregular Iraqi fighters. "We're not going into Basra, it's simply considered a target," a British military spokesman at Central Command headquarters in Qatar told Reuters. "The reason it is a potential target is because it has an enormous political and military importance in the area." If you don't go in you don't have the town. Brigadier Jim Dutton of the 3 commando brigade of the Royal Marines told Reuters an Iraqi unit of T-55 tanks was causing problems for the British at Abul Khasib, southeast of Basra, because they were hiding among houses. "They pose no real threat to us. They are not going to be able to advance but it is very difficult to winkle them out because of our collateral damage requirements," he told Reuters. "They are in built-up areas on the southern edge of Abul Khasib on the main east-west road that runs into Basra," he said. Since the United States and Britain invaded Iraq last Thursday, British troops have been reluctant to engage in urban warfare which would endanger the civilian population. "If we were prepared to flatten the houses we could destroy the tanks but we are not prepared to flatten the houses because that is not what we have come here for," Dutton said. And it's going to cost us lives. British Lieutenant Colonel Ronnie McCourt, also at Central Command, said: "All options are open to us. If you're going to put your hand into the hornet's nest you have to make sure you are fully protected. Close-quarter stuff (fighting) really would not be our first choice." We don't have a choice, I'm afraid. Sammy's hard boys are dispursed within the population and will shoot anyone who trys to give up. People won't give up or turn them in if we don't put forces in the city and they see we aren't going away. |
| Posted by:Steve |
| #12 Just to be totally silly, wasn't there a comic strip titled "Winnie Winkle"? |
| Posted by: Craig 2003-03-25 16:29:19 |
| #11 Old Pat, I believe the Warthog might be a little "too much club" for close quarters fighting, don't you? Sneek over and see what Tiger's pulling out of his bag! |
| Posted by: Capsu78 2003-03-25 14:52:36 |
| #10 Where are the A-10's? This is their specialty - hitting difficult targets with massive firepower in limited space. I know, I know, the US Air Force pilots don't like to be saddled to anything that doesn't do mach 12 upside down in a climb, but the A-10 IS the preferred tank-killer. |
| Posted by: Old Patriot 2003-03-25 13:20:17 |
| #9 Ay! Bugger the bastards! |
| Posted by: Domingo 2003-03-25 12:37:13 |
| #8 Cross our fingers that the uprising now being reported in Basra means the Basrarians have begun the "winkling process" and there will be "wankers" swinging on lamp posts by sundown...you know, before the Brits can establish a security perimeter and reestablish human decency. Look for that image on Al Jezzera... |
| Posted by: Capsu78 2003-03-25 12:02:03 |
| #7 "winkle out the wanking winkles". sounds like a Barbara Walters interview |
| Posted by: Frank G 2003-03-25 12:00:36 |
| #6 LOL Capsu, there's no need to be hard on yourself. There's no 'proper' English. In many respects US English is more faithful to the English used centuries ago than ours is over here now. Languages evolve and we can get as much from you as you can from us, if not more so. PS "Winkle" can also mean "penis", apparently. I suppose you could "winkle out the wanking winkles". |
| Posted by: Bulldog 2003-03-25 11:02:26 |
| #5 ok pardon me for being dumb but - youre the iraqi commander at Basra. Your forces are all INSIDE the city, where the coalition forces can't hit you easily by air cause of the civilians, and where if they come in with ground forces you'll use the urban terrain to make them pay. Your mere presence is an embarassment to the coalition. So, you send 50 tanks OUT of the city, to be slaughtered in the open by helicopters. WHY?????? Theres something going on here we dont know about. |
| Posted by: liberalhawk 2003-03-25 10:39:07 |
| #4 Bulldog, It will take many more generations for us Americans to culturally develop our linguistics to the fine precision of your dialect... and one could argue we have taken a serious detour on the way to elequence with Rap music, but that is another rant. Thank you for a fine cultural exchange. You have educated an American today with not only verification, but a fine background explanation. To answer your question, no "winkle" in common use here, and no shellfish I have come across named periwinkle either. Thanks again! |
| Posted by: Capsu78 2003-03-25 10:14:53 |
| #3 Yep, Capsu. Does "winkle" mean something else your side of the pond?! Over here to "winkle out" means to extract something, with difficulty. It comes from the name "winkle", short for "periwinkle", which is an edible snail-shaped shellfish, so you winkle them out of their shells. |
| Posted by: Bulldog 2003-03-25 09:27:27 |
| #2 "but it is very difficult to winkle them out"... Sorry for being an ugly American here, but did he really say "winkle them out"? Would it be correct, using the Kings English instead of the "pig english" used over here in the states, to say "we are in the pro'-cess of winkling the wankers out"? |
| Posted by: Capsu78 2003-03-25 09:16:42 |
| #1 I am disturbed by the reports from the field of the problem of distinguishing the Iraqi soldier from the the Iraqi civilian. In addition to dropping leaflets advising Iraqi soldiers to surrender, we should have also dropped leaflets advising all Iraqis that anyone carrying a weapon of any kind is a legitimate target. That, it seems to me, would alleviate the need for the soldier vs. civilian distinction that our rules of engagement apparently is causing our troops. It is going to be a tough and bloody fight, no doubt about it....with many thousands of American and coalition deaths in street to street fighting. For the sake of the future of the free world, it is a sacrfice we have to make. Once this regime is toppled, it will send a clear message to ALL of the rogue regimes that the Americans are not the same people they were prior to September 11. I personally see no end to terrorism. However, if we can make the price for support of terrorism by Rogue nations the toppling of their govt., then, in that event, one may think twice about doing so. |
| Posted by: Mustang 2003-03-25 09:13:10 |