Battle of Basra (2003)

The Battle of Basra lasted from March 21, 2003 to April 6, 2003 and was one of the first battles of the 2003 invasion of Iraq. The British 7 Armoured Brigade fought their way into Iraq's second-largest city, Basra, on 6 April coming under constant attack by regulars and Fedayeen. While elements of the Parachute Regiment cleared the 'old quarter' of the city that was inaccessible to vehicles. Entering Basra had only been achieved after two weeks of conflict, which included the biggest tank battle by British forces since the Second World War when the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards destroyed 14 Iraqi tanks on 27 March.

Background
Basra is a city of more than one million people, located in Southern Iraq. To military and economic planners, it represents a strategic objective because it sits near a port that provides access from inland Iraq to the Persian Gulf. The area around Basra itself produces much of Iraq's oil, which is processed at a local refinery. To the south-east is Rumaila oil field, which by itself contains billions of barrels worth of crude oil—14% of the world supply. To the north-east is the West Qurna Field, the second-largest oil field in the world.

Britain captured Basra from the Ottoman Empire in 1914 and suppressed an Arab revolt there in 1941.

The city was a major target during the Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s and was bombed by the US in the 1991 Gulf War.

Basra was the site of a 1991 uprising to overthrow Saddam Hussein after the US had driven the Iraqi Army from Kuwait. Residents became embittered when support promised by the US did not materialize. Basra then suffered from years of sanctions and bombing, as well as bad treatment from Hussein. An Iraqi living in exile said in 2001: "Iraqis think Saddam is America's man. These people are not going to forget what has happened to them. In their eyes, it is genocide. And people do not forget genocide."

The population of Basra saw a dramatic increase in birth defects and childhood cancer during the 1990s; these illnesses and others were blamed on US depleted uranium munitions used in 1991. Sanctions compounded the problem by blocking access to medical equipment and increasing the price of supplies.

The United States bombed Basra routinely throughout the 1990s and leading up to the Iraq War.

A new war
Basrans learned of the planned invasion in late 2002 began to prepare for an attack—forming militiats and building fortifications.

Regular bombings of Basra continued during this period.

Basra targeted
The US declared Basra as one of its first targets of the war.

Spokespeople for the US military told the media that Basra's Shi'ite population would welcome the invading forces and rise up against Saddam Hussein. This claim played a role in the public relations campaign conducted by the US and UK governments to win public support for the war.

Among Iraqi cities, Basra “would be one that would fall quickly and would yield immediate photogenic results”, said US military historian Raymond Callahan.

"Basra is a prime target. It would give a clear message to the regime - we have got your oil and commercial centre", said Colonel Christopher Langton of the International Institute of Strategic Studies.

Approach
US and UK forces entered Iraq from Kuwait on 19 March, approaching Basra on the road that had become notorious as the “Highway of Death” during the Gulf War. The invading army reportedly moved slowly down the highway, having created a traffic jam of military vehicles.

The first fighting of the declared invasion took place on the oilfields and coastline near Basra.

Some fires had already been started at the oil fields. Three fires were visible from across the border in Kuwait. US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld blamed Hussein and said: "It is a crime for that regime to be destroying the riches of the Iraqi people."

The immediate objective for the Coalition forces was to control Basra and the nearby Rumaila oil field. By 22 March, US Marines had gained control of the oil field.

Aircraft dropped leaflets on Basra urging Iraqi soldiers to surrender; some did.

Siege
Coalition forces met with unexpected resistance in Basra and environs. After a few days of combat, most of the invading American troops moved northwards, leaving Basra under a multi-week siege led by the British—considered more experienced because of their history as colonial administrators of Iraq and of Northern Ireland.

“Humanitarian crisis”
Water and electricity became scarce after most of Basra's electrical infrastructure was destroyed on 21 March. On 24 March, the International Committee of the Red Cross announced that 60% of Basra's population had been cut off from clean water, and warned of a coming “humanitarian crisis”. Al Jazeera reported on 27 March that US and UK forces had blocked the city's supply of drinking water, and were preventing the Red Cross from restoring access.

US Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz said on 31 March:

"There seems to be a water problem in Basra but it should be very clear it's not because of anything we did. There's been no bombing of Basra. It seems to be something the regime did. The Red Cross has been in there and we're told that 70 percent of the water supply has been restored. The Kuwaitis are laying a pipe up to the border with water and we're going to pipe it on up to the city."

The Center for Economic and Social Rights reported that the “Anglo-American deprived one million residents of access to safe drinking water for almost two weeks”. The CESR described this action as an attack on a civilian population: a war crime under the Geneva Convention and Hague Convention.

Spokespeople for the occupying powers said that humanitarian aid shipments were nearby and available, but it was not yet possible to transport or distribute them.

British engineers attributed the shortages to looting and long-term decay of infrastructure.

According to antiwar philosopher Arundhati Roy, the British forces eventually provided food and water (for sale) at trucks on the city outskirts. Roy wrote:

"After days of enforcing hunger and thirst on the citizens of Basra, the 'Allies' have brought in a few trucks of food and water and positioned them tantalisingly on the outskirts of the city. Desperate people flock to the trucks and fight each other for food. (The water we hear, is being sold. To revitalise the dying economy, you understand.) On top of the trucks, desperate photographers fought each other to get pictures of desperate people fighting each other for food. Those pictures will go out through photo agencies to newspapers and glossy magazines that pay extremely well. Their message: The messiahs are at hand, distributing fishes and loaves."

Aerial bombing
The invading forces (including the Australian Air Force) used bombing and psychological warfare during the siege.

On 5 April, US bombers targeted the residential al-Tuwaisi area of downtown Basra—reportedly attempting to kill Ali Hassan al-Majid (a.k.a. “Chemical Ali”). Al-Majid was not present, but 17 civilians were killed by one of two 500-pound laser-guided bombs dropped by US planes.

Cluster bombs
Cluster bombs are controversial because they can leave unexploded “bomblets” which, like landmines, pose an ongoing threat to civilians. The UK did not acknowledge any use of cluster bombs until 3 April, at which time it maintained that these bombs were not used near dense civilian populations. Colonel Chris Vernon stated: "We are not using cluster munitions, for obvious collateral damage reasons, in and around Basra." On 7 April, UK Secretary of Defense Geoff Hoon said he was “confident that the right balance [had] been struck” between avoiding civilian casualties and protecting Coalition troops.

On 28 May, Britain said it had used cluster bombs in Basra. According to Armed Forces Minister Adam Ingram: "We said they would be targeted on specific military targets. There were troops, there was equipment in and around the built-up areas, therefore the bombs were used accordingly to take out the threat to our troops." Ingram acknowledged using more 2000 cluster bomb projectiles on Basra. These were mostly L20A1 artillery shells, fired from the ground—each containing 49 smaller explosives. About 102,900 individual grenades were therefore fired. According to the UK Ministry of Defense, only 2% of these were “duds” that did not explode immediately.

UK cluster bombs caused numerous civilian casualties in Basra during the first few days of battle. Human Rights Watch reported:

"U.K. forces caused dozens of civilian casualties when they used ground-launched cluster munitions in and around Basra. A trio of neighborhoods in the southern part of the city was particularly hard hit. At noon on March 23, a cluster strike hit Hay al-Muhandissin al-Kubra (the engineers’ district) while `Abbas Kadhim, 13, was throwing out the garbage. He had acute injuries to his bowel and liver, and a fragment that could not be removed lodged near his heart. On May 4, he was still in Basra’s al Jumhuriyya  Hospital. Three hours later, submunitions blanketed the neighborhood of al-Mishraq al Jadid about two-and-a-half kilometers (one-and-a-half miles) northeast. Iyad Jassim Ibrahim, a 26-year old carpenter, was sleeping in the front room of his home when shrapnel injuries caused him to lose consciousness. He later died in surgery. Ten  relatives who were sleeping elsewhere in the house suffered shrapnel injuries. Across the street, the cluster strike injured three children."

The attack also left dud grenades scattered through Basra. Some of these injured children who picked them up. Others injured UK troops later tasked with cleanup

Children were also injured by “dud” grenades fired by the Iraqi military.

Landmines
The Iraqi military used antipersonnel and antivehicle landmines to obstruct the Coalition advance and to fortify urban positions. These mines caused civilian and military casualties.

Depleted uranium
US and UK forces both used depleted uranium munitions in the course of the battle.

Basra officials contested the use of these weapons, saying that depleted uranium used during the 1991 Gulf War was responsible for birth defects and cancer among the city's population. US munitions director Colonel James Naughton explicitly addressed concerns about the poisonous effects of these weapons, saying that Iraq had exaggerated these claims in order to avoid fighting against the weapon:

"The Iraqis tell us terrible things happened to our people because you used it last time. Why do they want it to go away? They want it to go away because we kicked the crap out of them—OK?"

”Friendly Fire” incident
Several British soldiers, operating two Scimitar tanks were wounded, and one killed, as a result of “friendly fire” by a US A-10 Thunderbolt pilot. This incident provoked controversy in the UK media and was later judged to be an “unlawful killing”.

Other events
British paratroopers fought two companies of Iraqi infantry in the Rumaila oil fields, killing several hundred.

Invasion of Basra
US military spokespeople announced that the British forces would conduct “smash and grab” raids against Hussein loyalists. Using tanks, the British began to gain control over buildings and shantytown areas on the outskirts of the city.

Eventually, a column of 120 retreating Iraqi tanks coalesced; it was mostly destroyed by UK and US bombs, as well as UK tank fire. 300 prisoners were taken in a battle outside the city. This event was described as the largest British tank battle since World War II.

British tanks (the British 7 Armoured Brigade, known as “Desert Rats”) entered city center on 6 April after repeated raids and shelling.

Occupation
By 23 April 2003, oil was flowing through pipelines from the Basra area. In the following months, the US reported acts of sabotage against the oil production and transport operations in the area.

On 4 July 2003, Wael Abdul Latif was appointed as Basra's provisional governor.

In August, Basrans began mass demonstrations, which sometimes spilled over into riots. British soldiers in riot gear used rubber bullets against thousands of people filling the streets and throwing stones.

In September 2003, a Basran named Baha Mousa died in British custody. Later investigation found that British soldiers had abused and tortured multiple detainees from the area.

Aftermath
Itself victimized by bombings, the Red Cross withdrew from Basra in October 2003—exacerbating ongoing health issues.

Unexploded ordnance
The battle left unexploded ordnance and weapons stockpiles throughout Basra and surrounding areas. These endanger children and other people who might trigger or encounter an accidental explosion.

Health issues
Later investigation has found that Coalition bombers used heavy metals, such as lead and mercury. These metals have poisoned babies who were born in Basra after 2003, in some cases causing serious birth defects. A 2012 study found that babies born in Basra during 2011 were 17 times more likely to suffer from birth defects than babies born in 1995. These defects most commonly involved damage to the central nervous system.

Childhook leukemia rates have increased substantially. Cancer rates have also increased overall.

The epidemic of childhood sickness and cancer in southern Iraq has been attributed to Coalition use of depleted uranium munitions—in 2003 as well as 1991. The Basrah area reportedly contains the country's densest concentration of sites contaminated by these weapons. Doctors and environmental workers in Basrah had become aware of possible depleted uranium poisoning in the 1990s and begun remediation efforts; these were suspended when war broke out anew in 2003.

Epidemiological studies have been scarce and uncertainty remains about the causes and solutions to the poor health of the Basra population. Doctors and government officials have identified this uncertainty itself as a source of anxiety, fear, and distrust. . Cleanup workers who later found depleted uranium rounds were asked to wear gloves and mask, to place any rounds in water, seal the containers, and deliver them to a nearby UK Army Base. Contaminated scrap metal also represents a major source for possible expoure.

The UK Ministry of Defense later released information on 51 locations in Basrah Province where it used depleted uranium munitions.

Articles

 * The Battle for Basra
 * International Crisis Group (ICG), “Where is Iraq Heading? Lessons from Basra”, Middle East Report 67, 25 June 2007.

Photographs

 * Civil unrest in September 2003