March 23, 2003	Sunday	Muharram 19, 1424

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DOHA/UMM QASR, March 22: Some 50 people, including a Russian national, were killed in a bombardment of the southern port of Basra on Saturday by coalition planes, the Qatar-based satellite channel Al-Jazeera reported.

It said the toll was compiled by its correspondent in the city from one hospital. A large number of people were also wounded in the raids.

Al-Jazeera’s Mohammad al-Abdallah, the only foreign correspondent in Basra, said that over the previous two days only the outskirts had been targeted, but on Saturday the bombs hit targets in the city itself.

Coalition planes began their bombardment at 11.30 am (0830 GMT) on Saturday, he said.

A family, with a two-year-old child, were among the 50 killed, Abdullah added, but he did not say if there were soldiers among the victims.

UMM QASR: US-led troops moved briskly towards Baghdad on Saturday but faced resistance trying to secure strategic targets in the south as they pressed their drive to oust Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.

Their commander, General Tommy Franks, expressed satisfaction with the progress of the three-day-old invasion, saying, “We believe we are on our timeline and I’m satisfied with what I’ve seen.”

“I feel very good about the work that’s been done up to this point,” Mr Franks told reporters at his forward command post in Qatar in his first public statements since the war started on Thursday.

A US military spokeswoman claimed coalition forces had captured the city of Nasiriyah, a key crossing on the Euphrates river a third of the 600 kilometres from the Kuwaiti border to Baghdad.

But only some 50 kilometres from the border allied forces were still seeking to negotiate the surrender of the southern metropolis of Basra. British officials claimed that most regular Iraqi units appeared to have pulled out but some troops still had fight left.

Mr Franks said they had no plans to move on Basra, Iraq’s second city and main port, but would prefer to work with civilians there “who are welcoming the forces as they come in.”

But the Iraqis were showing stubborn fight in the Gulf port of Umm Qasr.

A military spokesman for the British, who Friday established a beachhead on the Fao peninsula to the east, said Umm Qasr was largely under control but there was “still resistance in some parts.”

Iraqi commandos hiding around Umm Qasr were putting up a struggle, said Marine Lt-Col Steve Holmes. Both sides hurled mortar rounds at each other while US Cobra helicopters weighed in with missiles.

The ground assault coincided with an escalating campaign of day and night air strikes against Baghdad and other cities, including a blistering onslaught with hundreds of bombs and missiles late on Friday.

Iraq said three people were killed and more than 200 wounded in the onslaught, which set ablaze Saddam’s Republican palace.

Mr Franks conceded he had no idea where Saddam might be and tried to steer the focus away from the Iraqi leader amid speculation he might have been killed in the first night of air strikes.

“It would not surprise any of us whether Saddam Hussein is alive or dead. It is not about that one personality, it is about this regime,” Mr Franks said.

Field reports said the US-led forces had taken thousands of Iraqi soldiers prisoners, including an entire division. Franks claimed only 1,000-2,000 were in custody but thousands more had simply laid down their arms and gone home.

Tens of thousands of US and British troops have poured into Iraq from Kuwait intent on forcing Saddam out for allegedly harbouring chemical and biological weapons.

The Marines took a large swathe of southern Iraq to the west of the Euphrates. Elements of the US Army’s Third Infantry Division on their left flank prepared to cross the river and move north. US forces had not expected much fight from Iraq’s regular army, which comprised mostly conscripts with little reason to stay loyal to Baghdad. They feared the going would be tougher against Iraq’s elite Republican Guard.

But in Baghdad, Information Minister Mohammad Said al-Sahhaf said the Iraqi military had already inflicted “heavy losses” on US and British troops while repelling attacks in southern Iraq.

The Anglo-American forces continued to be plagued by helicopter problems, as two British choppers collided over the Gulf early on Saturday, killing all seven crewmen aboard.

A British spokesman said the collision of the two Royal Navy Sea King helicopters was not provoked by Iraqi fire.

But the accident came only a day after eight British Royal Marines and four US airmen were killed in a helicopter crash in Kuwait during deployment operations to the Fao peninsula.

On another front, Turkish troops were reported to have entered the Kurdish-held north of Iraq, defying US insistence that such a deployment would be “unhelpful.”

Mr Hoon said, however, that Britain was aware of the presence of a small Turkish force in the north of Iraq seeking to stabilize the area and was “relaxed” about it as long as operations remained limited.

But Washington indicated it had abandoned plans to send troops into Iraq through Turkey, with a Pentagon official saying the army’s 4th Infantry Division had been ordered to the Gulf instead.

A Kurdish military official said up to 50 cruise missiles were fired early Saturday at the hardline Al-Ansar Islamist group in Iraqi Kurdistan, which Washington has linked to Al Qaeda.

The missiles also struck a base of a mainstream Islamic party, Komala Islami Kurdistan (Islamic Society of Kurdistan) killing at least 45 people, Kurdish officials and fleeing residents told AFP.

Mr Franks confirmed the attack on Al-Ansar but would give no details.

LONDON: Four US soldiers were killed when their two Humvee vehicles came under attack in central Iraq, Sky News television reported, citing one of its reporters with US forces.

It said the soldiers, from the first brigade of the 3rd Infantry Division, were on a reconnaissance mission when their vehicles were hit by rocket-propelled grenades.

The attack was followed by a “coordinated mortar attack,” Sky quoted its correspondent Colin Brazier as saying. The exact location of the incident was not given.—AFP