The Battle of Basra lasted from 21 March to 6 April 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 the Iraqi Army 51st Division and Fedayeen Saddam, while elements of the British 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 of the war by British forces when the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards destroyed 14 abandoned Iraqi tanks on the 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. In 1932, Iraq became nominally independent of Britain and British troops left a few years later. During the Second World War, the brief Anglo-Iraqi War broke out during 1941. British forces, unopposed, seized the city and surrounding area as a base for an advance towards Baghdad although the war came to an end before that occurred.
The city was a major target during the Iran–Iraq War of the 1980s and was bombed by the US during 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.
2003 Invasion of Iraq
Basrans learned of the planned invasion in late 2002 began to prepare for an attack—forming militias and building fortifications.
Regular bombings of Basra continued during this period.
Targeting
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 (20 March UTC), 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 the 22 March, US Marines had gained control of the oil field.
Aircraft dropped leaflets on Basra urging Iraqi soldiers to surrender; some did.
On the 23 March, two soldiers of the Royal Engineers, 33 Engineer Regiment (Sapper Luke Allsopp and Staff Sergeant Simon Cullingworth) were captured in an ambush by Fedayeen fighters on the outskirts of Basra; both were later murdered.
On the 24 March, Lance Corporal Barry Stephen from the 1st Battalion, Black Watch Regiment was killed when a rocket-propelled grenade exploded near his armoured vehicle in an action at Al-Zubayr, near Basra.
On the 25 March, a Challenger 2 tank was hit by 'friendly fire' from another British tank outside Basra, killing two British soldiers (Corporal Stephen John Allbutt and Trooper Jeffrey Clarke).
On the 27 March 12 Challenger 2 tanks of C squadron, Royal Scots Dragoon Guards, supporting 40 Commandos advance from al-Faw to Basra, engaged and destroyed 14 Iraqi T-55 tanks, members of 40 Commando also fought brief firefights with Fedayeen fighters and came under fire from Iranian border guards.
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 better suited because of their past experiences in Iraq and Northern Ireland. A few members of D Squadron, British SAS, were deployed to southern Iraq to support the coalition advance on Basra, the team infiltrated the city and brought in strikes on the Ba'athist loyalist leadership.
Humanitarian crisis
Water and electricity became scarce after most of Basra's electrical infrastructure was destroyed on 21 March. On the 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 the 27 March that Anglo-American 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 the 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.
Many actions were undertaken and the Red cross and British Royal Engineers co-operated in ensuring supplies were maintained even if they were reduced for a period of time.
A Center for Economic and Social Rights report claimed that the "Anglo-American blockade deprived one million residents of access to safe drinking water for almost two weeks". Meanwhile, UNICEF officials warned that "there are 100,000 children in Basra at risk for severe fever and death because one water treatment plant stopped functioning."
Spokespeople for the Coalition forces said that humanitarian aid shipments were nearby and available, but it was not yet possible to transport or distribute them to the city.
British engineers attributed the shortages to plundering and long-term decay of infrastructure.
Aerial bombing
The invading forces (including the Royal Australian Air Force) used bombing and psychological warfare during the siege.
On the 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 pose a humanitarian concern 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 Defence Geoff Hoon said he was "confident that the right balance [had] been struck" between avoiding civilian casualties and protecting Coalition troops.
On the 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, 2% of these (around 2050) were "duds" that did not explode immediately.
UK cluster bombs caused "dozens" of 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.
British Royal Engineers undertook an operation to search for and dispose of any stray grenades over a number of weeks. This proved effective.
Landmines
The Iraqi military used antipersonnel and anti-vehicle 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
On the 28 March 2003, a US Fairchild Republic A-10 Thunderbolt mistakenly attacked and destroyed two British Scimitar reconnaissance vehicles in a "friendly fire" incident. One British soldier was killed and several were wounded. This incident provoked controversy in the British media and was later judged to be an "unlawful killing."
Other events
On the 24 March, there were reports of a major uprising against Ba'athist rule in the city but were suppressed by Republican Guard and Ba'ath Party militia; who were under the command of Ali Hassan al-Majid (a.k.a. "Chemical Ali").
British paratroopers fought two companies of Iraqi infantry in the Rumaila oil fields, killing or wounding about two-hundred. The Paras called in close air support from RAF Harriers and US A10 "tankbusters" during the battle.