British Royal Marine commandos were engaging in "close contact" fighting as Iraqi forces put up "stiff" resistance in the battle for control of the port of Umm Qasr. "Some of the resistance, in pockets, has been fairly stiff," said a British military official at US Central Command in Qatar. Describing the fight for Umm Qasr as a "rapidly moving situation" during the early afternoon Gulf time. He said British commandos were responding "using the full capacity they have". Geoff Hoon, Britain's defence secretary, said forces expected "shortly" to win control of Umm Qasr and a nearby Iraqi naval base. British military officials at US Central Command in Qatar said the surprise land attack on southern Iraq was on schedule, despite the continued fighting over Umm Qasr.
| There was footage of U.S. Marines raising the U.S. flag over Umm Qasr this morning on FoxNews... |
They said British commandos had successfully won control overnight of three oil pumping and offloading facilities at Al Faw, on Iraq's south-eastern tip. The aim was to prevent Iraq from using them to flood the Gulf with crude oil and cause an environmental disaster. "It was a major concern that if Saddam had kept control of these things, he would have used them to flood the Gulf," a British spokesman said. US and British close-support air combat jets were said to be strafing and attacking Iraqi positions to back up the commando assault on the port and infrastructure. Thousands of British and US marines attacked positions around Al Faw and Umm Qasr overnight by land, helicopter and hovercraft in a joint assault under cover of artillery fire and shells fired by two British warships in the Gulf. British forces' immediate strategic objective was to wrest control of Umm Qasr, which is Iraq's seaport and a site the joint forces are seeking to seize early in the campaign and use as a conduit for humanitarian aid into southern Iraq. Other British armoured elements were heading north, apparently for Basra, Iraq's second city. On a separate western flank, Challenger tanks and Warrior armoured vehicles from Britain's 7 Armoured brigade were providing support for a swift advance by US armour towards Baghdad. |