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29-3-2003 The Herald Iraqis shoot at their own civilians;British forces protect crowd fleeing from Basra Ian Bruce And Gethin Chamberlain With The Black Watch On The Outskirts Of Basra THE crowd was half-way across the concrete and steel span of the bridge when the mortar rounds started falling. Men, women and children ran screaming as they tried to escape machine gun fire coming from the Iraqi positions. A thousand people, maybe more, running for their lives. A young woman fell, hit by shrapnel, as a pick-up truck broke cover and charged forward, the machine gun mounted on its roof firing at the crowd. On the British side, a tank lurched forward, the gunner training his sights on the truck a few hundred yards ahead. One shot and the truck was blown apart, the three people in it killed in an instant. Around the British positions, mortar shells were falling, the Black Watch firing back. The crowd had made it safely across the bridge, hands raised as they ran towards the British troops, ducking for cover as the British guns moved round to cover their escape. They began moving along the road in the direction of al Zubayr. They may take shelter there or camp out in the countryside around. A young woman, badly hurt, was plucked to safety by a British vehicle and driven back across the lines. Others were also injured and medics rushed to tend their wounds. Then came the clatter of rotor blades and two Lynx helicopters appeared, hovering over to the right, just visible between the concrete pillars holding up the bridge. Women and children scattered in panic on the approaches to the main road bridge over the canal flanking the city, spilling down its embankments to find cover with machine gun fire ripping in their direction. Black Watch soldiers holding forward positions on the Iraqi side of the canal risked their own lives to try to herd terrified women and children to safety and we heard the sharp crack of a Challenger tank gun giving covering fire. The badly wounded woman was carried into a British vehicle which accelerated swiftly over the bridge to take her for treatment. Major Lindsay MacDuff, commander of Bravo company said: "We are doing what we can, but we can't pack 200 civilians into the back of each Warrior." The thud of British mortars punctuates his concern as they explode around the Iraqi positions ahead. There is a last defiant rattle of automatic fire from the enemy, then their weapons fall silent. Lieutenant Colonel Michael Riddell-Webster, the Black Watch battle group commander, observing the action, says: "The Ba'ath Party officials and their militia in Basra have been shooting at their own people to prevent them escaping into the British sector in search of food and water. "They have also been mortaring us quite accurately. They are using pick-up trucks with weapons bolted to the back of them as mobile firing platforms. That makes them more difficult to spot and hit. They have also moved infantry out of security force compounds and into civilian residential areas. "They know we would use artillery on those areas only as a last resort. It would be too easy to inflict innocent casualties. That's why we've called on the helicopter gunships for precision support. These guys will learn the hard way that there's no hiding place for them." Beside us, a forward air controller uses a powerful periscope to pinpoint enemy targets over the sand-bagged rim of the observation post. "Two white civilian pick-ups carrying mortars, 500 yards east of the tall radio mast," he whispers into his microphone. The gunships inch forwards, stop in the hover, and launch. Three wire-guided tow missiles streak away, steered towards their victims with joysticks like those used for computer games. A mile ahead, there are two bright flashes and two quick puffs of smoke rise into the air. Major MacDuff, who has watched Basra's internal tragedy unfold for five days, adds: "The local regime in the city is still using fear as its principal instrument to keep the population in line. We stopped one guy at a roadblock the other day who told us if we didn't let him escape to the south, either he or his family would be killed. We had to turn him back for security and safety reasons. "The next time we spotted him he was carrying a Kalashnikov in the opposition front line. The population is forced to supply manpower for the militia by literally having a gun placed at their relatives' heads. "We are getting the message that the population wants us to go in and rescue them, but the difficulty is that military conditions are not yet right for that course of action." * Gethin Chamberlain is a journalist with The Scotsman
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................................................................................................................. Copyright ©2004 Gethin Chamberlain. All rights reserved. |
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