Looking For Trouble

March 27

(Published March 28) THE crowd had been growing since the early hours, young men in bright football jerseys, women in their black chadors, older men in their long jelabbahs. Children ran around excitedly, looking up coyly at the soldiers behind the lines of orange and white tape stretched out in front of the area from which the food and water was to be handed out. By 9am, several hundred men, women and children are outside the former Iraqi army compound taken over by the British troops who have moved into the town of Az Zubayr. For days the troops have been struggling to gain control, tormented by small gangs of hard-core Iraqi fighters refusing to give up the struggle against the forces of Britain and the United States sweeping into their country. Two British soldiers have died in rocket-propelled grenade attacks in the town, and even on Wednesday, the rebels were making their presence felt, firing mortars at the crowd that had gathered for the first attempt to hand out humanitarian supplies. Today is different. Gone is the fog and rain of the previous couple of days, in its place a blue sky and a warm sun to dry out the stagnant puddles and transform the mud back into the dust that blankets everything in the south of the country. In the dirt street in front of the barracks, life is going on as it has for years, the people seemingly resigned to the occasional thud of distant artillery fire. A cart towed by a donkey rolls past. Clusters of old men lean against the grubby whitewashed buildings or stand out in front of the piles of rushes used to roof many of the basic structures that are their homes. At the gates of the comp ound the crowd is growing impatient. The hand-out, planned for 8am a couple of hundred yards from where the mortars fell yesterday, is running late. The army has flooded the area with armoured vehicles, the troops determined to avoid a repeat of the earlier debacle, but they can do nothing to hurry the aid convoy. No-one is sure when it will arrive. Some in the crowd begin to drift away, heads shaking, disappointment clear in their faces. Those who stay are growing agitated, beseeching the soldiers for water. They use hand gestures to try to make themselves understood, holding up their fingers to indicate ten days, pointing to their mouths, miming eating, waving their hands. They have had no food or water for ten days, they make it clear. A young man points to his matted and greasy hair, tugs at his dirty clothes, sniffs at them and grimaces. There has been no water to wash or clean or to drink. People have been filling buckets from the muddy puddles by the roadside. They are filthy, reeking, desperate for the promised help. A man pushes his way forward to speak to the soldiers. His name is Ali Salman Hussein, he says, and his English is good. He is 35, a graduate with a degree in management, but he has no work. Better dressed than many around him, he lives in a well-built house nearby, paid for by the money sent to him by his brother and sister. They are doctors working in Britain, he says, his brother in Exeter and his sister in Birmingham. He, too, would like to go to Britain. He says he is glad the British and the US have come, but he wants them to keep their word, to flood the country with aid to help the ordinary people who have suffered under the Iraqi regime. But they are nervous of the army too, he says, and do not want their liberators to become their occupiers. "The people are afraid of the tanks and all those things but they are happy that the British are here instead of Saddam," he says. Even talking to the British soldiers is dangerous, for there are still people in the town loyal to the Iraqi regime. The fear is clear to see: when someone raises a camera to take a picture, the crowd shies away. But Ali says they know they need help and if the British can provide it, the opposition will dwindle. "You are here on the condition that you liberate Iraq," he says. "We are hungry, we need food and water, we need life materials. From the beginning of the attack, we have been without food and water. It is difficult to live with no water, no food, no electricity. "But life was very difficult before. They gave us only two hours of electricity each day, there were no jobs for the young people. I graduated from college with a management degree, but I have no job. "Now I hope everything will be changed, that we can live freely. Before we could not talk. Even talking to you is very dangerous, but now nobody can give us orders." He adds: "We don't want you to occupy us, we want you to liberate us and leave. If you don't leave then we will hate you." Ali wants the military commanders to involve the Iraqi people in the aid effort, using people in the town to help distribute the aid to those who need it rather than just throwing it out from the back of lorries like a keeper feeding animals at a zoo. But he believes that if enough aid can get through, the Iraqi people will support the British and the US and the success of the military campaign will be assured. He says: "I think peace will come. The militia will surrender when the bullets they have are finished. But I say to the world we need food and water so the people will love Mr Bush and Mr Blair. If you don't we will hate you." Inside the compound, they are still waiting for news of the aid convoy. As they wait, some of the soldiers investigate the flat-roofed buildings scattered around the central courtyard. Along dank corridors, they peer into rooms in which tattered scraps of furniture are scattered around their concrete floors. On the walls are Iraqi military maps and pictures of Saddam Hussein. Outside the gates, the Warrior armoured vehicles of the Black Watch are pulling away down the road. The convoy has finally arrived and is being escorted at speed into the beleaguered town. Word spreads quickly and soon, several hundred people are surging forward, only to be forced back by the thinly spaced line of troops. Some have fixed bayonets, shoving the more aggressive young men roughly backwards with the flat of their rifles. The convoy appears, half-a-dozen military vehicles packed with troops from the Royal Logistics Corps flanking two lorries carrying metal containers stuffed with boxes of water and ration packs. Soldiers leap out, assuming dramatic poses and pointing their weapons in all directions, like something out of a movie made by a bad US director. The soldiers inside the compound exchange glances, eyebrows raised. A little overdramatic, they suggest. People are shouting, trying to move the lorries inside the compound and hold the crowd at bay. For a while they struggle. Those who have queued patiently behind the tape are swamped as the crowd breaks through the army lines, laying siege to the back of the first lorry, which stands open, revealing hundreds of boxes of water inside. People are pushing and shoving each other, fighting to get to the front. A small girl, brown hair and bright brown eyes, emerges from the base of the scrum, clutching her precious bottle, smiling at the soldiers. Others have worked out that they can get more bottles by handing their haul to those waiting behind the cordon and then heading back for more. Each is handed one bottle, but it is nowhere near enough. They want more. Ali is berating the commanding officer, Lieutenant Colonel Mike Riddell -Webster, demanding someone from the town takes control. The CO takes him at his word and leads him to the back of the lorry, where Ali now shouts at the crowd, ordering them to take one bottle only and leave. It seems to work and, slowly, order returns. Now they have water, the crowd wants more - more water, more food, more medical attention. A man pushes forward, clutching two X-rays, showing a bullet lodged next to his spine. Won't a doctor help him, he asks. Others have weeping sores on their hands and bodies. The medics are trying to help, offering basic attention where they can. Only yesterday, an ambulance braved a barrage of rocket-propelled grenade and machinegun fire to pluck two injured children from the centre of the town. Both had been shot and their parents had gone to the army to plead for help. Sergeant John Hardy, a Scots Guard attached to the Black Watch, says there was no way they could refuse. "It's not about hearts and minds, it's what we do. If you see a kid in need you just help them out," he says. Geoff Lockett, the man in charge of the aid operation, suspects many of those queuing for food and water and medical care are the same people who have made life so difficult for the troops over the past few days. But he says they have no choice but to try to help the civilian population if they are to have any chance of success. He says: "A lot of these guys have probably been firing rounds and RPGs rocket-propelled grenades at us. But we've got to stamp our impression on these guys that we are a force for good. "It is a gesture, but it will give the right impression." Standing with his hands on his hips, watching the soldiers dropping bottles of water into the sea of hands below the tailgate of the trucks, the CO knows that much more aid is needed if the campaign is to succeed. "It's a drop in the ocean, but I suppose it is a start."

(Original copy) The crowd has been growing since the early hours, young men in brightly coloured football shirts, women in their black Chadors, older men in their long Jelabbahs. Children running around excitedly, looking up coyly at the soldiers behind the lines of orange and white tape stretched out in front of the area from which the food and water will be handed out. By 9am there are a couple of hundred people outside the former Iraqi army compound taken over by the British troops who have moved into the town of Az Zubaya. For days the troops have been struggling to gain control, tormented by small gangs of hard core Iraqi fighters refusing to give up the struggle against the British and American forces sweeping into their country. Two British soldiers have died in rocket propelled grenade attacks in the town and even yesterday (Wednesday) the rebels were making their presence felt, firing mortars at the crowd that had gathered for the first attempt to hand out humanitarian supplies. But today is different. Gone is the fog and rain of the previous couple of days, in its place a blue sky and a warm sun to dry out the stagnant puddles and transform the mud back into the ever present dust that blankets everything in the south of this country. In the dirt street in front of the barracks, life is going on as it has for years, the people seemingly resigned to the occasional thud of distant artillery fire. A cart rolls past towed by a donkey. Clusters of old men lean against the grubby white-washed buildings or stand out in front of the piles of rushes which are used to roof many of the basic structures that are their homes. Out beyond the brick buildings, there are huts made entirely out of rushes, the traditional homes of the marsh Arabs of this region. At the gates of the compound, the crowd is growing impatient. The aid handout, planned for 8am a couple of hundred yards from where the mortars fell yesterday, is running late. The army has flooded the area with armoured vehicles and troops determined to avoid a repeat of the earlier debacle but they can do nothing to hurry the aid convoy. No one is sure when it will arrive. Some of the crowd begin to drift away, heads shaking, disappointment clear in their faces. Those who stay are growing agitated, beseeching the soldiers for water. They use hand gestures to try to make themselves understood, holding up their hands to indicate ten days, pointing to their mouths, miming eating, waving their hands. They have had no food or water for ten days, they are trying to say. A young man points to his matted and greasy hair, tugs at his dirty clothes, sniffs at them and grimaces. There has been no water to wash or clean or to drink. People have been filling buckets from the muddy puddles by the roadside. They are filthy, reeking, desperate for the promised help. A man pushes his way forward to speak to the soldiers. His name is Ali Salman Hussein, he says and his English is good. He is 35, a graduate with a degree in management, but he has no work. Better dressed than some of those around him, he lives in a well built house a little way along the road, paid for by the money sent to him by his brother, Dr Maged Salman and sister Dr Duna Maghan. They both work in Britain, he says, his brother in Exeter and his sister in Birmingham. He too would like to go to Britain. Ali says he is glad that the British and Amer-icans have come, but he wants them to keep their word, to flood the country with aid to help the ordinary people who, he says, have suffered under the Iraqi regime. But they are nervous of the army too, he says, and dont want their liberators to become their occupiers. The British and Americans must avoid swapping one unpopular regime for another, he says. "The people are afraid of the tanks and all those things but they are happy that the British are here instead of Saddam," he says. Even talking to the British soldiers is dangerous, for there are still people in the town loyal to the Iraqi regime. The fear is clear to see: when someone raises a camera to take a picture, the crowd shies away. But Ali says they know they need help and if the British can provide it the opposition will dwindle. "You are here on the condition that you liberate Iraq," he says. "We are hungry, we need food and water, we need life materials. "From the beginning of the attack we have been without food and water. It is difficult to live with no water, no food, no electricity. "But life was very difficult before. They gave us only two hours of electricity each day, there were no jobs for the young people. I graduated from college with a management degree, but I have no job. "Now I hope everything will be changed that we can live freely. Before we could not talk, even talking to you is very dangerous, but now nobody can give us orders." He has little time for the rebels responsible for yesterday's attack believing Iraq's army has no stomach left for fighting. "Yesterday was maybe kids, not military. The military are all in their houses, they are tired of fighting, they fought for eight years with Iran, all those wars. It makes us tired of war. "We don't want you to occupy us, we want you to liberate us and leave. If you don't leave then we will hate you." He wants the military commanders to involve the Iraqi people in the aid effort, using people in the town to help distribute the aid to those who need it rather than just throwing it out from the back of trucks like a keeper feeding animals at a zoo. But he believes that if enough aid can get through, the Iraqi people will support the British and Americans and the success of the military campaign will be assured. "We have the Republican Guard and they are strong but I think you will succeed," he says. "I think peace will come."The militia will surrender when the bullets they have are finished. "But I say to the world we need food and water so the people will love Mr Bush and Mr Blair. If you don't we will hate you." Inside the compound, they are still waiting for news of the aid convoy. While they wait, some of the soldiers investigate the flat roofed buildings scattered around the central courtyard. Along dank corridors, they peer into rooms in which tattered scraps of furniture are scattered around their concrete floors. On the walls are Iraqi military maps and pictures of Saddam Hussein. One, home made, has a cut out picture of the Iraqi leader, golden rays spreading out from beneath him, illuminating a drawing of the globe. In one room, the stench of a bowl of tomatoes long gone rotten, lying where they were left next to a low wooden desk. In another, four military helmets and a smoke grenade. Outside, a breeze block wall surrounding a wide open space, bordered by small plots of greenery. There are palm trees, but their leaves have gone. Outside the gates the Warrior armoured vehicles of the Black Watch are pulling away down the road. The convoy has finally arrived and they were escorted into the own. Word spreads quickly and soon the crowd number several hundred people, surging forwards only to be forced back by the thinly spaced line of troops. Some have fixed bayonets, shoving the more aggressive young men roughly backwards with the flat of their rifles. The convoy appears, half a dozen military vehicles packed with troops from the Royal Logistics Corps flanking two lorries carrying metal containers stuffed with boxes of water and ration packs. Soldiers leap out, assuming dramatic poses and pointing their weapons in all directions, like something out of a movie made by a bad American director. The soldiers inside the compound exchange glances, eyebrows raised. A little over dramatic, they suggest to each other. Lots of people are shouting, trying to get the trucks inside the compound and hold the crowd at bay. For a while they struggle. Those who have queued patiently in line behind the tape are swamped as the crowd breaks through the army lines, laying siege to the back of the first truck which now stands open, revealing hundreds of boxes of water inside. People are pushing and shoving each other, fighting to get to the front. A small girl, brown hair and bright brown eyes, emerges from the base of the scrum, clutching her precious bottle, smiling at the soldiers. Others have worked out that they can get more bottles by handing their haul to those waiting behind the cordon and then heading back for more. Each is handed one bottle but it is nowhere near enough. They want more. There is more shouting, more soldiers waving their guns about, the line breaks and people press forward. The situation is getting out of hand, the soldiers turning this way and that as more and more people break ranks and try to get to the trucks. Ali is berating the commanding officer, Lt Col Mike Riddell-Webster, demanding that someone from the town takes control. The CO takes him at his word and leads him to the back of the truck, were Ali now shouts at the crowd, ordering them to take one bottle only and leave. It seems to work and slowly order returns. But now they have water, the crowd wants more, more water, more food, more medical attention.A man pushes forward, clutching two X-Rays, showing a bullet lodged next to his spine. Won't a doctor help him, he asks. Others have weeping sores on their hands and bodies. The medics are trying to help, offering basic attention were they can. Only yesterday, an ambulance braved a barrage of RPG fire and machine gun fire to pluck two injured children to safety from the centre of the town. Both had been shot, caught up in the fighting, and their parents had gone to the army to plead for help. Sgt John Hardy, a Scots Guard attached to the Black Watch, said there was no way they could refuse. "It's not about hearts and minds, it's what we do. If you see a kid in need you just help them out," he says. Geoff Lockett, the man in charge of the aid operation, suspects that many of those queuing for food and water and medical care are the same people who have made life so difficult for the British troops over the past few days. But he says that they have no choice but to try to help the civilian population if they are to have any chance of success. "A lot of these guys have probably been firing rounds and RPGs at us," he says. "But we've got to stamp our impression on these guys that we are a force for good. It is a gesture, but it will give the right impression. "Standing with his hands on his hips watching the soldiers dropping bottles of water into the sea of hands below the tail-gate of the trucks, the CO knows that much more aid is needed if the campaign is to succeed. "It's a drop in the ocean, but I suppose it is a start," he says.

(News copy published March 28) CAPTURED Iraqi soldiers have told British interrogators that al-Qaeda terrorists are fighting on the side of Saddam Hussein's forces against allied troops near Basra. At least a dozen members of Osama bin Laden's network are in the town of Az Zubayr, where they are co-ordinating grenade and gun attacks on coalition positions, according to the Iraqi prisoners of war. It was believed that last night, British forces were preparing a military strike on the base where the al-Qaeda unit was understood to be holed up. A senior British military source inside Iraq said last night: "The information we have received from PoWs today is that an al-Qaeda cell may be operating in Az Zubayr. There are possibly around a dozen of them and that is obviously a matter of concern to us." If terrorists are found, it would be the first proof of a direct link between Saddam's regime and Osama bin Laden, the mastermind behind the 11 September attacks on New York and Washington. The connection would give credibility to the argument that Tony Blair used to justify war against Saddam - a "nightmare scenario" in which the Iraqi leader might eventually pass weapons of mass destruction to terrorists. On Wednesday, Donald Rumsfeld, the US defence secretary, said the coalition had solid evidence that senior al-Qaeda operatives had visited Baghdad in the past. He added that Saddam had an "evolving" relationship with the terror network. The presence of al-Qaeda terrorists would go some way to explaining the continued resistance to forces from Britain and the United States in southern Iraq, an area dominated by Shiite Moslems traditionally hostile to Saddam's regime. Heavy fighting continued around the besieged city of Basra yesterday, after British forces destroyed 14 Iraqi tanks which had struck out towards the Al Faw peninsula. Military commanders decided against launching an attack on the city because of fears that the operation would result in a Stalingrad-style street battle. It is estimated Iraqi military forces in the area have been reduced to 30 per cent fighting strength but have now embedded themselves within civilian buildings in the city. Armed raids have destroyed transmitters and taken state radio and television off the air in Basra, effectively cutting off its communications with Baghdad British tanks from the 7th Armoured Brigade, the Desert Rats, could be sent into the city if there is a sudden civilian uprising against Saddam's forces. Last night, forces around Basra heard loud explosions as coalition helicopter gunships were sent into the area. In the north of Iraq, Kurdish fighters made their first advance into territory controlled by Saddam yesterday after another 200 US soldiers were airlifted into the region. One commander of the Kurdish peshmerga force said Iraqi soldiers had abandoned their weapons and fled front-line sentry posts after days of heavy aerial bombardment from coalition warplanes. More than 1,000 US paratroopers from the 173rd Airborne Brigade have been dropped in Kurdish-controlled Northern Iraq, taking control of an airfield and opening up a new front in the war on the Iraqi regime. Coalition aircraft dropped several bombs on the northern town of Kirkuk yesterday, where the retreating Iraqi army was believed to have regrouped. A massive explosion also went off near the village of Kalak, just outside the Kurdish zone. There were reports that up to 500 tribespeople who refused to join the fight against the US-led forces had been massacred by forces loyal to Saddam in Hawi Jah, a village close to the town. The guerrilla force of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan advanced only two miles into Iraqi government-controlled territory, seizing a hilltop overlooking the road to Kirkuk, but the move will alarm Turkey, which is wary of any strengthening of Kurdish autonomy. Coalition commanders plan to place more troops on the Iraqi Northern front in the next week. "This position is going to be built up over time," a US official said, explaining there were plans to fly in tanks and other heavy equipment. Elsewhere in Iraq, US and British forces were engaged in fierce gun battles around several towns south of Baghdad, including Samawah, Najaf, An Nasiriyah and Karbala. As the sandstorms of recent days lifted, Apache helicopter gunships were able to fly in and dislodge a force of 1,500 Iraqi fighters at a crossing of the Euphrates river which must be secured to ensure supply lines are maintained to forces south of Baghdad. At An Nasiriyah, strong opposition was still being shown by Iraqi infantry units as the US troops tried to secure the area. A C-130 Hercules plane yesterday landed at Tallil airport, Iraq's second largest, which lies four miles outside An Nasiriyah. Military sources believe that Tallil, which was captured during intense fighting on Tuesday, will become the major re-supply base for US forces. The intensive bombing of Baghdad continued last night. Buildings close to the information ministry appeared to have been hit, as well as positions south of the city, where the Republican Guard are believed to be based. Sultan Hashim Ahmed, Iraq's defence minister, said later that he expected allied forces would manage to encircle Baghdad within five to ten days, but they would then have to face fierce street-to-street fighting that could last months. He claimed: "The enemy must come inside Baghdad and that will be its grave." Iraqi officials yesterday put the civilian casualty toll at 4,000, including 350 killed. But senior officers at central command in Qatar said that a missile which landed on a Baghdad shopping street, killing and injuring scores of civilians on Wednesday, was probably a stray Iraqi weapon.

(Original news copy) British troops manning a position being used for humanitarian aid distribution outside Basra yesterday came under attack for the second day running. Rocket propelled grenades were fired into the compound in the town of Az Zubyar where only an hour earlier hundreds of people had gathered for the first major aid handout in the area. On Wednesday mortars were fired at troops and civilians as they tried to distribute aid a couple of hundred yards from the site of yesterday's attack. No one was injured in yesterday's raid and British troops drove off their attackers. It came after a day in which British Challenger tanks of the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards, attached to 3 Commando Brigade, knocked out 14 T55 tanks and they attempted to break out of Iraq's second city. Soldiers of the Black Watch were also in action in Basra, launching two raids into the outskirts of the city. Military commanders said they had identified two fortified compounds in the west of the city where militia forces were believed to have been concentrated. They said they launched the attack to test out the reaction of the Iraqi forces defending the city. Under fire from RPGs, they destroyed a number of positions from which they were being attacked. Artillery fire was called in to hit a mortar position which was firing on the advancing British troops. Earlier two lorryloads of humanitarian aid had arrived in Az Zubyar, the first major distribution effort in the area. British and US troops stood guard as hundreds of people clamoured for food and water. The man in charge of the operation, Captain Geoff Lockett said he suspected some of those who were queueing for food had been involved in attacks on British troops in recent days in which two British soldiers died, but it was important to try to win over the local population. "A lot of these guys have probably been firing rounds and RPGs at us," he said. "But we've got to stamp our impression on these guys that we are a force for good. It is a gesture but it will give the right impression. "The hope is that if the population of Basra hear that aid is arriving in As Zubyar they too will rise up and overthrow the regime paving the way for British forces to move into the city." Iraqis queueing to receive aid yesterday gave a guarded welcome to the arrival of coalition forces in the area. Ali Salman Hussein, 35, said the troops would be welcome as long as they stayed just long enough to get the country back on its feet. "We don't want you to occupy us, we want you to liberate us and leave. I say to the world we need food and water so the people will love Mr Bush and Mr Blair. But if you don't help we will hate you." Overnight Basra's television and radio network was taken off the air in strikes by RAF jets.

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