VYACHESLAV'S FORUM

Many thanks for your efforts Vyacheslav, but I am quite capable of checking newsites myself, thanks.

 

Basra 'rises up' against Saddam
By Donald Macintyre at Central Command, Doha, Qatar
26 March 2003


The British Army was poised to enter the southern Iraqi city of Basra last night amid reports that well-armed forces loyal to Saddam Hussein were using mortars to quell a popular uprising.

British troops were preparing an attempt to seize the city in support of the mainly Shia Muslim population after civilians took to the streets in revolt against the authorities, reporters embedded with the 7th Armoured Brigade, the Desert Rats, said.

One report ­ which quoted Royal Scots Dragoon Guards intelligence sources ­ said Iraqi mortar positions had already been attacked by British forces and the Baath party headquarters in the city had been bombed.

In an important strategic shift, British troops had earlier been engaged in a series of military operations against pro-Saddam forces close to the city, the second biggest in Iraq, which faces a mounting humanitarian crisis compounded by water shortages after Iraqi forces, according to Allied sources, cut off electric power.

International Red Cross engineers were able to switch the power back on after British troops cleared "non-friendly" Iraqis from around the switching station, the officials said.

And in what appeared to be the biggest ground engagement since the war began, a US military official said up to 300 members of the Iraqi armed forces were believed to have been killed when they attacked the US 7th Cavalry near Najaf, about 100 miles south of Baghdad. American television networks said up to 500 Iraqis may have been killed.

Confirming that there was unrest in Basra, Major-General Peter Wall, a British officer at US Central Command in Qatar, said: "It is very much in its infancy and it would be wrong to predict a rapid outcome.

"There are early indications that [a revolt] just might be started and we will be very keen to capitalise on it. We have a duty to reinforce that, but we've got to make sure we do that in a sensible way and don't do anything hotheaded that we might come to regret."

He added that elements of the Iraqi 51st Division ­ which were said by Allied forces to have surrendered ­ had returned to the city, taking up arms again. He said they may well have been coerced through the "mechanism of threats against their families".

Senior British officers at Central Command said Allied forces would not enter Basra until they were clearer about the position on the ground.

Earlier, the British Army said an official of President Saddam's Baath party was captured by the Desert Rats during a night-time raid on party headquarters, occupied by armed plainclothes forces, at Zubayr, near Basra. Twenty Iraqis were killed in the raid. Colonel Chris Vernon, an Army spokesman, said in Kuwait the official was probably "the senior Baath party guy" in Basra. The raid was part of a series of operations against elements of the Fedayeen ­ President Saddam's "martyrs' brigade ­and a group identified as the Special Security Organisation.

A Black Watch soldier died in a separate incident in Zubayr. A British tank commander died the previous day in fighting in the same area.

The original strategy had been for British forces merely to "screen" Basra to allow the Americans to advance northwards round its western flank. But British military officials acknowledged yesterday that they would launch attacks on Iraqi military and security elements in the city "as and when the opportunity arises". Col Vernon said: "We are moving into the outskirts of Basra, where our attacks will be surgical."

A military source at Central Command claimed the Iraqi fighters in Basra were few in number but were terrorising civilians in the city. He said British Army units with experience in Kosovo, Bosnia and Northern Ireland had the expertise to deal with urban operations of this type. Air Marshal Brian Burridge, the head of British forces in the Gulf, said: "When you go in and sort out an urban area you are not out to break the china. We want to win hearts and minds, but we will have to use force."

Col Vernon said forces fighting at Zubayr reported that gunmen had attacked from behind civilians that "we assume [were] being coerced". He said the 7th Armoured Brigade had been fired at by irregular forces from behind civilians. "Clearly we cannot engage the gunmen for risk of causing undue civilian deaths," he said.

British sources also said 20 Iraqi T-55 tanks had been destroyed in two separate Iraqi breakouts from the city. The first was defeated by Royal Horse Artillery. In the second engagement, 3 Commando Brigade was attacked on the Al-Faw peninsula.

At a news conference in London earlier in the day, Tony Blair said: "Basra is surrounded and cannot be used as an Iraqi base. But in Basra there are pockets of Saddam's most fiercely loyal security services who are holding out. They are contained, but still able to inflict casualties on our troops, and so we are proceeding with caution."

 

'Flipper' Fights Saddam, Looks for Mines

Tuesday, March 25, 2003


CAMP AS SAYLIYAH, Qatar — Allied forces have some unlikely help in their fight against Saddam Hussein -- sea lions and Atlantic bottle-nosed dolphins.

In an effort to clear deadly mines from the waters around Iraq, coalition naval forces are using underwater, flippered friends equipped with cameras and specially trained to spot mines.

The lurking explosives are a threat for the military patrolling Iraqi waters, but these underwater searchers are helping divers ensure that the coastline is free of danger for humanitarian aid shipments on the way to the southern Iraqi port of Umm Qasr.

Dolphins are trained in swimmer defense, meaning they look for enemy divers, and in mine hunting, according to Tom LaPuzza, public affairs officer for the Navy’s Marine Mammal Program.

"Mine hunting is what they are doing in the Gulf now," LaPuzza told Foxnews.com. "[They are] looking for mines in shallow water or mines tethered in the water waiting for a ship to hit them."

The dolphins will use their sonar to seek out mines, which may have been planted on the seabed by Iraqis. Regular sonar hardware is less effective than the mammals' highly tuned natural abilities, LaPuzza said.

And U.S. Navy Captain Mike Tillotson said the safety of the mammals, coming all the way from San Diego, Calif., is a top priority.

"They were flown over on a military animal transporter in fleece-lined slings," Tillotson said. "We keep them in a certain amount of water. They travel very well."

The dolphins have been trained not to make contact with the mines but to place a marker near them. Human divers remove the mines.

K-Dog, the bottle-nosed dolphin pictured, is part of the multinational Commander Task Unit 55.4.3 and is conducting missions in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom.

After the Persian Gulf War, minesweepers removed 13,000 mines from the waterway, according to NPR.org. However, some may remain.

In addition to dolphins and seals, the Navy uses robots to root out the underwater explosives -- but the mammals have proven more effective.

The U.S. Navy Marine Mammal Program began in about 1960 when Navy scientists began studying the mammals' hydrodynamics in hopes of improving torpedo, ship and submarine designs, according to the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command Web site.

Soon researchers found that dolphins and sea lions had other assets that would be helpful to the military -- dolphin sonar is unmatched by man-made equipment, and sea lions are used because of their sensitive underwater directional hearing and low-light level vision.

Animal rights groups have protested the use of the mammals in military endeavors, saying it is abusive to the animals. Controversy has surrounded the capture and release of the animals.

The Navy holds that the dolphins are well cared for.

"They are operating in their natural environment. Mines don’t go off when dolphins go by them," said LaPuzza. "The environment is not dangerous."

The dolphins are accompanied by their military handlers, Navy civilian trainers and veterinarians.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

 

President Hussein! They're deploying dolphins!

My God! Now I know my reign is over! I must flee!

 

ATTENTION!
ATTENTION!
This is not a joke--repeat--this is not a joke.
The US is really deploying anti-terror dolphins!

I read it on the Internet: it MUST be true.

 

I can just imagine George Bush sitting in his big padded chair:

'I asked for sharks with lazers on their heads and what do I get? Dolphins with video cameras! Throw me a frikin bone here people, is that too much to ask for? Sharkes with lazers??'

For those of you who dont know, that is a rubbish reference to Austin Powers. I do agree with GJ though, I am quite capable of getting news reports on my own, why are you posting this stuff with no comment or discussion? All seems rather pointless (but funny) to me.

 

MECCA COLA

This just shows that Europeans support terrorism. Some money thay Mecca Cola makes are going to Palestinian terrorists who blow things up.

 

And how much money went to the resistance in Belgium, the Netherlands, France, ... in WW2. If you resist against an occupier, then you are a terrorist.

BTW. All the previous resistances blew up a lot of things in the war.

 

How many times do we have to say it before you understand, the USA supports terrorism to when it suits them. I think that Erwin was right (if he was trying to get at the same thing I am) which is the idea that one mans terrorist is anothers freedom fighter. Finally, I have tasted Mecca Cola and it is rather nice, actually it is marketed on the basis that it is an alternative to Cocacola, i.e. you can drink it without worrying about opressing people throughout the world (Coke being seen as a symbol of American economical empire and so on, not that I agree, just making the point). Would you like to prove that the money from the cola goes to terrorism? I mean you are citing the fact that certain Europeans choose to drink a particular brand of soft drink as evidance that they support terrorism, however you provide no connection be said soft drink and terrorism.

I would like to point out that as long as there is such rabid and unsupported anti-Europeanism I am afraid I have little sympathy for those who complain about people being anti-American.

 

How many times do we have to say it before you understand, the USA supports terrorism to when it suits them. I think that Erwin was right (if he was trying to get at the same thing I am) which is the idea that one mans terrorist is anothers freedom fighter. Finally, I have tasted Mecca Cola and it is rather nice, actually it is marketed on the basis that it is an alternative to Cocacola, i.e. you can drink it without worrying about opressing people throughout the world (Coke being seen as a symbol of American economical empire and so on, not that I agree, just making the point). Would you like to prove that the money from the cola goes to terrorism? I mean you are citing the fact that certain Europeans choose to drink a particular brand of soft drink as evidance that they support terrorism, however you provide no connection be said soft drink and terrorism.

I would like to point out that as long as there is such rabid and unsupported anti-Europeanism I am afraid I have little sympathy for those who complain about people being anti-American.

 

Do you have any facts to prove that statement?

Best regards/ Daniel

 

Looks like i will have to repeat myself again.

For years, US citezens paid money into the funds of the IRA. For years, America was a hide away for Republican errorists. With US courts granting them protection as Political Prisoners.

But, of course, they did not kill US or Israeli citezens, so thats not the same, right.