![]() ![]() The Iraqi convoy was especially vulnerable after it had left the main road and begun to scatter into open countryside, much of which has been turned into a muddy quagmire after 24 hours of torrential rain. The convoy was heading south-east along roads close to the border with Iran and towards British forces on al-Faw peninsula when it was spotted by coalition helicopters.īritish military chiefs said it was "madness" for the Iraqis to move in such force on the open desert plains risking air strikes, rather than stay in the relative safety of Basra. From the ground, it was pounded by 155mm AS90 heavy British artillery. US Navy F/A-18 Super Hornets and RAF Harrier ground attack jets dropped precision-guided munitions and cluster bombs on the Iraqi armour. The coalition has usurped some frequencies to broadcast its own messages.Īn RAF source said significant numbers of British aircraft were involved in strikes on the main Iraqi convoy which as well as Iraqi tanks, included type 59 artillery pieces and armoured personnel carriers. Meanwhile, Iraqi state radio and television has been knocked off the air in Basra after British forces destroyed transmitters overnight, effectively isolating Iraq's second city from Baghdad, according to the BBC. One British tank officer said it was "like the bicycle against the motor car". The British armour, attacking while moving, destroyed all 14 of the Iraqi tanks thought to be a breakaway group.Ĭaptain Al Lockwood, the British military spokesman at US central command forward headquarters in Qatar, said this morning's tank battle was a "very quick, short, sharp engagement".įour armoured personnel carriers were also destroyed by the Challengers, which fire depleted uranium shells at a rate of up to eight per minute. Then early today British Challenger tanks appear to have encountered a squadron of Iraqi tanks that had been dispersed during the earlier attacks.
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