Today British forces made further advances on Basra,
taking a strategic target, the Basra technical institute, right on the
southern edge of the city, previously to taking this position, pro Saddam
militia had used it to fire RPG's and mortar rounds at the British forces.
Today after this battle, the corpse of several dead pro Saddam militia
forces were found laying next to the school with RPgG rocket launchers
strewn around them. At one point during the day several people came to
recover the body of one the dead soldiers. An elder woman was present and one
could assume from her emotion that she was a relative of the dead man.
Until now there have been frequent artillery exchanges between the British
and the pro Saddam militia. The pro Saddam militia have used mounted
artillery pieces on mobile trucks firing from civilian neighbourhoods. This
has seriously impeded the British advances as they would be obliged to level
whole neighbourhoods in order to take out the enemy artillery; and the British
have not been willing to incur such large casualties to civilians in order to
accomplish their mission.
