There was nothing resembling a popular uprising against Iraqi militiamen who controlled this city during its 13-day siege by British forces. Life continued largely as normal in many neighbourhoods, with police directing traffic and residents doing their best to avoid fighting. Doctors treated scores of civilians wounded by British artillery and US bombs during the siege, despite briefing-room claims of pinpoint accuracy. Many others were killed. These conclusions about life under siege emerge from a week of interviews in Basra and they differ in many ways from accounts offered by military and other sources before the city’s fall. Reports of large numbers of Basra residents being forced to take up arms and militiamen firing from behind human shields were not borne out in the interviews. People expressed more dismay at the looting and general lawlessness that followed the British entry into the city on April 6 than at the behaviour of the Iraqi militiamen. People say they were largely able to stay away from the fighters. Hamid Azzawi, a medical school professor who lives a block from what was the city’s intelligence headquarters, said he served refreshments to militiamen who took up positions in sandbagged emplacements on his street. ‘‘They might say, you are obliged to leave this house. So you needed to supply them with tea, water and a big smile.’’ Basra was supposed to be easy pickings for US troops and British soldiers. According to the original plan, British officers said, US Marines would sweep through the city and hand it over to British troops to clean up remaining pockets of resistance. But as one British officer said, when he arrived at Basra’s southernmost highway bridge, there was intense firing from Iraqi mortars and rocket-propelled grenades. ‘‘Here it is — it’s all yours,’’ the officer recalled a Marine telling him. British commanders debated whether to enter the city, but decided a full-scale assault might cause many civilian casualties. So they stayed put, and a cat-and-mouse battle ensued. According to one Iraqi familiar with their tactics, the Fedayeen members would typically go in a group of 20 to the highway bridge linking the Basra to Zubair. Then they would split into three or four smaller groups and fire mortars or rocket-propelled grenades at British troops stationed on the bridge. As for fighters situating themselves near civilians, Iraqis said in interviews that it was common practice for top government and ruling Baath Party officials to operate out of houses around the city, mostly in affluent civilian areas. ‘‘What happened is these people, Saddam’s men, if you like . rent civilian homes and use that for their business,’’ said Azzawi, the medical professor. US intelligence officials found out about this and targeted some of those houses. One airstrike, on April 5, hit a house that was believed to be used by top intelligence agency officials. Two bombs turned the house into a large crater but also demolished the home of Abid Hassan Hamoodi next door, killing 10 members of his family, including seven children. Many city residents described a city that functioned relatively normally until the British entered — and many said the main fear was of artillery and airstrikes. Andres Kruesi, a worker for the Red Cross who lived in Basra for 18 months, returned to the city during the siege to find it ‘‘firmly in Iraqi control’’. On April 5, US and British commanders thought they scored a major victory in Basra when they destroyed a compound they believed was the hiding place of Iraq’s local commander, Ali Hassan Majeed (Chemical Ali). Some officers believed his death might have weakened the resistance and made it easier for British troops to enter Basra. Now some officers say they are unsure what happened. ‘‘He may be dead, or he may be alive,’’ Coates said. ‘‘We think he’s dead, we don’t know.’’ He added, ‘‘Obviously, Elvis is alive for some people.’’ (LAT-WP)
