BASRA, 30 March 2003 — British troops besieging Basra were targeting Iraq’s ruling Baath party yesterday but were in “no rush” to enter the country’s second city, a British military spokesman said. “The targeting and eradication of the Baath Party within Basra province is now our primary focus and military main effort,” Col. Chris Vernon told reporters in Kuwait City.

Vernon said a senior unnamed Baath official was now in British custody and was being questioned, while the party’s headquarters in Basra and the nearby town of Az-Zubair “no longer exist”. Members of the Scottish Black Watch regiment had destroyed two statues within Basra yesterday, Vernon said. The statues were believed to be those of Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. “They drove in and destroyed two statues. In out, in out,” he said.

Such an operation was designed to deal a psychological blow to the ruling party and show that the British can now operate “with a degree of impunity” around Basra, Vernon said. Vernon said the radio and television stations in Basra were no longer operating. Baath Party members were now communicating by telephone and the British were now considering targeting the phone system.

But he also said there was “no rush” for the British to take full control of the city. “It’s a military operation. We will do it on our terms and on our conditions.” British forces have been treating civilian casualties who were wounded as they attempted to flee Basra in their thousands on Friday.

British ambulances ferried the casualties, who came under mortar fire as they headed out over the Al-Zubair bridge, to field hospitals on the outskirts of the city. Some of the casualties were taken to a small regimental aid post where they were treated for shrapnel injuries.

Capt. Hugo Guthrie, in charge of a hospital at a compound outside Basra, said that medics were also treating Iraqi prisoners of war. “We treated several groups of injured people, including civilians and a number of Iraqi prisoners of war,” Guthrie said. “Among the civilians were a number who were injured by mortar or artillery fire as they fled out the city and crossed the bridge.”

The Black Watch attacked Iraqi militias on Friday as they saw the refugees who were heading out of town coming under fire. No word has been given on the number of civilian or Iraqi militia casualties but no British troops were hurt in the exchanges, officials have said.

After the Black Watch launched its assault, US F A-18 fighter jets also targeted three Al-Samoud 2 missile launchers in a strike near Basra, the US military said.

The US Navy jets launched the strike at around 4:00 p.m. (1300 GMT) Friday, using precision-guided weapons to bomb the missile launchers, the US Central Command said in a statement.

“The strike was carried out with precision-guided ordnance to continue to degrade Iraq’s ability to strike coalition forces, the Iraqi people, or neighboring countries,” it said.

The coalition had been hoping that Basra’s mainly Shiite population would rise up against Saddam Hussein’s rule which is dominated by Sunnis in Baghdad. But it was clear that locals remained wary of voicing dissent towards the Iraqi strongman.

Asked about the humanitarian situation within the city, Vernon said living conditions had been poor for some time before the campaign to topple Saddam Hussein was launched. But he said that talk of a humanitarian crisis was overstated.

The invasion force was handing out water and food, and playing loudspeaker messages on the outskirts of the city as part of their efforts to bring relief and gain the trust of Basra’s 1.5 million people, Vernon said. Basra’s water supply, which had been damaged by bombs had been partially restored by workers of the humanitarian Red Cross agency and was now running at about 40 per cent capacity.

A humanitarian crisis in the besieged city was not yet evident, he added. “The water is on and working at 40 percent capacity. There are food stocks of up to a month or more. A humanitarian crisis is not yet evident. That said, we would wish to improve their living conditions as soon as we can.”

Vernon would not say how many Iraqi militia had been killed or captured in the campaign around Basra but he added that there were now “up to 3,000 in our prisoner of war cage in Umm Qasr”, the nearby deep water port town captured by the British earlier this week.