Battle of Basra (2003)

Battle of Basra
Part of the 2003 invasion of Iraq, Iraq War
Basra city
Date 21 March – 6 April 2003 Location Basra, Iraq Result Coalition victory, British occupation
Belligerents
Iraq	United Kingdom  United States  Australia
Casualties and losses
395–515 killed 14 tanks destroyed	11 killed (UK)

The Battle of Basra lasted from 21 March to 6 April 2003 and was one of the first battles of the 2003 invasion of Iraq. The British 7 Armoured Brigade fought their way into Iraq's second-largest city, Basra, on 6 April coming under constant attack by the Iraqi Army 51st Division and Fedayeen. While elements of the Parachute Regiment cleared the 'old quarter' of the city that was inaccessible to vehicles. Entering Basra had only been achieved after two weeks of conflict, which included the biggest tank battle of the war by British forces when the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards destroyed 14 Iraqi tanks on 27 March.

Basra is a city of more than one million people, located in Southern Iraq. To military and economic planners, it represents a strategic objective because it sits near a port that provides access from inland Iraq to the Persian Gulf. The area around Basra itself produces much of Iraq's oil, which is processed at a local refinery. To the south-east is Rumaila oil field, which by itself contains billions of barrels worth of crude oil—14% of the world supply. To the north-east is the West Qurna Field, the second-largest oil field in the world.

Britain captured Basra from the Ottoman Empire in 1914. In 1932, Iraq became nominally independent of Britain and British troops left a few years later. During the Second World War, the brief Anglo-Iraqi War broke out during 1941. British forces, unopposed, seized the city and surrounding area as a base for an advance towards Baghdad although the war came to an end before that occurred.

The city was a major target during the Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s and was bombed by the US in the 1991 Gulf War.

Basra was the site of a 1991 uprising to overthrow Saddam Hussein after the US had driven the Iraqi Army from Kuwait. Residents became embittered when support promised by the US did not materialize. Basra then suffered from years of sanctions and bombing, as well as bad treatment from Hussein. An Iraqi living in exile said in 2001: "Iraqis think Saddam is America's man. These people are not going to forget what has happened to them. In their eyes, it is genocide. And people do not forget genocide."

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