US, BRITISH FORCES ENTER IRAQ, BASRA LIKELY TO FALL SOON

LONDON 20 Mar. (IPS)     As the United States and Britain forces launched Thursday evening their third wave of attack against targets in Baghdad, but also the northern, oil-rich city of Mawsel in the Iraqi Kurdistan, sources from the Tehran-based Supreme Assembly of Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SAIRI) reported that American forces were had reached one kilometer from Basra. 

Joint American and British units also captured the small, but strategic port of Um al Qasr, few kilometres south Basra, the country's largest city after Baghdad, correspondents reported, in preparation for the invasion of the town.

"US troops are likely to launch ground offensives on Basra imminently", the official Iranian news agency IRNA quoted well-informed sources close to the SAIRI, adding that the US commanders prefer to launch attacks at night.

Basra is a Shi'ite inhabited province south of Iraq, on the Shatt el Arab border river giving access to the Persian Gulf.

Sources had told Iran Press Service that Iran had "opened" the borders with Iraq allowing anti-Saddam forces controlled by the SAIRI to enter Iraq and help British troops capturing the town. ENDS US BRITISH FORCES ENTER IRAQ 20303