Siege of Basra: Disorder descended on southern Iraq yesterday, as armed militia groups roamed the roads and Baath Party activists in key towns south of Basra staged a fight back.
To the north of the city, tanks belonging to the Scots Queen's Dragoons were forced to recross the Shatt al-Basra waterway after encountering heavy resistance from the Iraqi 6th Armoured Division stationed south of al-Qurnah on the road north.
The British withdrawal from positions a few miles from the Iranian border meant that Basra is no longer surrounded and the siege of the city has effectively been lifted.
"This is all getting very messy," said a senior British officer.
"Army units are putting on civilian clothes so that we can't call in airstrikes in the north, whilst here in the south civilians have been raiding arms dumps to get hold of weapons."
Focus has now shifted from pushing north to the Euphrates towards pinning down armed looters and Iraqi soldiers wearing civilian clothes.
Units belonging to the 7th Armoured Division that is now stretched between the Kuwaiti border and the outskirts of Basra spent yesterday setting-up road blocks along the main routes leading to the city.
Two British soldiers have already been killed and another injured near Basra in sporadic fighting, while in the town of al-Tubah 12 miles southwest of Basra medical staff yesterday came under machine-gun fire from eight Iraqi men who fled when shot at.
They left behind a stash of grenades and rocket propelled grenades in a room protected by sandbags, one of a number of arms dumps found so far and part of what one British officer called the beginning of "guerilla operations".
Officers have been told that Fedayeen militia have infiltrated into the area and along with local Baath Party activists are exhorting the local population to fight and are offering money to undercover fighters to launch attacks.
British attention in the south has now focused on al-Zubayr, one of a number of towns isolated on the charge northwards to Basra but which have subsequently emerged as enemy strongholds.
Although on Saturday troops had been forced to stop the looting of an arms dump in al-Zubayr, a military complex in the centre of the town has been taken over by what is reported to be a Republican Guard unit.
The soldiers could be seen waving a white flag to surrender before opening fire as British troops approached.
"They seem to be waving that flag whenever they want to have a sleep and waking up to fire at us," said one soldier. The fighting in southern Iraq has not been restricted to British and Iraqi forces. Militia groups have been out to settle old scores after equipping themselves by raiding Iraqi arms dumps.
Near the town of Mushrif, a squadron of the Queen's Dragoon Guards intervened to stop a fire fight between two groups, one of which appeared to be local Baath Party members.
The fighting had left one man with a gunshot injury to his head lying in a pool of blood, and another with a bullet wound in his leg, beside him an AK-47 rifle.
"We are here to protect the oil refinery," he said, although his van, loaded up with canisters seemed to suggest otherwise.
"I have 10 children who want to know where I am. Will you take me there?"
"We can't deal with many more of these," said medic Capt Mark Townsend. "We simply don't have the resources, or the time."
His officer in charge, Maj Matthew Botsford said: "There's a power vacuum out there. Everyone seems to have a gun and to be out using them to further their own interests."
The injured man was taken to a nearby field hospital and the dead one left and his corpse taken away shortly afterwards and burned by local civilians.
At one of the roadblocks where passing Iraqi vehicles are now being stopped and searched, soldiers on guard talked about "another Northern Ireland".
As one car pulled away from a check-point, an Iraqi man leant out of the window and shouted: "Go home English. This is very dangerous for you."
Another man who was searched was wearing Iraqi military trousers under his long shirt though he was carrying nothing more threatening than a bag of tomatoes.
"It's a nightmare," said one soldier. "We don't know who is a fighter and who is a civilian. They all look the same."
That problem promises to be far worse in Basra, where one Iraqi who had fled the city yesterday morning said that the Republican Guards had gone undercover.
The man, called Falih, appeared to have a fresh injury to his foot, where he said, Iraqi soldiers had shot at him as he ran to his car to leave the city.
He described a city held in a grip of fear by the military and Iraqis loyal to the Baath Party.
"They are stopping all civilians leaving. The army has taken hold of our families and said they would shoot them if anyone tries to leave," said Falih.
"I left because my wife is hiding and I am free to go. I have come to tell you to stop them so that we can be free." His words were the only encouragement for soldiers at the check-point received yesterday, as the majority of Iraqis filtered through in stony silence. One or two issued a hesitant V for victory sign but otherwise the Iraqis seemed cautious of the British or still held in thrall by Saddam Hussein. "He is still watching us," said one Iraqi who worked on a farm nearby, "we don't feel safe."
It was pointed out by a soldier that a few hundred metres down the road stood a large mural of the Iraqi dictator brandishing a gun, the paint work battered but still intact. Some time later in the afternoon, a tank "accidentally" knocked into the mural and sent it crashing to the ground.