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
Coalition forces United Kingdom; United States; Australia; Poland;	Iraq
Casualties and losses
11 killed; 2 tanks damaged; 1 APC damaged; 2 Scimitars destroyed (friendly fire); (United Kingdom)	395–515 killed; 14 tanks destroyed

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 Saddam,^[3] 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 the 27 March.

^ "Operation Iraqi Freedom: Iraq Coalition Casualties: Military Fatalities". icasualties.org. Archived from the original on 26 March 2010. Retrieved 21 February 2010.
^ "Wages of War—Appendix 1. Survey of reported Iraqi combatant fatalities in the 2003 war". Commonwealth Institute of Cambridge. Retrieved 21 February 2010.
^ "The city was heavily populated with troops, regulars and an estimated 1,000 irregular Fedayeen or security forces. They were units of the Iraqi 51st Division, which had maintained a presence in Basra since crushing the Shia rebellion there after the 1991 Gulf War." Desert Rats, John Parker, p. ? Hachette, 2013

[1] "Operation Iraqi Freedom: Iraq Coalition Casualties: Military Fatalities". icasualties.org. Archived from the original on 26 March 2010. Retrieved 21 February 2010.

[2] "Wages of War—Appendix 1. Survey of reported Iraqi combatant fatalities in the 2003 war". Commonwealth Institute of Cambridge. Retrieved 21 February 2010.

[3] "The city was heavily populated with troops, regulars and an estimated 1,000 irregular Fedayeen or security forces. They were units of the Iraqi 51st Division, which had maintained a presence in Basra since crushing the Shia rebellion there after the 1991 Gulf War." Desert Rats, John Parker, p. ? Hachette, 2013

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