A large convoy of U.S. Marines crossed the Euphrates river and Saddam Canal at Nassiriya on Tuesday, resuming the advance toward Baghdad, media reports said. The Americans used two bridges to cross the Euphrates, about 500 Marines and some 50 tanks and armoured personnel carriers securing the area in between.
Troops pressed toward Baghdad but many were halted by a sandstorm near the holy city of Karbala, 80 kilometers south of the capital.
In the southern area, Britain said on Tuesday a soldier from its Black Watch 1st Battalion was killed in fighting. Another British soldier who was also fighting at Zubayr, near Basra, died on Monday.
Meanwhile, a British spokesman said British troops would not enter Basra to battle Iraqi fighters, contradicting an earlier statement. "We're not going into Basra, it's simply considered a target," a British military spokesman at Central Command headquarters in Qatar told Reuters.
"The reason it is a potential target is because it has an enormous political and military importance in the area."
Earlier, a different British spokesman, Al Lockwood, told CNN television the British would probably go into Basra. (Albawaba.com)
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