British forces south of Basra have blocked an attempted breakout by up to 50 Iraqi tanks seeking to press southward from the city, a British commander said today.
He said British light tanks, helped by gunship and surveillance helicopters, had destroyed five to seven Iraqi tanks so far.
Earlier, a British military spokesman confirmed British troops were probably going to go into Basra to battle irregular fighters in Iraq's second city.
Earlier, CNN said an Iraqi army division had engaged the British in about a dozen artillery exchanges over 24 hours:
"This is not just a shift in strategy but a difficult, high-risk operation," it quoted unnamed military spokesmen as saying.
British troops have so far been reluctant to engage in urban warfare that would endanger civilians. But Iraqi resistance in Basra and the port of Umm Qasr to the south has thwarted plans to distribute aid to Basra.
Tonnes of humanitarian relief supplies are waiting offshore to the south of Basra while British and other naval vessels try to clear mines from the waterways leading inland.
Britain said today a soldier from its Black Watch 1st Battalion was killed in fighting in southern Iraq, taking to 20 the number of dead and missing British troops since the war started last week.
Umm Qasr, where US and British forces have faced Iraqi resistance for days, is now "safe and open", a British commander said earlier. He told reporters he hoped the first ship bringing aid to Iraq would arrive within 48 hours.