Digging in: troops held up in desert sandstorms, leaders hit by political firestorms

Narrative: Day Si

Day six was a day of storms – sandstorms in the desert, firestorms on the dug-in positions of Saddam Hussein's elite troops outside Baghdad, and a political storm around what the post-war dispensation might be – not just in Iraq but in Europe, Nato and the United Nations.

It was, though, clear enough which way the wind was blowing as far as public opinion was concerned. Fears of a prolonged war may have unsettled the markets – oil prices firmed, the dollar sank and safe-haven gold and bond prices had risen when the New York Stock Exchange closed the night before almost 4 per cent lower after setbacks for the Allied forces in Iraq. (One analyst described it as "more volatile than a yo-yo – and about as intelligent as one".) But the prolonged skirmishes of the previous days seemed only to have hardened the resolve of the public. Support for the war in the latest poll increased to 54 per cent with just 30 per cent opposed.

If bad news was what shifted the public mood, yesterday began with more. Overnight, the first British soldier killed in action was named as Sergeant Steven Mark Roberts of the 2nd Royal Tank Regiment; by 7.30am yesterday a second British combat fatality was announced. Reports from the field were of ferocious sandstorms – so bad the ground attack on Baghdad was stalled, perhaps by as much as several days, with even more atrocious weather predicted. And in the early hours, American television networks began reporting that intelligence sources had told them President Saddam has authorised the use of chemical weapons in defence of Baghdad – reports that the Pentagon, having it both ways, went on to deny.

As the day progressed, so did the storms. Swirling clouds of dirty-brown sand choked troops and reduced visibility at times to less than 20ft. The advance of the main armoured column had been halted. They had also come up against President Saddam's crack troops – the 30,000-strong Medina Division of the Republican Guard. Engaging them would mark a new phase in the war – but that could not be done without a massive aerial bombardment first.

The blinding sandstorms inhibited that. It was too dangerous for attack helicopters to fly. A dozen aircraft launched from the USS Harry Truman in the Mediterranean returned to the carrier a few hours later without reaching northern Iraq. But the weather did not inhibit the B-52s flying from Britain.

Throughout the night and well into the day, the bombers blasted the Medina Division positions to the south of the city. US-led air forces flew 900 strikes overnight, an increasing number against Republican Guards.

The bombs dropped were massive. The blast could be felt 20 miles to the north in Baghdad where shock waves were sent through the city from the distant bombardment, prompting panic as cars sped away and pedestrians raced for cover. So massive were the explosions, many in the capital speculated that the US military had used the Massive Ordnance Air Blast (MOAB), the biggest non-nuclear bomb in the world.

If the Allied troops were able to get any rest, the delay would have been welcomed. Correspondents reported the soldiers were looking very tired after the dash to Baghdad, which is one of the fastest recorded in military history. What had become clear by yesterday morning was which of the three-pronged advance on Baghdad was the main threat.

The first, led by the US Fifth Corps, had been along the western bank of the Euphrates approaching the capital through the Shia holy city of Karbala, 50 miles south of the Iraqi capital, close to where units from the Medina Division are located.

The second, moving up the other side of the river, was the one that had been stalled by unexpectedly stiff resistance in Nasiriyah, where US Marines has taken the heaviest casualties of the war so far. A third thrust, with the First Marine Expeditionary Force in the lead, is moving towards Baghdad between the Tigris and Euphrates; advancing towards Kut along two converging routes. Kut, which is defended by another group of Republican Guards, the Baghdad Division, was the scene of one of the greatest humiliations to befall the British Army when, in 1916, an attempt to reach Baghdad failed and some 13,000 British troops were captured after being besieged by the Turks in the First World War. Few survived captivity.

Prospects look better this time, the British commanders hope. Some 500 Iraqis have been killed in the past two days in the sweep through southern Iraq. Allied generals yesterday morning, acknowledged that, in the words of the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, US General Richard Myers, "we think the toughest fighting is ahead of us".

Fears by some military analysts that the swift advance has dangerously overextended and exposed the Allied lines of support and supply are primarily based on the experiences in the Nasiriyah region where the most protracted clashes with Iraqi forces have been – and where US Marines have sustained their largest casualties so far. It is also where the only American prisoners of war were taken (apart, that is, from the two Apache helicopter pilots who were named yesterday as Chief Warrant Officer Ronald Young, 26, and Chief Warrant Officer David Williams, 30).

By yesterday, though, things had begun to change at Nasiriyah. Although the area was still not totally secure, substantial numbers of US forces began to pass through the town. Over a two-hour period, a convoy of hundreds of tanks, armoured vehicles and lorries passed through a protective corridor of armour in the hostile city and over the Euphrates to begin the 230-mile journey north-west to Baghdad.

Their difficulties were not over. Despite an air strike that killed at least 30 Iraqis, the convoy met a fresh ambush on the road north.

The ambivalence of the rest of the world to all this emerged in various forms. The South Korean parliament will hardly have given cheer to Washington with its decision to postpone, until next month, a vote on sending non-combat troops to Iraq. The Turks – who have sent an entire US division on a long sea journey from the aborted northern front to the Gulf where it will not land for another 10 days – braced themselves for a visit by the US envoy Zalmay Zhalilzad for talks to try to heal a rift between Washington and Ankara over the refusal to allow troops on to Turkish soil. And in Europe critics of the war continue to operate on a variety of fronts.

In Britain, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, broke the silence he has maintained since fighting began with a critique of "the underlying weaknesses and moral inconsistencies that have led us to a situation where our leaders have concluded that we have no alternative to war". He called for nations "urgently to develop better methods of working together" on international law, proposed a reform of the UN Security Council and pressed the need to rebuild "broken or threatened bonds of trust with allies not involved in military action".

How far such healing has to go was clear from a newspaper article by Joschka Fischer, Germany's Foreign Minister, who was scathingly dismissive of any attempts, post-war, to rebuild the world in the image of the United States. And the announcement that France would unveil proposals this week to give greater powers to the European Commission showed the contrary direction in which thinking was going in Paris.

Back on the battlefield, things were changing to the south in Basra. Early yesterday, British military commanders announced that the status of Basra had changed. The city had now become "a military objective" because of the amount of resistance encountered there. Originally, the plan at Basra was to isolate the city and bypass it. The hope was only small pockets of trouble would be encountered in the mostly Shia city where, in 1991, the people rose up against President Saddam and his largely Sunni followers. (That uprising in Basra was brutally crushed by the Iraqi military.) Yesterday, the plan changed. "Our intention is not to siege the city, for sure," US Major-General Victor Renuart said at the command headquarters in Qatar. "Our intention is to return security to the city."

A main element in the plan was an attempt to break the grip of ruling Baath party militia and other forces loyal to President Saddam in the area, said Air Marshal Brian Burridge, the senior British officer in the Gulf. Overnight a "lightning strike" had been made on party buildings in nearby Zubayr where a top Baath official had been seized.

The Army announced that a British soldier from the 1st Battalion the Black Watch had been killed in action in an operation near Zubayr.

Whether British forces would move into Basra itself to deal with the militia fighters remained unclear. They have said they wanted to avoid street fighting for as long as possible. But US officials have been talking up the "specialised skills" of the British troops in the theatre of war around Basra. They are drawn from the Parachute Regiment, the Royal Marines, and others who have built up considerable experience from Northern Ireland and the Balkans and are well versed in urban combat.

Already, experience on the ground had shown US troops to be more confrontational. "If they see problems they tend to retreat and open fire if necessary," one correspondent said. "The British approach certainly has been to move in with a small squad, surround the area, and detain people. It seems to be working on the face of it."

But the idea that it was all just "mopping up" the guerrilla-style activity after the rapid Allied advance was proved wrong in Basra yesterday. Overnight, some 50 Iraqi tanks and armoured vehicles made an attempt to break out and move south towards the Al-Faw peninsula. A battle ensued because the move was blocked by British ground forces who summoned helicopters from Ark Royal to assist. Up to 20 of the tanks were destroyed, according to Air Marshal Brian Burridge.

Further south, things were looking more settled. Brigadier Jim Dutton of the Royal Marines declared the port of Umm Qasr was "safe and open". It had been cleared of mines by divers assisted by a team of trained dolphins that use their natural sonar abilities to seek out mines or other explosive devices Iraqi forces may have planted on the seabed. Animal rights campaigners should be reassured that the dolphins, which were flown from America in a military animal transporter in fleece-lined slings, are trained not to swim up to mines but to place a marker a small distance away.

The hope is that the first shipload of humanitarian aid will be landed in Umm Qasr in 48 hours. It would be the first of an additional £30m of aid being allocated to Iraq, Clare Short, the International Development Secretary, told the BBC World Service. The port, like the US Fifth Fleet in the Gulf, has raised its alert level amid fears of suicide attacks by Iraqis in speedboats.

Elsewhere, things were quieter. On the northern front, Allies bombed the city of Mosul and Iraqi positions between Kirkuk and the Kurdish- controlled town of Chamchamal but otherwise there was little activity. In the east, Royal Marines have moved into positions along the border with Iran – an indication that Britain and America are anxious Tehran should not try to exploit the chaos caused by the war.

The area into which they were dropped by RAF Chinook helicopters was pitted with shell holes, a legacy of eight years of fighting between Iraq and Iran during the 1980s. The marines have complained already they have come under fire from Iranian guns, a charge denied by Iran.

As for the Iraqis, they had a quiet day. In the morning, their Information Minister claimed their forces had killed what he called "scores of invaders" in marshes near Nasiriyah but gave no precise numbers.

At midday, after fresh blasts rocked central Baghdad, Iraqi television broadcast a message, allegedly from President Saddam, urging tribal chiefs to "escalate and enhance" fighting against the "aggressors".

Otherwise, the Iraqis confined themselves to diplomatic manoeuvring at the Arab League meeting of foreign ministers in Cairo where the Iraqi Vice-President, Taha Yassin Ramadan, condemned his fellow Arabs, saying their call for an "immediate and unconditional withdrawal" of US-led forces did not go far enough. He caused further irritation by criticising Arab countries that supply the United States and Britain with oil.

But it produced a result. Prince Saud al-Faisal, the Saudi Foreign Minister, said last night his country was calling for a halt to the war against Iraq, to allow diplomacy another chance. The minister said Saudi Arabia had made specific proposals to Washington and was awaiting the response.

Tony Blair's attention was elsewhere. "In the five days since military action began, a huge amount has already been achieved," he said in his monthly press conference. "Progress towards Baghdad is of vital strategic importance," he added. But he then turned his attention to the political aftermath of the war. The conflict had thrown up profound questions on the future of the transatlantic relationship. The alternative to partnership between Europe and America was an "extremely dangerous" polarisation between the powers of the two continents, he said.

Sacrificing the transatlantic relationship would be "madness". It was possible to find agreement between Europe and America but if they did fall out it would not be down to Britain, which would retain its membership of the EU and its friendship with the US, he said. It all seemed a long way off.

Yet failing to look far enough ahead is one of the classic mistakes people make in war. Certainly Mr Bush was doing just that when he announced he has asked Congress for $74.7bn in funds to pay for the war. That would cover the costs of the US forces in Iraq for six months, his advisers briefed, after which the troops could pull out. The world should be so lucky.

Meanwhile it was back to the fighting and news was mixed. There were further "friendly fire" incidents; a US F-16 fighter jet had shot at a Patriot missile defence battery near Najaf that had locked on to it and the deaths of two British soldiers were confirmed after their tank was hit by the US during fighting near Basra.

The British also confirmed early stages of an uprising in Basra. "This is just the sort of encouraging indication we have been looking for," said Major-General Peter Wall, British Chief of Staff at Allied Central Command in Qatar. Meanwhile, 1,400 air sorties against the Republican Guard were scheduled. The bombing would continue. And so would the storms.

Invasion of Iraq - day six

* TUESDAY 7.40am GMT: A soldier from 1st Bn, Black Watch, has died in action near Zubayr, southern Iraq.

10.10am: Brigadier Jim Dutton, above, the Royal Marines commander, says Umm Qasr is now "safe and open"; hopes the first aid ship will arrive in 48 hours.

10.50: Iraqi Information Minister says Iraqi forces killed "scores of invaders" in marshes near Nasiriyah.

12.15pm: Tony Blair says "huge amount" achieved but it will take perseverance and time to quell resistance. "This time" the West will not let the Iraqi people down, he says.

1.51: The US Fifth Fleet in the Gulf raises its alert level amid fears of suicide speedboat attacks.

5.18: UK military says uprising has begun in Basra. A British journalist says there are reports of Iraqi soldiers firing mortars at civilians protesting against Saddam Hussein's regime.

9.21: Two British tank soldiers confirmed dead near Basra after being hit by another UK tank crew.