Red Cross warns of 'humanitarian disaster' in Basra

A humanitarian disaster is looming in the city of Basra, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) says. More than a million civilians have been without clean water or electricity in the city since Friday as fighting rages outside.

The United Nations secretary general, Kofi Annan, made an urgent appeal yesterday for water supplies to be rushed in.

Outside Basra, British troops pulled back after they met ferocious resistance when they tried to enter the city where the US and Britain had predicted their forces would be welcomed as liberators.

Desperate civilians are drinking water from the river in Basra, the United Nations Children's Fund said. Raw sewage is dumped in the river, rousing fears of a disease outbreak.

The Wafa al-Qaed water treatment plant, which usually supplies most of Basra, has been out of action since Friday when the electricity cables to the plant were destroyed.

Other plants have supplied 40 per cent of the city of two million people with water, though the quality is poor. The rest of the city has none, the ICRC says. "This is an emergency situation," Nadia Doumani, its spokeswoman, said.

Florain Westphal, also of the ICRC, said: "We have not been able to gain access to the main water station today, so we will try to do it tomorrow. Sixty per cent of the population are still without access to a regular water supply. This could develop into a humanitarian crisis."

At the UN headquarters in New York, Mr Annan said: "Urgent measures should be taken to restore electricity and water to that population. A city of that size cannot afford to go without electricity or water for long. Apart from the water aspect, you can imagine what it does for sanitation."

It is not clear how the power cables to the Wafa al-Qaed plant were cut. Basra has come under intense bombardment by British and American forces, but the Defence Minister, Geoff Hoon, said they had not targeted the water supply, and added that Iraqi authorities may have sabotaged the plant.

The British forces trying to advance into Basra have hit heavy resistance they did not expect. The Desert Rats pulled their Challenger 2 tanks back from the city yesterday morning after urban guerrilla ambushes by Iraqi units and heavy mortar fire, reporters "embedded" with them said.

One correspondent reported seeing two charred bodies, "horribly disfigured", sitting in the burnt-out shell of their pick-up truck on the road into Basra yesterday.

Iraqis in civilian clothing are racing up the road in pick-ups and Jeeps, firing rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs) at British troops as they try to advance. The road is so dangerous that British troops have named it "RPG alley".

People have already died on the road, reports say, and two Royal Engineers went missing in the area. This was the welcome UK troops got in the city where they had been told to expect to be greeted as liberators, with flowers and open arms.

The biggest danger has come from the Fedayeen militia, who have discarded their uniforms for civilian clothes. There have been reports of them flying white flags of surrender to lull advancing British forces into a false sense of security, then opening fire.

Basra airport has been captured but British defenders believe Iraqi forces may counter-attack to retake it. And there are fears that several Iraqi T55 tanks lie within the city in wait for British forces.

US and British planners have seriously misjudged the reception their troops would receive in Basra, where the majority of the people are Shia Muslims. The Shia have been ruthlessly repressed by Saddam Hussein's regime, and rose against him in a rebellion after the 1991 Gulf War.

Officially, US and British forces said pockets of diehard forces loyal to President Saddam were holding out in the city. But there have been reports of 77 civilians killed in the bombing of Basra, which Mr Hoon denied, and this could have fuelled the resistance.