Portrait of the Week – 29 March 2003

That we will encounter more difficulties and anxious moments in the days ahead is certain,’ Mr Tony Blair, the Prime Minister, said in the Commons after four days of war against Iraq, ‘but no less certain, indeed more so, is coalition victory.’ On the seventh day of the war he flew, with Mr Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary, to the United States for talks with President George Bush and Mr Kofi Annan, the secretary-general of the United Nations. RAF Tornados attacked radar systems around Baghdad, and B52 bombers based at Fairford, Gloucestershire, flew nightly sorties to release computer-guided missiles against targets in Iraq. Television viewers were able to see powerful explosions in Baghdad; in one night 300 cruise missiles hit the city, although its public lighting continued to work and civilian casualties were remarkably low – Iraqi sources said on the third day that three civilians had been killed and 200 wounded, but by the fifth day put the number of civilian dead at 150. British forces were involved in the capture of Umm Qasr, the southern seaport, parts of which put up prolonged resistance; some Polish Grom (‘Thunder’) special forces joined the coalition attack on the port. Elements of Britain’s 7th Armoured Brigade withdrew from the outskirts of Basra after coming under fierce mortar fire. In the first six days of the war, 18 British servicemen were killed in accidents and by ‘friendly fire’, but only on the fourth day was one man killed in combat, and another the next day. More than 100,000 people marched through London to a rally in Hyde Park against the war. An ITV News and Daily Telegraph poll conducted by YouGov showed 56 per cent in favour of the action on 23 March, compared with 50 per cent on 18 March. Fritz Spiegl, the musician and commentator on language, died, aged 77.