British troops and tanks enter Basra unopposed

PALACE SEARCH: U.S. Army soldiers from A Company, 3rd Battalion, 7th Infantry Regiment, search one of Saddam Hussein's bomb-damaged palaces in Baghdad. Coalition soldiers took over key buildings in the Iraqi capital on Monday as gunfire and explosions thundered in many parts of the city.

Basra, Iraq (Agencies): British paratroopers guarded by tanks and helicopter gunships walked unopposed into the center of Iraq's second city of Basra on Monday, meeting a warm reception in the narrow streets of the old quarter.

Walking past the bodies of Iraqi militiamen lying in wasteland on either side of the main road from the south, about 700 troops armed with automatic weapons entered the city in the early afternoon in single-file columns.

Not a shot was fired as men, women and children came out on the street, some to welcome their new occupiers and others to simply stand and stare.

Four U.S. Cobra helicopters swooped overhead as the troops made their advance to Siyamar Square in the heart of the dilapidated southern city. Criss-crossed by canals, it was once labeled the "Venice of the East".

Basra residents, meanwhile, went on a looting rampage, hauling furniture and carpets out of a western hotel.

A British army spokesman said earlier there were still pockets of resistance from paramilitary supporters of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

But officers on the ground said they were confident the bulk of resistance had been subdued in a raid on Sunday involving more than two dozen tanks and armored personnel carriers.

"This (reception) is more than we could have hoped for. We took part in the raid yesterday and today it's a completely different city," said Major Chris Brannigan of the Royal Scots Dragoons Guards, manning a tank at an intersection on the main boulevard, Baghdad Street.

Soldiers from the 3rd Battalion Parachute Regiment took positions along the road, some lying on their bellies facing out towards tumbledown houses and dusty side streets too narrow for tanks.

Most made their way to the main square, and were thronged by locals under a giant portrait of Saddam.

"Welcome, welcome, very good!" shouted some. Others begged the troops for water in a city that has been virtually under siege since the war began 19 days ago.

Shouting commands on his radio, paratrooper Dan Worthington said they were unsure whether they would remain in the city. But in London, British Defense Secretary Geoff Hoon said the troops were there to stay,

Basra residents said they were happy to see the back of Saddam's Fedayeen militia but were wary about the future.

"What will happen now we have no government?" asked 47-year-old Majid Abas. "Will we get water and medical supplies? We are poor, we have nothing."

Cars filled with families left Basra all day. In some cases, huge trucks were seen leaving loaded with merchandise -dozens of mattresses, boxes of generators, televisions, refrigerators.

"The situation is not good. There is no water in the city. All the citizens are very thirsty," said one man, who identified himself only as Ali.

"On television and radio, they promised to give us water, but all we have is air," he said, holding his one-year-old daughter in his arms.

The road running north into Basra runs through Safwan and Zubayr; smaller towns appear abandoned. At Zubayr, hundreds of people had set up a temporary encampment along a small, muddy river, where they washed clothes and ate. Children roamed the area, begging for water.

On the road running south, a fleet of armored vehicles marked with red crosses entered a large college compound from where Fedayeen militia had been targeting British positions with mortars and gunfire, pinning them back to the city's outskirts.

"We're going in to collect bodies (of Iraqi militia)," said one British soldief. "This is the place we raided yesterday and basically we neutralized them."