http://www.msnbc.com/news/870749.asp?0cv=CA01March 22 — U.S. Marines and British commandos moved across the Iraqi desert from the south, and surrounded the key city of Basra, where they delayed a final assault Saturday morning in an attempt to wait out an Iraqi brigade defending the city. Simultaneously, fires and huge plumes of smoke filled the skies of Baghdad at dawn after the United States unleashed a massive air assault that struck dozens of buildings in the capital with more than 300 cruise missiles.
