On the outskirts of the southern edge of the Basra, the "Desert Rats",
members of the Blackwatch Regiment of the 7th Armored brigade, held
checkpoints leading into the city. Since a suicide bombing two days before
when US soldiers were killed by an Iraqi suicide bomber at a checkpoint near
Al Najaf, the atmosphere at all checkpoints had become much more tense and
the soldiers much more vigilant about checking people crossing checkpoints
for weapons. Here, a young Iraqi girl is confronted with the tense and
hostile realities of war as the relative she is with is checked by British
soldiers. There were many signs that the humanitarian crisis was getting
worse. Many people coming and going from the city were collapsing at
checkpoints indicating they were in desperate need of water. The numbers of
people fleeing the city had also increased dramatically.
