Papers relish UK tank 'victory'

Papers relish UK tank 'victory'

Britain's "greatest tank victory since World War Two" is reported with some relish in Friday's papers.

The Daily Express furnishes its front page with a large picture of one of the 14 Challenger 2 tanks used by the Desert Rats to destroy the same number of Iraqi T-55s as they left Basra.

The story continues inside the paper, where the headline says "14-0", as if reporting a football score.

This imagery apparently came from Central Command in Qatar, quoted by the paper as saying: "There were 14 of ours and 14 of theirs. The final score was 14 nil.

"It was an away fixture and the away team won."

The "14-0" headline was repeated on the front of the Daily Star, which added: "Brits whack Iraq in huge tank battle"

Only the Sun takes a more inventive approach to the battle.

Under a picture of the Desert Rats sleeping on their tanks, the paper says: "Tank You and Goodnight".

Basra crisis

The mounting humanitarian concerns occupy many column inches, including much of the Daily Telegraph's front page.

A picture of hundreds of Iraqi refugees fleeing the embattled city of Basra gives an indication of the size of the problem developing as war rages on.

Reporting from the outskirts of the city, the paper's Patrick Bishop said he was "pulled and pushed by a forest of beseeching hands and almost knocked to the ground" when he opened his Jeep to distribute supplies.

The correspondent's colleague, Jack Fairweather, also outside Basra, recalls meeting a man with his wife and son in a wheelbarrow, injured from Iraqi artillery fired to quell an uprising.

The Basra crisis is also given lead status in the Independent, with a large picture of an Iraqi girl awaiting food parcels.

Port contract 'rift'

A rift between the US and Britain over who will run the captured port of Umm Qasr is claimed by the Independent and the Guardian.

The Americans have awarded a Seattle-based company with a $4.8m (£3m) contract, the paper says.

But the British Army is pressing ahead with its plan to reinstall the Iraqi management who directed the port before the invasion.

Blix hits back

All the papers cover the Camp David summit between Tony Blair and George Bush, in which they warned the war could last months.

But the Guardian makes the meeting its lead picture and story, with the upbeat headline "We are working to make the world more peaceful."

The paper also has an interesting "exclusive" interview with chief UN weapons inspector Hans Blix, in which he says the Americans had made up their minds about war from the end of January.

'Executed' Brits

The pictures of the two British soldiers whose dead bodies were broadcast on Iraqi television are on the front page of the Daily Mail.

Under the headline "Executed", the paper says the men were shot "by Saddam's brutal thugs".

And it repeats the disgust expressed by Mr Blair at Camp David over the killings.