Earlier reports said a convoy of British light-armored infantry, consisting of 50 to 75 vehicles and 700 troops, started rolling into Basra from the southern outskirts.

British forces have been fighting with Iraqi paramilitary fighters for controlling the second largest Iraqi city since the war began on March 20.

Early on Monday, British forces said that they found in Basra the body of Ali Hassan Al-Majeed, who is nicknamed as "Chemical Ali" by the Kurds for ordering a poison gas attack that killed thousands of Kurds in 1988.

Al-Majeed, a cousin of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein who has been entrusted with defense of southern Iraq, was apparently killed when two coalition aircraft used laser-guided missiles to attack his house in Basra on Saturday.

A British military spokesman said his body was found along with that of his bodyguard and the head of Iraqi intelligence services in Basra.

(Xinhua News Agency April 7, 2003)