The fourth was located in the city centre, at the old state building, garrisoned by a detached company of British troops, numbering around 80 soldiers, along with the nearby PJOC.

[2] The first British soldier to die in the city following Operation Sinbad was Rifleman Daniel Lee Coffey of 2nd Battalion, The Rifles, who was killed on 27 February while returning to the Shatt-Al-Arab Hotel.

[3] During the siege, the British base at the airport was constantly bombarded by Mahdi Army mortar and rocket fire, upwards of dozens of times a day.

[citation needed] The Uti Triangle, a flat zone combining open wasteland, marsh and clustered buildings, was being used by the Mahdi Army to launch mortar and rocket attacks on both the airport and the Basra Palace.

An example of this was on 4 April, on a stretch of highway in the Hayaniyah district on the north-western outskirts of Basra, when a Warrior AFV was struck by a massive bomb explosion which wrecked the vehicle and left a three-foot crater in the road.

[citation needed] On 3 September, under the cover of darkness and without any media attention, the British Army withdrew from Basra Palace to the airport, leaving their last foothold it had in the city.