The World - News from Feb. 4, 1987

Iraqi forces appear to have taken the initiative in the bloody fighting around Basra and have driven Iranian troops from a beachhead east of that city, Pentagon spokesman Robert B. Sims said. He reported that fierce hand-to-hand combat still rages near Basra but that Iranian forces appear to have been pushed from a foothold on the west side of Fish Lake in one of the most bitter battles of the nearly 6 1/2-year-old war. He added that Iranian forces are still holding a five-square-mile area about six miles east of Basra just inside the Iraq border but are no longer moving closer to the city.