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| Iraq |
| Iraqi soldiers defecting |
| 2003-02-28 |
| Morale is low in the Iraqi army and many soldiers are preparing white flags of surrender, we are told by someone in northern Iraq who recently interviewed two defectors from Saddam Hussein's army. One was a captain who defected from the 5th Mechanized Division of the 1st Corps, based near the northern city of Kirkuk. The captain told our informant that the heavy division was only 35 percent combat-effective. The captain said morale was so low that younger soldiers are speaking openly about surrendering — before the first shot has been fired. A second soldier, a senior noncommissioned officer, defected from the same division's 34th Brigade, based south of the northern city of Mosul. This soldier said that of the 28 tanks in his care, only six were working. The others were broken down or otherwise in need of repair. This might be one reason that the Iraqi Army has been reportly been digging their tanks in. They are in such poor shape that the only way that they can use them is as fixed gun positions. "He said the whole division was at about 25 percent effectiveness and most soldiers were hiding their white flags," said our source, who spoke recently to both defectors. Intelligence sources in northern Iraq, where both CIA Special Operations Group officers and Army Special Forces are active, said there have been dozens of defectors in the past several weeks. There also are reports that Saddam's henchmen have issued orders to commanders to shoot any deserters they can catch. But who is going to shoot the commanders when they surrender? |
| Posted by:Steve |
| #7 OH! I thought the headline read: "Iraqi army DEFECATING" |
| Posted by: John 2003-03-01 00:45:14 |
| #6 There also are reports that Saddam's henchmen have issued orders to commanders to shoot any deserters they can catch. But who is going to shoot the commanders when they surrender? That's a rediculously easy question to answer, the Russians answered it decades ago. Saddam very likely has "political officers" in units he does not trust, officers who don't command, they watch the commanders, with orders to shoot the commanders in the event of attempted surrender or betrayal. |
| Posted by: Ed Becerra 2003-02-28 14:33:11 |
| #5 If entire companies/brigades begin to desert on the Northern front, it will mean we don't need Turkey at all. |
| Posted by: mhw 2003-02-28 11:28:54 |
| #4 Unfortunately, parking tanks in a mosque is now a common tactic as well. |
| Posted by: Jon 2003-02-28 11:01:40 |
| #3 Sammy claimed the credit for that piece of brilliance in a speech he gave on the one-year anniversary of the invasion of Kuwait. I think that was also the first time he publicly claimed victory in Gulf War I. As further evidence that he's a natural-born military genius, he recently told his tank unit commanders that they should have machineguns mounted on their tanks. |
| Posted by: Fred 2003-02-28 10:36:08 |
| #2 Naw, the digging in of tanks is actually a pretty common tactic, we ran into it quite a bit during the first gulf war. -DS "the horns hold up the halo" |
| Posted by: DeviantSaint 2003-02-28 10:19:08 |
| #1 OH! I thought the headline read: "Iraqi army DEFECATING" |
| Posted by: John 3/1/2003 12:45:14 AM |