A Kurdish military source told United Press International Wednesday at least 27 Iraqi troops, including six officers, surrendered to Kurdish forces in north Iraq in the past 24 hours. The source from the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Masud Barzani, said the Iraqi troops turned themselves in to the pershmerga fighters near the region of Kalak on the road linking Erbil to Mosul, some 210 miles northwest of Baghdad. The source said among the surrendering troops were 21 soldiers and six officers, including a lieutenant colonel, belonging to the fifth infantry battalion of the Iraqi army. Kurdish forces who transported the Iraqi troops to a military camp near Erbil, also sent leaflets to troops and officers stationed in nearby positions, encouraging them to desert. One of the surrendering soldiers said Iraqi positions were heavily bombarded by U.S. and British warplanes in the past days, inflicting severe casualties, and that many troops were sleeping in the open to flee the shelling. An Iraqi officer aide said after being moved to Erbil that "the majority of soldiers preferred to surrender but feared the firing squads" led by Saddam Hussein's youngest son, Qusay.
More afraid of their own leaders than the Kurds. |