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| Iraq |
| Iraqis surrender to live fire exercise |
| 2003-03-09 |
| FoxNews was yakking about this earlier today. Took me awhile to find it... TERRIFIED Iraqi soldiers have crossed the Kuwait border and tried to surrender to British forces — because they thought the war had already started. "Unh! Damn! Is that gunfire?" "Where's my sheet?" The motley band of a dozen troops waved the white flag as British paratroopers tested their weapons during a routine exercise. The stunned Paras from 16 Air Assault Brigade were forced to tell the Iraqis they were not firing at them, and ordered them back to their home country telling them it was too early to surrender. "Nice of you to drop by, Mahmoud, but you're a little early. We're all still in the shower. Can we make it, say, next week?" The drama unfolded last Monday as the Para batallion tested mortars and artillery weapons to make sure they were working properly. The Iraqis found a way across the fortified border, which is sealed off with barbed-wire fencing, watchtowers and huge trenches. "Yo! Conin' through! We quit!" A British Army source in Kuwait contacted me to explain how the extraordinary surrender bid unfolded. The source said: "The British guys on the front-line could not believe what was happening. They were on pre-war exercises when all of a sudden these Iraqis turned up out of nowhere, with their hands in the air, saying they wanted to surrender. They had heard firing and thought it was the start of the war. The Paras are a tough, battle-hardened lot but were moved by the plight of the Iraqis. There was nothing they could do other than send them back." "Awww, Seargant-Major! Can't we keep 'em?" "They were a motley bunch and you could barely describe them as soldiers — they were poorly equipped and didn't even have proper boots. Their physical condition was dreadful and they had obviously not had a square meal for ages. No one has ever known a group of so-called soldiers surrender before a shot has been fired in anger." Now they'll have to wait for a helicopter to go by, or a reporter, or something... Last night the Ministry of Defence officially denied the incident had taken place, but the story was corroborated by an intelligence source. Things aren't looking good for Sammy... |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |
| #12 I agree, Joe. If we're going in as liberators, these guys are the ones we want to survive to view us as such. Save the bombs for Saddam and his cronies--these are the guys who will welcome us and help us establish a just, legitimate government to represent them after three decades under Saddam's jackboot. I wish we could take them in, if not as PWs at this date, as candidates for political asylum. |
| Posted by: Dar Steckelberg 2003-03-09 21:08:49 |
| #11 Actually, if you stop and think about it, it is really very sad. I do not believe these people want to die and yet they know that is very possible, either by the allies or by Saddam. Let us all hope, they are able to escape and live to build a better Iraq |
| Posted by: Joe 2003-03-09 19:49:43 |
| #10 aving a nasty, suspicious mind... Wouldn't this be a great way to infiltrate Iraqi special ops guys into our rear area? They surrender, get taken back, and pu into a nice, laid back POW facility. Breaking out is relatively easy, maybe they scrag a guard or two, then they're loose in the rear. The Kuwaitis have been sending them back, too. |
| Posted by: Chuck 2003-03-09 18:49:49 |
| #9 ...of course the real question is: where did they get the French Battle Flag? |
| Posted by: Anonymous 2003-03-09 18:28:50 |
| #8 With luck these blokes weren't "missed" from their unit. Don't suppose their commanding officer wants to be unpopular with his men this week... |
| Posted by: Bulldog 2003-03-09 17:19:18 |
| #7 Wow--I really feel sorry for those poor sods. They may not have a better opportunity in the future. If they're not just shot out of hand upon their return to their unit, they just might find themselves killed in the opening barrage when the invasion starts. I hope they're not already dead--it would be great for the word to spread that they can expect decent and humanitarian treatment from the UK and US. Then all we need to do is start the invasion by driving a Land Rover with a megaphone across the border blaring, "Okay--NOW you can surrender!" |
| Posted by: Dar Steckelberg 2003-03-09 17:11:45 |
| #6 I hope the Brits gave them a good meal before sending them back, it may have been their last. |
| Posted by: Jon 2003-03-09 16:24:17 |
| #5 Are we sure they weren't French? |
| Posted by: Matt 2003-03-09 16:21:05 |
| #4 Then again, word will spread that those guys on the other side are pretty nice. Give a lot of hope to those chaps on the Iraqi team. Hell, they just want to go home like everyone else. Hope they at least gave them some food an water. |
| Posted by: Michael 2003-03-09 16:06:33 |
| #3 "There was nothing they could do other than send them back." And I wouldn't want to make any bets for long life expectancy for those Iraquis on their return, either. |
| Posted by: Old Grouch 2003-03-09 15:51:57 |
| #2 That's what you call pre-emptive surrender! |
| Posted by: MakeMyDay 2003-03-09 15:51:56 |
| #1 Ha ha ha ha!!! Supoib. But what a PR coup lost. Don't our British forces have embedded reporters? Would have been a great TV piece, set the Iraqi squaddies a great example. We could have sat them down for tea and biscuits, photographed them with their white flags and big smiles, and dropped photos and videos over the whole country... |
| Posted by: Bulldog 2003-03-09 15:42:59 |