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| Iraq |
| Conscripts shoot their own officers rather than fight |
| 2003-03-21 |
| IRAQI conscripts shot their own officers yesterday to avoid a fruitless fight over the oil terminals at al-Faw. British soldiers from 40 Commandoâs Charlie Company found a bunker full of the dead officers, with spent shells from an AK47 rifle around them. That's some serious desire to surrender... Stuck between the US Seals and the Royal Marines, whom they did not want to fight, and a regime that would kill them if they refused, it was the conscriptsâ only way out. In total, 40 Commando had collected more than 100 prisoners of war yesterday from the few square miles of the al-Faw peninsula that they controlled. Two of them were a general in the regular Iraqi Army and a brigadier. They came out from the command bunker where they had been hiding after 40 Commandoâs Bravo Company fired two anti-tank missiles into it. With them was a large sports holdall stuffed with money. They insisted that they had been about to pay their troops, to the disbelief of their captors. Going to mail them their checks from Dubai, perhaps? These were the men who had left their soldiers hungry, poorly armed and almost destitute for weeks, judging by the state we had seen them in, while appearing to keep the money for themselves. It was only as dawn broke that the 900 Royal Marine commandos, who had moved forward during the night, realised the pitiful shape of the enemy. The first white flag was hoisted by three soldiers in a trench just outside the complexâs north gate, which had been surrounded by heavy machinegunners from Command Company. They were taken prisoner by Corporal Fergus Gask, 26, who may have accepted the first surrender of the war. âWe started engaging their positions with GPMGs (general purpose machineguns) when I noticed this white flag go up,â he said. âI didnât know whether it was a trick or not, but I approached the trench anyway, probably a pretty silly thing to do if I think about it. But as soon as I saw their faces I knew they were genuine. They actually looked very relieved they didnât have to fight any more. And they became very pleased to see us when they realised we werenât going to do them any harm.â |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |
| #1 I doubt this will be the last time we see this. |
| Posted by: tu3031 2003-03-21 22:24:56 |