Entire Division of Iraqi
Army Surrenders
March 21, 2003 07:16
PM EST
Iraqi soldiers, waving white flag and
raising their
arms, attempt to surrender to passing
journalists,
outside the demilitarized zone in southern
Iraq,
Friday, March 21, 2003. (AP Photo/Laurent
Rebours) |
WASHINGTON - An entire division of
the Iraqi army, numbering 8,000 soldiers, surrendered to coalition forces
in southern Iraq Friday, Pentagon officials said.
Iraq's 51st Infantry Division surrendered
as coalition forces advanced toward Basra, Iraq's second largest city.
The mechanized division had about 200 tanks before the war, according to
independent analysts and U.S. officials.
The 51st was one of the better equipped
and trained in Iraq's regular army forces and was the key division protecting
Basra, a major transportation and oil shipment hub on the Shatt al-Arab
waterway that leads to the Persian Gulf.
The division also was important to Saddam
Hussein's government for keeping Shiite Muslims - the majority in southern
Iraq - from rebelling against Saddam's largely Sunni government. |
The division was the largest single unit to
surrender en masse on Friday, a day that saw hordes of Iraqi troops give
themselves up - in some cases, to journalists accompanying U.S. units.
U.S. forces advancing across southern Iraq often found Iraqi tanks and
other weapons abandoned in the desert.
Many of the surrendering Iraqis were demoralized
and poorly equipped, with some wearing T-shirts and carrying worn Kalashnikov
rifles.
"I kind of felt sorry for them," said one
U.S. military official in southern Iraq, speaking on condition of anonymity.
"A lot of them looked hungry. They haven't been fed in a while."
The surrender of the 51st removed a major
obstacle to the U.S. and British goal of securing all of southern Iraq
so forces could focus on the push to Baghdad. U.S. forces also secured
the port city of Umm Qasr on Friday.
|