Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, February 28, 1991 TAG: 9102280167
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: DHAHRAN, SAUDI ARABIA LENGTH: Medium
"Thank you, thank you," one smiling Iraqi said to a member of the 82nd Airborne Division who searched him for weapons.
Some of the more than 50,000 Iraqis who have surrendered so far in the 4-day-old ground campaign sought out allied forces to turn themselves in. Some kissed the hands of their captors. A few even gave up to journalists.
About a dozen Iraqis surrendered to an Italian TV cameraman, an American radio reporter and a Spanish photographer. The journalists shared water and cookies with the Iraqis, two of whom raised their hands and chanted, "George Bush! George Bush! George Bush!" One soldier said, in English, "I love you, mister."
A U.S. official described one instance in which an Iraqi tank and an armored personnel carrier came upon a U.S. humvee utility vehicle stuck in mud.
"They helped the humvee get out of the mud and then they surrendered," said the official, who requested anonymity.
Many of the POWs appeared ill-fed, poorly clothed and demoralized, according to numerous pool reports from Kuwait and Iraq.
One soldier told his captors that Iraqi soldiers had run out of food and water and had been looting homes in Kuwait. "God willing, Saddam will fall," said the young Iraqi reservist, who surrendered in southern Kuwait. "I . . . have a special message to Saddam Hussein: He should give up everything. Let's live in peace."
At a POW hospital in Saudi Arabia, one Iraqi soldier said he and his comrades had been living on grass and rainwater for the past 28 days.
But some Iraqis remained defiant even after capture.
"We were not afraid of the warplanes," one prisoner said. "Saddam is good."
by CNB