Iraqi Draftees Snag Their Chance to Flee

For Iraqi conscripts who live long enough, the relentless U.S. bombing that terrifies them can also be their best chance for escape.

Five Iraqi soldiers who managed to slip into Kurdish-held territory and surrender Monday said intense airstrikes in the last few days are breaking their officers’ control and giving demoralized draftees more openings to flee.

The soldiers -- ages 20 to 22 -- are Arabs who said they were based near the northern city of Mosul, Iraq’s third-largest city and the target of a round-the-clock bombing in recent days.

They escaped into territory held by Kurdish guerrillas Monday morning, and Kurdish officials agreed to let them speak to a reporter on the condition that they not be named or identified.

That was partly out of respect for the Geneva Convention, the rules of combat that include a prohibition against parading prisoners of war in front of cameras or publicly humiliating them. The Kurds also want to protect the soldiers’ families, who they said could be killed because the men deserted.

The Kurdish guerrillas also said that “execution committees” are stationed just behind the Iraqi front lines, waiting to kill any soldier who tries to surrender. But the five interviewed Monday insisted they never received a direct threat from any of their officers in the army’s 5th Brigade.

“Officers have lost their control over all the soldiers, especially during the bombing,” one of the Iraqi soldiers said. “Officers are afraid of soldiers taking revenge against them given a suitable opportunity. That’s why we haven’t got any threats from them. They only tell us to be patient.”

A guerrilla military intelligence officer said other Iraqi defectors have described preparations for street fighting in Kirkuk and Mosul by paramilitary units such as the Fedayeen Saddam, which is suspected of carrying out hit-and-run attacks in the south.

“We haven’t heard anything about Fedayeen Saddam and we don’t know what they’re doing,” one of Monday’s defectors said.

Kurdish officials said several hundred Iraqi troops poured across another front line in the north Monday, in the first mass defection since the war began.

At Khabat, Kurdish guerrillas said 21 soldiers surrendered, and the group of five followed soon after. After eating lunch, the men sat cross-legged and barefoot on a thin carpet, in front of small glasses of tea and overflowing ashtrays at the Kurdistan Democratic Party’s guerrilla headquarters at Khabat.

The town is about a mile from the Iraqi front lines where, despite the intensifying bombardment and mounting defections, soldiers continue to snipe from a barren ridge at passing cars and the few villagers still left.

“Tell the airplanes to attack this first ridge because the Iraqi soldiers are shooting at people,” villager Umer Mahmud, 63, pleaded to a reporter outside the guerrillas’ headquarters.

Inside, the Iraqi prisoners -- all privates -- were in surprisingly good shape for soldiers who had survived several days of heavy bombardment.

They were clean-shaven, and their dark green army uniforms and hooded winter jackets were clean, except for dried mud on their pant legs. They gave up “because of the bombardment,” several said in unison.

The prisoners looked relaxed, even relieved, during the interview, which a Kurdish official cut short after 15 minutes. The Iraqi soldiers said they were based at an Iraqi army camp in Gwer, about 10 miles south of Kalak.

“The bombing was directly concentrated on our camp,” one soldier said. “The airstrikes started 10 days ago, but they got heavier in the last three days.”

“If there were no roadblocks in front of us, most of us would try to surrender as soon as possible,” another added. “Our camp was bombarded almost every day, regularly, during the day and night. A lot of our friends have been killed.”

To try to prevent surrenders, Iraqi intelligence and security officers have set up checkpoints near front-line positions, the soldiers said.

“At the roadblock we passed, I heard that seven people got executed,” one said. “If anyone passes through the roadblock, he will soon be shot.”

The men said they had tried to escape Sunday night, but were turned back when they reached one of the roadblocks. “We haven’t seen anybody executed in front of our eyes,” one said. “But we expect that it will happen. Particularly, we know that the soldiers who are arrested twice at a roadblock will be executed on the spot.”

After the soldiers returned to their camp, the bombers arrived again, and when everyone scattered, they crawled past the roadblock, and then fled down a narrow valley, they said.

The soldiers said they had no idea why they were at war. Iraqi commanders had ordered all portable radios confiscated, so they had not heard U.S. broadcasts about it, the prisoners said. “We haven’t seen anything from America yet,” one scoffed.

The prisoners will probably end up with hundreds of others in a guerrilla-run prisoner of war camp under construction at Ashkawtuan.

Several men in what appeared to be Iraqi army uniforms were seen working under guerrilla guard Monday afternoon, erecting rows of white tents emblazoned with UNHCR, the acronym of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

Asked if the camp was for prisoners, one of the guerrillas guarding the camp replied: “They are our guests,” and then confirmed the camp was for Iraqi prisoners of war, not refugees.