First Iraqi POWs Appear Young, Frightened

The 12 Iraqis captured Saturday in an allied action against antiaircraft weapons on nine oil platforms off the coast of Kuwait looked young and frightened.

Held in a makeshift dugout in northeast Saudi Arabia, the first known POWs of the Persian Gulf War sat in a pit in the sand, surrounded by rolls of barbed wire. A Marine guard explained that the pit was to protect them from any stray Iraqi fire.

Their guards fed them U.S. field rations, a less-than-tempting array of packaged foods known as MREs (meals, ready to eat). Marines showed the prisoners how to open the field rations, which appeared to mystify them.

One bearded Iraqi, who appeared to be slightly injured, sat dejectedly off to the side and ate a cracker, spreading peanut butter on it with the help of a guard.

A Marine warrant officer, who asked not to be identified, said the prisoners would sleep in a tent--unlike many U.S. Marines deployed near the Saudi-Kuwaiti border.

“They’ll be taken better care of than the Marines guarding them tonight,” he said.

A Marine interrogator said his preliminary questioning of the prisoners would be limited to an attempt to identify the prisoners.

“The screws and racks are a thing of the past,” he said. “You can get anybody to break and get them to say whatever you want to hear. But you get a better response if you treat them humanely. . . . They’re professional soldiers. We treat them as we would professionals.”

While U.S. military commanders in Riyadh said the operation netted 12 prisoners, and there were 12 at the temporary holding facility viewed Saturday by combat pool reporters, Marines interviewed at the base said four more prisoners were being treated at a field hospital and that five Iraqi bodies were brought in from the skirmish.

This Pentagon combat pool report was reviewed by military censors.