Captured Iraqi Sailors Say They Were Ordered to Flee to Iran Port

Thirty-five Iraqi sailors captured by allied forces this week said they were ordered by their superiors to defect to Iran, their Kuwait interrogator told pool correspondents.

The prisoners said a courier from the “highest levels” of the Iraqi navy delivered the order Tuesday to commanders at Umm al Qasr port near the southern Iraqi city of Basra. It instructed the naval units to travel to Bandar Khomeini, a port on Iran’s southwestern coast, the interrogator said.

About 90 Iraqi military and commercial planes already have landed in Iran, which has proclaimed its neutrality in the Gulf War. The Tehran government has said it will hold the planes and pilots until the war is over.

The Kuwaiti interrogator, who identified himself only as Maj. Ibrahim, said the Iraqi sailors told him they were “happy to flee to Iran because they had no enthusiasm for the war,” according to pool reports. Ibrahim said one 27-year-old captain told him he “didn’t know why we must fight.”

After escaping from Umm al Qasr in two boats, the sailors were attacked by U.S. and British helicopters as they were heading toward Iran. Their crafts were sunk and they were rescued by allied naval forces. The crew members were taken to the American guided-missile frigate Curts in two groups on Wednesday and Thursday.

This report was compiled in part from Pentagon pool reports reviewed by military censors.