8 Iraqis Desert, Crawl Minefield to Surrender

Eight Iraqi soldiers deserted today after crawling through a minefield and ignoring an Iraqi sentry’s order to turn back.

Although Saddam Hussein has threatened to execute soldiers who quit his army, the sentry held his fire and the deserters made their harrowing escape.

The eight deserters, and two other Iraqi soldiers who reached this border post 30 minutes later, surrendered to members of an Egyptian armored division.

Egyptian officers with other units say deserters have told them that Iraqi sentries have shot and killed soldiers trying to flee and that other Iraqis were killed by mines.

The 10 Iraqi deserters said today that even seasoned veterans are fleeing Hussein’s army because of the day-and-night allied bombing, shortages of food and equipment and weariness with the Persian Gulf War.

The Iraqis’ green uniforms looked clean and new. They appeared relaxed and in good health, but they said their meals had been cut to one sandwich a day.

American, Saudi and Egyptian officers at the front say desertions are a daily ritual at the tense, fortified Saudi border with Iraqi-occupied Kuwait.

Still, the number of deserters and captured Iraqis is less than 1,500--a tiny portion of Iraq’s million-man army and the 500,000-plus strong force in the Kuwaiti theater.

Saad Shab, 29, a 10-year veteran and a member of a unit that includes Soviet-built T-55 tanks, said he fought in Iraq’s 1980-1988 war with Iran and had no desire to do battle again.

“Fighting, fighting, fighting, and for what? Nothing,” he said.

Shab told how he and seven other soldiers made their way through a minefield despite the sentry’s order, and said Iraqi mines are visible to those traveling on foot. He also confirmed there are large trenches filled with oil that could be set ablaze to thwart an allied ground assault.

Most deserters are heading north to their homes in Iraq, the Iraqis said, adding desertions are even occurring among Iraq’s best-trained troops, the Republican Guard.