Iraqi troops stage phony 'surrender,' then attack

7KPLC TV ^ | March 23, 2003 | AP

[FairOpinion]

Camp As Sayliyah, Qatar-AP -- U-S military officials say troops are encountering some deceptive tactics by Iraqis.

They say in one case, a group of Iraqis displayed a surrender flag -- and then, when U-S troops moved to accept the surrender, the Iraqis opened up with artillery fire.

They say in another episode, some Iraqi troops dressed in civilian clothes appeared to welcome the arriving coalition forces -- and then ambushed them.

Military commanders say the tactics are dangerous to coalition troops -- but that they won't stand in the way of the success of the mission in Iraq.

[FairOpinion]

Remember some places were showing pictures of dead Iraqi soldiers with white flags, well, here is the context.

[Kevin Curry]

The ruse works once.

They've used it.

[cherry]

hope we get a little smarter as we go....

"wandering farmers"......yep...sure...

[Dr. Frank fan]

The sad part is that this will have two primary effects. One, slightly increased US/British casualties.

Two, drastically increased deaths of civilian Iraqis.

They are asking for it.

[Pete]

I have one word.

MOAB.

We tried to do it the easy way. Now it's time for the hard way.

[Libertarian4Bush]

someone on FNC just said this might be some iraqis surendersing, then other iraqis ambushing, i.e. uncoordinated, no ruse, just someone ruining it for the smart ones.

[ItisaReligionofPeace]

You're damn right. The poor bastards who really want to give up are going to pay the price. Better them than us.

[FairOpinion]

Yes, I heard that. But obviously we need to be more weary.

"Brig. Gen. Vincent Brooks said about 10 Marines were killed in a faked surrender by Iraqi forces outside of Nasiriyah. The Marines came under fire while preparing to accept what appeared to be surrendering Iraqis.
“We of course will be much more cautious in the way we view the battlefield as a result of some of these incidents,” said Abizaid."

http://www.msnbc.com/news/870749.asp?0cv=CA01&cp1=1

[KantianBurke]

Bush has made a grave error in not allowing air power to take on Iraqi towns which contain opposition due to "image" concerns and hopes of easy surrenders. Its political tampering in the war which remind one of LBJ's antics. We at war and are going to get hammered in the media regardless. Better Iraqi towns are destroyed rather than 1 US solider dies. (sadly donning flame suit)

[Archie Bunker on steroids]

Using this ruse violates the LOAC and will get some people some serious prison time post war.

[maestro]

Civilian UNIFORMS?

Gen. Giap.................technique/Chinese Proverb!

[Archie Bunker on steroids]

Jimmy Carter seems to think George Bush is the biggest violator of the Laws of Armed Conflict. I bet Jimmy won't do a NY Times piece about this.

[inquest]

No doubt they did this in an attempt to stem the tide of defections. There's no other possible military benefit to something like this.

[maestro]

Bomb THESE 'civilians'.

(The Rule of The 'Saddam' Convention!)

/sarcasm

[Oldeconomybuyer]

Sun Mar 23, 4:22 PM ET

Brian Bateh, from Birmingham, Ala., makes his feelings about the war against Iraq (news - web sites) known as Louisville played Butler in an NCAA (news - web sites) East Regional second-round game in Birmingham, Ala., Sunday, March 23, 2003. (AP Photo/Frank Couch)

[blackbart.223]

"We tried to do it the easy way. Now it's time for the hard way."

This will probably be the fallout from these tactics if they continue.

Saddam's thugs will live to regret it.

[ItisaReligionofPeace]

We need to stage a phony retreat...and then drop every damn thing in our arsenal as the leadership comes out from under their rocks.

[schu]

This is bad news for us. Our guys are now in an impossible situation; execute POWs, lie about surrender and shell us, dress up as civilians and then ambush us. It is just a matter of time until we make a mistake, take out a bunch of innocents and get blamed as bad guys.

Pray this does not happen.

[gaijin]

This might present an overly legalistic view of warfare for most here, but if I'm not mistaken, forces which re-capture prisoners of units that previously signalled an intent to surrendur can be executed AT ONE'S LEASURE.

What I'm saying is that allllll the fighting can die down, and while I'm not sure that you can use any killing technique, it's still true that you can kill these twice-surrendured folks whenever you like....

[inquest]

Its political tampering in the war which remind one of LBJ's antics.

You're making this sound like this is W versus the generals. I think it's just as likely that the generals themselves have advised this policy as a way of minimizing casualties on our side as well as everyone else's.