US bombards Iraqi front units
2003-03-18 18:46
Washington - The United States is bombarding military units in the south of Iraq with leaflets, broadcasts and e-mails urging them to surrender rather than oppose a looming invasion, US officials said on Tuesday.
Speaking after President George W Bush gave Iraqi President Saddam Hussein a 48-hour deadline to leave or face war, they said there had been "scattered" signs of some success in the surrender initiative, but declined to give specifics.
The intention was to persuade Iraqi forces in the south to stand aside when US-led forces sweep north from Kuwait toward the oil fields around the southern oil centre of Basra en route to the capital of Baghdad.
"Indications are very scattered, but I would say positive," said one official who asked not to be identified.
Defence officials have said instructions being given to Iraqi forces were very specific, including telling them to leave their tanks with their turrets reversed and to abandon vehicles in the open while returning to barracks.
The officials refused to detail the Iraqi responses but noted cautiously that Saddam's elite and hard-line Republican Guards units were stationed further north near Baghdad.
Of the 280 000 US and British troops arrayed in the Gulf against Iraq, 175 000 are in Kuwait awaiting orders from Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair to launch a massive air and ground invasion to remove Saddam and destroy alleged stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons.
Attacking Basra
US defence officials and private analysts say one of the first objectives of an invasion would be to overwhelm regular army units and take Basra only about 65km from the Kuwait border as tens of thousands of US and British forces sweep northward.
Basra is 550km south east of Baghdad.
US defence officials also said there had been growing signs that Iraq was preparing to use chemical and biological weapons against invading troops and to destroy its own oil fields.
"Some trenches dug in the south could be quickly filled with oil and set afire to delay any advance," said one US official. "They might just blast rigs and blame it on us."
At the Pentagon, one official confirmed a Washington Post report from Kuwait that the US military was trying to negotiate "capitulation agreements" with Iraqi commanders under which enemy troops would turn over most of their weapons and return to their barracks rather than be taken prisoners of war.
The advantage of such a move, which would allow Iraqi commanders to keep their side arms, would be to alleviate the advancing American and British forces or the burden of keeping tens of thousands of prisoners while speeding northward.