IRAQ: KURDISH OFFICERS WHO SERVED IN IRAQ'S ARMY BEFORE DEFECTION TO MILITIA SAY BAGHDAD'S DEMORALISED TROOPS WOULD SURRENDER RATHER THAN FIGHT THE U.S.

Record ID: 230530

  • Title: IRAQ: KURDISH OFFICERS WHO SERVED IN IRAQ'S ARMY BEFORE DEFECTION TO MILITIA SAY BAGHDAD'S DEMORALISED TROOPS WOULD SURRENDER RATHER THAN FIGHT THE U.S.
  • Date: 13th March 2003
  • Summary: (EU) KANIQERJAL AND PERZIN, NEAR ARBIL, IRAQ (KURDISH CONTROLLED NORTHERN IRAQ) (MARCH 10, 2003) (REUTERS) 1. SLV KDP (KURDISH DEMOCRATIC PARTY) MILITIA GOING THROUGH TRAINING AT A CAMP; SLV KDP SOLDIERS RUNNING PAST BARRICADES, BURNING TRENCHES AND CLIMBING THROUGH BARRIERS RESEMBLING SKELETON OF A BUILDING (7 SHOTS) 0.40 2. MV KDP SOLDIER LYING ON THE GROUND, HAVING TWISTED HIS LEG DURING COURSE OF TRAINING; MV INJURED SOLDIER GETTING UP AND JOINING RANKS OF OTHER SOLDIERS; SLV SOLDIERS MARCHING (4 SHOTS) 1.12 3. MV KDP SOLDIERS BEING SHOWN HOW TO USE A MORTAR LAUNCHER; SLV INSTRUCTION SESSION / MORTAR (7 SHOTS) 1.49 4. (SOUNDBITE) (Kurdish) COLONEL FAISAL QADER ABDULLA, A KDP COMMANDER AND A FORMER IRAQI OFFICER SAYING "In 1991 (Gulf war) the Americans bombed intensively from the air and the bulk of the Iraqi army then quickly surrendered. The situation is even worse today, with the Iraqi army in bad condition and suffering from low morale. They won't fight. Of course there may be some Republican Guard units near Baghdad who may stand and fight but the rest not." 2.35 5. MV KDP SOLDIERS BEING GIVEN TRAINING; SLV SOLDIERS MARCHING (2 SHOTS) 2.49 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 28th March 2003 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: KANIQERJAL AND PERZIN, NEAR ARBIL, IRAQ (KURDISH CONTROLLED NORTHERN IRAQ)
  • Country: Iraq
  • Reuters ID: LVA6B9T09U28FIT36I40LMH1RV90
  • Story Text: Kurdish officers who served in Iraq's army for years
    before defecting to militia in the breakaway north have said
    Baghdad's demoralised troops would surrender rather than fight
    a U.S.-led invasion force.

    At a Kurdish army training camp near Arbil in northern
    Iraq on Monday (March 10, 2003), Kurdish militia forces have been
    undertaking training. Soldiers have been going through
    intensive exercises in the last few months to protect the
    Kurdish controlled areas of northern Iraq, as a conflict
    between U.S.-led forces and Baghdad looms.

    Some of their commanders were Iraqi army officers,
    veterans of the 1991 Gulf war. These officers, who know the
    Iraqi army, said it is unlikely that forces of President
    Saddam Hussein would put up much resistance in the event of a
    U.S.-led attack.

    "In 1991 (Gulf war) the Americans bombed intensively from
    the air and the bulk of the Iraqi army then quickly
    surrendered. The situation is even worse today, with the Iraqi
    army in bad condition and suffering from low morale. They
    won't fight. Of course there may be some Republican Guard
    units near Baghdad who may stand and fight, but the rest not,"
    said Colonel Faisal Qader Abdulla.

    Colonel Abdulla, commander of a Kurdish army training camp
    at Kaniqerjal, outside Arbil, the main city of northern Iraq's
    Kurdish free area, graduated from the Iraqi military academy
    in Baghdad and served in the army until 1999.

    A Kurd who says he faced discrimination because of his
    nationality, Abdulla then defected to the majority
    Kurdish-populated north. The region has been
    Kurdish-controlled since 1991, when U.S. and British aircraft
    set up a no-fly zone to protect the Kurds after President
    Saddam Hussein brutally put down a failed uprising against him
    following the Gulf War.

    Abdulla said he fought from 1983 to 1988 in the Iran-Iraq
    war, and during the 1991 Gulf War he was responsible for
    anti-aircraft fire in a southern district of Baghdad.

    After a decade of de facto independence, the Kurds' army
    combines regular soldiers with the "Peshmerga", or informal
    militia, usually out of uniform.

    Faisal Qader Abdulla said the Kaniqerjal camp was set up
    in 1991, but admitted his troops were not yet a formidable
    force.

    The Kurds' main fear is that Turkey will invade their free
    zone during a U.S.-led invasion, ostensibly to stop a flood of
    refugees and protect the area's Turkmen minority, ethnically
    close to Turks, but many Kurds are deeply suspicious of
    Turkey's motives and have vowed to fight them.

    The troops training on Monday were not short on enthusiasm
    even if their weapons were limited, as they leapt across pits
    of blazing oil and scaled walls while the sound of machine gun
    fire rattled out and grenades exploded around them.


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