Regards, Ivan
Posted on 04/06/2003 6:12:15 PM PDT by MadIvan
THE elderly Iraqi man walked gingerly towards the checkpoint set up by Royal Marines on the outskirts of Basra. As he got closer to the troops they warily fixed their gun barrels on the shuffling figure in front of them.
Holding his hands in the air he shouted out in English: "Please, please. Surrender, surrender." He looked like just another fighter - until he dropped five grenades on the floor.
One by one they fell from his tunic, clattering to the ground. Suddenly all hell broke loose and everybody dived for cover.
The base, in an old Iraqi army compound, was put on full alert and personnel inside sheltered behind brick walls at the back of the compound to protect themselves from a possible blast.
For a few seconds it was still - the grenades hadn’t gone off, the pins remained intact. All that could be heard were the gentle moanings of the Iraqi man, repeating the words "surrender, surrender". British sentries on the roof of a nearby building shouted at him to get on his knees.
If he had made any sudden moves, they would have pulled their triggers. If the man had detonated the devices, he would also have killed two commando sentries as well as a BBC cameraman who were standing just ten feet from him at the time.
As he lay on the ground members of 40 Commando ran over and seized him, stripping off his clothes and checking for more weapons before he was arrested and led away for questioning.
It was only later that the man’s story emerged. He told marine commanders how he had been forced at gunpoint by Fedayeen militia to stage a suicide attack against their base. Living alone, and with no family, they had deemed him a perfect choice to carry out their attack.
After dragging him from his home in the city, they drove him in a taxi to within a few hundred yards of the base. Pushing him out of the car, they kept their guns fixed on the old man as he tottered towards the checkpoint.
He later told how he would have been shot dead by the paramilitaries if he had refused. But at the last minute, instead of detonating the grenades, he decided to surrender to the marines.
The man, who only wants to be known by his first name, Abdullah, said last night after he was debriefed by intelligence officers: "The special operations team said I had three choices, they kill me, the British kill me, or I kill myself.
"I did not want to do the attack because I hate Saddam Hussein and his regime and the British I see as my friends. I am a Muslim and killing people is also against my religion, but they gave me no choice.
"When I walked up to the gate I thought, ‘I cannot do this’. So I told the British soldiers I am their friend and I pulled up my shirt and showed them my weapons, and they didn’t shoot me.
"There are other people like me that the regime forces to do things they don’t want. We just want freedom."
One soldier of 40 Commando said: "We thought the hand grenades were fruit at first because they were bright yellow. The pins were still in them so they were fairly safe."
Increasingly, Iraqis are giving British forces vital bits of information to help them destroy the Iraqi militia. The fisherman was targeted by the group, led by an Iraqi army major and believed to be a special operations unit from Basra, because he lived alone, he told marine intelligence officers.
They have also been using his small deserted home close to the Shatt Al Arab as a meeting place to plan attacks on the Royal Marines, who took Abu Al Khasib a week ago.
On Wednesday night, the same commando base was hit by three rocket-propelled grenades and small arms fire in a surprise attack. Commandos chased the group through the town’s streets but they escaped.
The Commanding Officer of 40 Commando, Colonel Gordon Messenger, said last night: "We are obviously very pleased this man seemed to have a change of heart at the last minute. But it does go to show the astonishing lengths of barbarity to which the dying embers of Saddam Hussein’s regime are prepared to go in the hope of doing us harm.
"We now have good intelligence on the group behind this attempted attack. We also believe they are the men who attacked our base three days ago. They are hiding locally, and we hope to track them down very shortly."
Regards, Ivan
BTTT
Worth repeating. Bump
Very well said!
V
And we should never forget it. What a horrible tale. BTTT.
Like a might army
Moves the Church of God!
Brothers, we are treading
Where the saints have trod!
We are not divided,
All one body we,
One in hope and doctrine,
One in charity!
Stories like this remind me of this old hymn..."Onward, Christian Soldiers.
How stupid can the Iraqi's be? This man also had no reason to fear his relatives having to suffer the consequences of his surrender. He had no reason to carry out the attack.
With Iraqi commanders like these it's no wonder we're rolling along at the rate we are.
One of the hymns that my denomination's powers-that-be took out of our hymnal, a few years ago when we got a new edition of the hymnal, right along with the Battle Hymn of the Republic. Numerous denominations have done this, and consequently, you rarely hear either son, nowadays (waaaaaay too warlike, doncha know). The left is very good at simply erasing what they do not approve of.
God's terrible swift sword will be in their hands when they track down these murderous godless cowards.
And track them down they will.
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