With US and British flags hanging on the wall, military personnel man the Joint Operations Command Center at Camp As Sayliyah outside Doha, Qatar March 15, 2003. The camp is the US Central Command's forward headquarters in Qatar and will be the nerve cent
AMERICAN troops were told yesterday to prepare for “suicide PoWs” as commanders prepared to cope with tens of thousands of Iraqi defectors.
US Marines, likely to be among the first troops to enter Iraqi terroritory, fear that some prisoners of war will use the suicide tactics of Hamas bombers to cause as many casualties as possible.
The Marines have been given warning that suicide PoWs could take advantage of the chaos caused by tens of thousands of genuine Iraqi prisoners giving themselves up to the invading forces. Despite such fears, the Marines have been ordered to treat prisoners as they would their own men.
Enemy prisoners of war — known by the Marines as EPWs, rather than PoWs — will be issued food rations in yellow vacuum-packed bags, given emergency medical aid and protected as far as possible from hostilities while in US care. They will be disarmed and handcuffed first.
...