eu_lola_jest_durna
22.03.03, 02:55
WASHINGTON - An entire division of the Iraqi army, numbering 8,000 soldiers,
surrendered to coalition forces in southern Iraq Friday, Pentagon officials
said.
Iraq's 51st Infantry Division surrendered as coalition forces advanced toward
Basra, Iraq's second largest city. The mechanized division had about 200
tanks before the war, according to independent analysts and U.S. officials.
The 51st was one of the better equipped and trained in Iraq's regular army
forces and was the key division protecting Basra, a major transportation and
oil shipment hub on the Shatt al-Arab waterway that leads to the Persian
Gulf.