OT: Captured Troops

[Atrocities]

DOHA, Qatar (March 23) - The Arab satellite station Al-Jazeera aired footage from Iraqi television Sunday of interviews with what the station identified as captured American prisoners, and also showed bodies in uniform in an Iraqi morgue that it said were Americans.

Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld told CBS that if they are indeed coalition soldiers, ''those pictures are a violation of the Geneva Convention.''

After watching the videotape, U.S. defense officials said a small number of U.S. troops have apparently been captured and others killed by the Iraqi military in southern Iraq.

The officials, who asked not to be identified, said there was no direct confirmation of the capture, apparently involving as many as 10 U.S. troops from an American Army maintenance unit, but that notifications were being made to families based on the tape.

''To me, it (the tape) was convincing,'' said one of the defense officials. Others said the tape could have been made by the Iraqi military and provided to al-Jazeera.

There was no confirmation that the prisoners were U.S. troops, or if they were, what unit they were attached to. Two of the prisoners identified their unit only as the 507th Maintenance; there is a 507th in both the Army and the Air Force.

The U.S. Central Command had no comment.

In the broadcast, four bodies could be seen lying on the floor of the room.

The station said they and the prisoners were captured around Nasiriyah, a major crossing point over the Euphrates northwest of Basra.

The British Ministry of Defense refused to comment about a BBC report that four were killed and 50 wounded during eight hours of fighting in Nasiriyah.

Al-Jazeera later showed footage of what appeared to be a fuel or water carrier parked alongside a highway and a body in uniform with full gear and still wearing a helmet lying behind the carrier.

In the Iraqi television footage, at least five prisoners including one woman were interviewed separately. Two were bandaged. They spoke American-accented English.

One of the men, sitting up, was being interviewed by an unseen person holding a microphone labeled ''Iraqi TV.'' The prisoner spoke in English and at one point said: ''I'm sorry. I don't understand you.''

The narrator provided an Arabic translation, but it was possible to hear some of the comments in English.

The prisoners looked terrified. One captive, who said he was from Kansas, answered all his questions in a shaky voice, his eyes darting back and forth between and interviewer and another person who couldn't be seen on camera.

Asked why he came to Iraq, he simply replied ''I come to fix broke stuff.''

Prodded again by the interviewer, he was asked if he came to shoot Iraqis.

''No I come to shoot only if I am shot at,'' he said. ''They (Iraqis) don't bother me, I don't bother them.''

Another prisoner, who said he was from Texas, said only: ''I follow orders.''

A voice off-camera asked ''how many officers'' were in his unit.

''I don't know sir,'' the man replied.

Another prisoner, who also said he was from Texas, was lying on an elaborate maroon mat. The camera panned from his feet to his head, showing one of his arms as injured and lying across his chest.

Iraqi TV attempted to interview him lying down, at one point trying to cradle his head so it would hold steady for the camera. The eventually helped him sit up, but he seemed to sway slightly.

Not to mention that there is also an aircraft missing and Iraqis are searching for the two pilots.

Add to the fact that an Arab-America Soldier use a granade to kill and wound several of his fellow soldiers as a demonstration against the war, one can safely say we are in it now.