Iraqi army division of 8,000 men surrenders
An entire division of the Iraqi army, numbering 8,000 soldiers, surrendered to coalition forces in southern Iraq on Friday, Pentagon officials said.
Iraq’s 51st Infantry Division surrendered as British and US forces advanced toward Basra, Iraq’s second largest city.
The mechanised division had about 200 tanks before the war, according to independent analysts and US 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.
