
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, February 2, 1991                   TAG: 9102020215
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-7   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: EASTERN SAUDI ARABIA                                LENGTH: Short

IRAQ POWS SAY THEY WERE TOLD TO DETECT

Thirty-five Iraqi sailors captured by allied forces this week said they were ordered by their superiors to defect to Iran, their Kuwait interrogator told pool correspondents.

The prisoners said that a courier from the "highest levels" of the Iraqi Navy delivered the order Tuesday to commanders at Umm al Qasr Port near the Iraqi city of Basra.

About 90 Iraqi military and commercial planes already have landed in Iran, which has proclaimed its neutrality in the war. - Los Angeles Times

by CNB