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- NATION, Page 27American NotesCOMBATHorror in The Desert
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- Were thousands of Iraqis buried alive during the allied
- operation against their front line last February? U.S. Army
- officers say that as tanks equipped with plows and bulldozers
- punched holes in the 70-mile-long Iraqi defense strip, enemy
- soldiers who refused to surrender were trapped under avalanches
- of sand. Colonel Anthony Moreno, commander of a unit that
- followed the initial U.S. breakthrough, recalls seeing arms
- protruding from the sand. "For all I know, we could have buried
- thousands," he told New York Newsday.
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- Pentagon officials concede that some men were suffocated
- but say it is impossible to provide an accurate tally of those
- who died in that grisly manner. Of the Iraqis stationed in the
- trenches, 2,000 surrendered. "The rest," said Pentagon spokesman
- Pete Williams, "chose to stay and fight." Pointing out that the
- operation did not violate international rules of engagement, he
- added, "There is no nice way to kill somebody in war."
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