Hundreds of Iraqis surrender in face of onslaught

HUNDREDS of Iraqi troops raised white flags across the south of the country yesterday as British and US forces surged across swathes of territory.

While Iraqi continued to surrender last night, defectors told how Saddam Hussein's eldest son mercilessly beats girls as young as 12 on the soles of their feet if they refused to sleep with him.

Prisoner of war camps will be built close to Iraq's southern border with Kuwait within days to house soldiers who surrendered to Allied military might.

But signs emerged yesterday that many more will lay down their weapons and stay in barracks after negotiating local ceasefires with advancing troops. Royal Marines securing oil installations at the Al Faw peninsular were among the first Allied troops to take prisoners early yesterday.

Around 60 Iraqis emerged from their bunker positions with their hands up, waving white flags at around 5.30am local time. Eye witnesses said they they climbed from their bunkers and fell to their knees with their hands on their heads before being taken prisoner by the Royal Marines of 40 Commando.

A makeshift detention centre was set up in the area where the POWs were given food, shelter and medical assistance.

The US 15th Marine Expeditionary Force advancing in the south was confronted by more than 200 trying to surrender yesterday morning.

One group of 40 Iraqis marched down a road towards the Americans and gave up.

They were ordered to lie face down on the ground before being searched and processed. A source at the British Army's HQ in Kuwait, close to the Iraqi border, said last night: "We are hoping the surrenders reported so far will build into a flood over the coming hours and days.

"There is no telling how much resistance we will face or how stubborn the enemy will be. Last night defectors spoke of how Saddam's son, Uday, mercilessly beats girls if they refuse to sleep with him.

Uday forces head teachers of schools in Baghdad's poorest districts to send pupils to his palace where he arranges dates with those he likes.

If the chosen girls annoy him in anyway they are dangled over a wooden beam held by his bodyguards and repeatedly hit with a wooden club, according to two former members of his inner circle who recently fled Iraq.

"He does it to a girl if she says she doesn't want to go out with him, or if she finds another boyfriend, or is late or reluctant," one defector said.

The 38-year-old warns victims not to flinch while the beating is administered or they will have their legs broken. He often hits them up to 50 times.

Afterwards, when they can barely walk, he orders them to dance. Uday, head of Iraq's Olympic Committee, was known to have beaten football players and athletes when they lost.

The defectors said he also inflicted beatings, imprisonment and torture on friends and business associates simply for being late to a meeting or irritating him.

His punishments have become more brutal since an assassination attempt in 1996 which left him with walking difficulties and problems having sex.

Some victims have been branded on the buttocks with hot irons.

"Uday tells them, 'this mark is never going to go from your body, so you'll remember me until the day you die'," one defector said.