The Iraqi authorities today accusedUS-led forces of kidnapping local civilians andshowing them off as captured prisoners of war.
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Iraqi troops surender in Southern Iraq as coalitionforces enter the region.Photograph: PA
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A communique read out by a military spokesman on Iraqi statetelevision said US and British forces advancing throughsouthern Iraq had broken the rules of war by displaying Iraqicivilians as POWs at Umm Qasr and near Basra.
'(This was) to show public opinion they had seized militarymen...particularly after they promised their people that theIraqi army, leadership and people would surrender after a fewdays,' the communique said.
'We hold the Americans and the British responsible forviolating international laws and conventions by detainingcivilians and considering them as prisoners of war.'
Fierce Iraqi resistance at the southern port of Umm Qasrheld up US and British efforts to move humanitarian aid intosouthern Iraq for days.