Sort of makes you wonder who else has joined in the
fighting without touting it.... Maybe the Czechs,
Italians, or Hungarians?
JDG
Poland Admits Iraq Combat Role After News Photos
Mar 24, 1:12 pm ET
By Douglas Busvine
WARSAW (Reuters) - Poland admitted on Monday that its
elite GROM commando unit had taken part in the
U.S.-led attack on Iraq after the soldiers posed for a
Reuters news photographer.
The Defense Ministry had denied that GROM (Thunder)
special forces were involved in combat, but on Monday
it confirmed their participation after dailies
splashed photographs of the soldiers in the Iraqi port
of Umm Qasr, where U.S.-led troops are battling
pockets of Iraqi resistance.
Defense Minister Jerzy Szmajdzinski refused, however,
to divulge details of the troops' role in supporting
the main U.S.-British force fighting to oust Iraqi
President Saddam Hussein.
"We are determined not to comment on secret
operations," Szmajdzinski told reporters, saying only
that GROM troops were operating "in the coastal
region" of Iraq and in Gulf waters.
"You don't comment about the theater of operations
because that would give away information about our
capability...this is secret," he added.
GROM is an SAS-style commando unit which has seen
recent action in Afghanistan. It is one of the few
highly trained units in Poland's armed forces, which
are mostly underfunded and still rely on outdated
Soviet-era equipment.
Poland, a NATO member whose government has supported
the tough U.S. line against Baghdad, sent 200 troops
to the Gulf in what they originally said was a
supporting, non-combat, role.
The Reuters photographs showed masked GROM soldiers
taking prisoners, scrawling graffiti on a portrait of
Saddam and posing with U.S. Navy Seals holding up a
U.S. flag.
"These photos shouldn't have happened," said
Szmajdzinski. "The next time it will definitely be
with the Polish flag."
Surveys show that most people in this east European
country of 38 million do not want Polish troops to
take active part in fighting in Iraq, although a
majority backs an auxiliary role.
Szmajdzinski denied the government had failed to tell
the nation that Polish troops would take part in
combat.
"We sent our contingent to take part in military
operations, not to be observers -- that was obvious,"
he said. "Nobody misled anyone."
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John D. Giorgis - [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Tonight I have a message for the brave and oppressed people of Iraq:
Your enemy is not surrounding your country � your enemy is ruling your
country. And the day he and his regime are removed from power will be
the day of your liberation." -George W. Bush 1/29/03
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