Tip on whereabouts of POWs came from Iraqi: Franks

WASHINGTON (AFP) Apr 13, 2003
US military officials first received word about the whereabouts of recently discovered American prisoners of war from an Iraqi national, the commander of US operations in Iraq told US television Sunday.

General Tommy Franks told Fox News television network that the missing US prisoners apparently had been abandoned by retreating Iraqi military, and were reportedly picked up on a roadside near Samarrah, a town north of Baghdad, as the marines moved north toward Tikrit.

Franks said that as US troops moved forward, the were told by an Iraqi civilian, "shortly you're going to come in contact with a number of Americans, just so you know they're there.

"I believe that our guys picked them up on the road," Franks told Fox News.

SPACE.WIRE