Iraqi POWs Say Iran Offered Wives if They Defected

BAGHDAD, Iraq — Freed Iraqi prisoners of war claimed Thursday that during captivity they were offered “beautiful wives, furnished houses, cars and employment” in Iran if they refused to return home.

In a press conference in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, the prisoners, freed late last month in a short-lived, Red Cross-organized swap of sick and wounded captives in Iraq and Iran, said Tehran also launched a campaign “pressuring held Iraqis to betray their country.”

Yousef Abdullah, a freed Iraqi lieutenant, said Iran’s clergymen offered each POW who stayed in Iran “a monthly salary of $1,000 and land of his own, in addition to a car and a beautiful woman.”