For a member of the Republican Guard, he did not look like one of the fearsome soldiers picked by Saddam Hussein to act as the last line of defence against the allied advance towards Baghdad.
Short, unshaven and looking very worried, Sgt Mohammed had been hiding in a chicken coop for the past three days.
Yesterday, along with two of his men tasked with the guarding of Basra, he gave himself up to A squadron of the British army's Queen's Dragoon Guards, which holds one of four strategic bridges leading into the city.
"Down with Saddam," he said as the British soldiers approached.
Clearly flustered as the British soldiers began to search him he added: "I have never said those words before."
The search, especially thorough after a suicide bomber over the weekend killed four US marines, revealed a roll of money in his sock and a card identifying him as a Republican Guard member.
On the front of the card, regarded as a badge of honour among Saddam's henchmen, was a fierce-looking picture of the sergeant beneath the words: "Sent to serve god and Saddam Hussein".
On the back, a picture of Jean Claude Van Damme had been attached, at which Sgt Mohammed smiled faintly. "He's my hero," he said.
By the standards of the Republican Guard, who have so far fiercely resisted the American-led charge to Baghdad with pitched battles around the central Iraqi towns of Najaf and Nasuirya, Sgt Mohammed appeared to be exceptional.
An objector to the 1990 invasion of Kuwait, he said he retired from the guard in protest.
"But Saddam forced me to come and fight for him again a few months ago. I was guarding an oil refinery but went to Basra on foot when the Americans came.
"I have been waiting to surrender since then. I do not want to fight any more," he said.
Mohammed described his harrowing five-day journey to the safety of British lines after being told by officers he was to don civilian clothes and head back south again to engage in guerrilla warfare with Allied troops.
Instead, he headed northwards from the city that he described as being "like a nightmare".
"There are militia on the streets who will shoot anyone they think is not for Saddam. They travel at night so I only moved in the early hours of the morning in order to evade them," he said.
Once outside Basra, he took a taxi to the village of Gul Ashab opposite British lines on the Shatt al-Basra.
"I know the British would take care of me, but I was scared to come forward until now," he said.
A further search of his belongings revealed a drawing suspected to be of British positions until the sergeant revealed he had drawn a picture of his house in Najaf whilst in hiding to which he'd added rows of trees in the garden.
"I hope to plant them to make my wife happy, though at the moment we are having a divorce," he said. "There is much I have to do when this war is over."
Corporal Richard Redhead, who was conducting the search, held up a pair of Bermuda shorts from among Sgt Mohammed's belongings. "I don't think you'll be needing these for the time being," Corporal Redhead said, who appeared more bemused than concerned by the prisoner's possessions.
Captain Nick Brown in charge of the surrender said: "We've got to be very careful. He may look harmless but there are others like him who are going to lead to a lot of British boys being hurt."
One of the soldiers guarding the prisoners, disturbed by the presence of the Republican Guard man, said: "If you all think Saddam is bad, why do you keep on fighting?" To which Sgt Mohammed gave no answer.
But as he prepared to be taken to the nearest detention centre, he said quietly: "We fight because we are scared not to. Saddam has made us like this."
In Gul Ashab, a village a few miles from Basra and still not secured by British forces, the villagers also seemed to be relieved to have got rid of Sgt Mohammed and his men.
"There are strangers coming into our town every night," said Hakim, son of the village's headman.
"We do not know who they are but we think they are militiamen from Basra come to spy on us. If the British would come, there are many more people who would surrender."
Hakim, who has promised the assistance of his village when the British make the push for Basra, pointed at the red, black and green flags flying from the roof-tops of the village.
"We are Shia here, and the flags are to celebrate our Imam Ali. The red flag means blood, the black death and the green hope," he said. "At the moment we have many green flags flying but also many red ones."