Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, February 25, 1991 TAG: 9102250365
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: EVENING
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: DHAHRAN, SAUDI ARABIA LENGTH: Long
"We are meeting the enemy and beating the enemy," Marine Brig. Gen. Richard Neal told a late-afternoon briefing. Iraqi prisoners numbered near 20,000, a forward U.S. post had been carved out 50 miles into Iraq, and allied troops advanced on Kuwait City.
"Terrorism remains the only Iraqi success to date," Neal said, pointing to what he said was an accelerating number of oil-field fires and civilian atrocities attributed to the Iraqis.
In the second day of the ground war, Neal put American casualties at four dead, 21 wounded. Lt. Gen. Khalid bin Sultan, joint Arab forces commander, said five of his forces had been killed and 20 had been wounded in action.
In what he called an "extremely conservative" accounting of Iraqi losses, Neal said the allies had destroyed more than 270 tanks since the ground offensive began. Among them, he said, were 35 Soviet-made T-72s - the Iraqis' most advanced tanks, and the tank used by Teen angry, worried after her parents go to war. A2 Schools help ease war stress. A3 Dumping Saddam our actual goal, U.S. officials say. A10 the highly touted Republican Guard.
"We've engaged some forces of the Republican Guard and [they] are enjoying the same sort of success" as other Iraqi forces, Neal said.
He said he knew nothing of a report that 80 Republican Guard tanks were on the move toward the allied forces.
"They're finally flushing," F-15 squadron commander Lt. Col. Steve Turner said. "They've got to do something - either that, or get killed in their holes."
He said the allied advance was so quick and so successful that Army reserve units originally slated to be held back for the first 24 hours were sent in just 12 hours into the offensive.
One of the allies' biggest problems was coping with the thousands of Iraqis who were surrendering.
Neal said 18,000 Iraqis had surrendered to allied forces; Khalid put the total prisoners at 20,000. It was not clear whether these included the prisoners taken before the start of the ground offensive Sunday morning.
The officials would not say where the Iraqis were captured, but the bulk appeared to have belonged to front-line units that had not been expected to put up as much of a fight as Saddam's better-equipped second-tier forces.
In one poignant moment, a wounded Iraqi POW, unable to walk without help, kissed one of the Saudi captors supporting him. The scene - in Kuwait - was filmed by British journalists operating outside the Pentagon's "pool" system. In what officers called the largest helicopter operation in military history, more than 2,000 men of the Army's 101st Airborne Division were airlifted more than 50 miles into Iraq on Sunday.
The airborne operation was part of a push to establish a strong toehold in Iraqi territory west of Kuwait - in order to cut supply lines to Iraqi forces in Kuwait and possibly move to encircle them.
Out in the Persian Gulf, Marines in an amphibious task remained aboard ship during the offensive's first day. Once night fell, helicopters from the force roared toward the Kuwaiti coastline in a dual mission: reconnaissance - and keeping Iraq guessing about whether a beach assault was imminent.
"As long as they are watching the coast, they are not engaging our forces in Kuwait and farther west," said Maj. Gen. Harry Jenkins, commander of the Marine landing force.
In the first such known attack of the war, Iraq launched a Silkworm anti-ship missile at allied warships off Kuwait today, but British officials said it was intercepted by a Sea Dart missile fired by the British destroyer HMS Gloucester.
One U.S. officer, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said missile batteries on Faylakah island, at the entrance to Kuwait Bay, were targeted today with fire from the 16-inch guns of a U.S. battleship and bombed by warplanes including U.S. B-52s.
In Baghdad, overnight bombardment sent clouds of black smoke billowing over the city's western edge, Associated Press correspondent Salah Nasrawi reported today. Guests of the al-Rashid Hotel, where most Western journalists are based, reported enormous explosions in downtown Baghdad.
The air war did not pause. Neal said more than 3,000 missions were flown in the past 24 hours, including 1,300 over Kuwait and southern Iraq and 700 in support of the ground forces. Four U.S. aircraft were lost, but three of the five airmen were rescued.
Iraq today renewed claims that its forces have crushed allied ground assaults. Baghdad radio said allied troops were "rolling in their blood and shame."
President Bush was said to be "quite gratified by the pace and effectiveness of the operation" on its first day. But spokesman Marlin Fitzwater added: "We still have the anxiety that goes with war."
Khalid, the Arab military commander, said at a Riyadh briefing this morning that despite the losses they are taking, the Iraqis are good soldiers. Their handicap: "They don't believe in what they are fighting right now."
"Horrible things [are] going on. I hate to say it, but there is killing people by axes, hitting . . . their heads, they rape females, cut . . . certain parts of them and hang them in every street," he said.
Reports on battle action were sketchy, because the Desert Storm command was issuing only limited information, and dispatches from reporters in military-organized news pools at the front were slow in reaching rear areas.
But the picture that emerged was of a fast-moving ground war that brought units of the U.S. Marines' 1st and 2nd Divisions - as well as the Army's 82nd Airborne - to the outskirts of Kuwait City.
Jenkins, the commander of the Marine landing force, said most of the Marines, moving in two lines, had advanced past barriers the Iraqis had set up as artillery "kill zones."
The fast break over land to the Kuwaiti capital followed several days of heavy artillery and air attacks as well as minefield-clearing operations. It was augmented, according to allied sources, by a parachute drop outside the city by elements of the Army's 82nd Airborne Division.
Also punching northward into Kuwait on the ground were allied Arab forces including Kuwaiti, Egyptian, Syrian and Saudi troops.
Those troops moved within 40 miles of Kuwait City today, and expected to link up with other allied troops there on Tuesday, according to AP special correspondent Mort Rosenblum, who was with the Arab forces. He said they encountered only sporadic artillery fire.
At separate points along a 300-mile front, French and British forces also joined in the offensive.
Details also emerged about the role of the Egyptian forces. A military source said Egyptian gunners had fired more than 1,200 tons of ammunition on Iraqi positions in the first 24 hours of the offensive, and helped with allied mine-clearing efforts.
Smoke pouring from blazing Kuwaiti oil fields - which the allies said were set on fire by Iraqi occupiers - hampered allied bombing missions but did not slow troops on the ground, according to reports from the field. Driving rain also fell on the front Sunday, but skies were clearing today.
If the smokescreen was meant to be an ally of Iraqi forces, it was a fickle one. Soon after the allied offensive began, the wind changed, blowing away the heavy clouds over one section - revealing nearly 100 camouflaged Iraqi artillery pieces that were quickly prey for allied warplanes.
Pentagon sources said the deciding showdown in the battle for Kuwait is still days away, when allied forces engage major units of the Republican Guard, which is amassed along Iraq's border with Kuwait.
In Israel, news of the land battle was greeted with relief. The evening television news on Sunday opened with the words: "God bless America."
by CNB