University Daily Kansan / Thursday, February 28, 1991
9
Defeated Iraqi army allowed to retreat
The Associated Press
DHAHRAN, Saudi Arabia — The Desert Storm allies ceased fire this morning, 100 hours into a lightning ground offensive and 209 days after Saddam Hussein's troops marched into Kuwait.
A senior U.S. military source said Iraqi soldiers would not be attacked if they approached U.S. positions peacefully. Iraqi forces also would be allowed to retreat — even with their weapons.
"At 0800 hours Riyadh time, offensive operations ceased," said Navy Capt. Ron E. Wildemuth, director of information formation Bureau in the Saudi capital.
Since Iraq seized its oil-rich neighbor, 283 allied soldiers have died, 51 are listed as missing and 13 are being held as prisoners of war.
An Iraqi official said 20,000 Iraqis were killed and 60,000 wounded in the first 26 days of the war. U.S. officials said 80,000 Iraqis had been taken prisoner.
"We're convinced we've rendered combat ineffective about 40-and-a-half divisions," the senior U.S. source said, speaking on condition of anonymity. Iraqi numbers number 10,000 to 15,000 men.
Reports from the field yesterday mentioned tank battles raging on the outskirts of Basra, while far to the northwest, troopers of the U.S. 101st Airborne Division stood less than 100 miles from Baghdad.
In liberated Kuwait City, joyous residents flocked to the streets to celebrate and appreciation for U.S. troops. "Thank you, America!" they shouted.
Westerday's tank battle in Iraq's Southern Desert, west of the southern Iraqi city of Basra, was the biggest armor engagement since World War II.
Also yesterday, U.S. tank troops swept up 10,000 Iraqi prisoners as they routed another Republican Guard division, U.S. officers and members of the armed forces units left scores of burning Iraqi tanks in their wake.
Some 100 miles to the west, U.S. troops seized an airfield outside the Iraqi city of Nasiriyah, on the Euphrates, solidifying the Alliance for embodying them to leapfrog still deeper into the heart of Iraq if necessary.
The Iraqis, trying to stave off further disaster, had earlier declared they would accept Security Council
resolutions making Iraq liable for war damages and guaranteeing Kuwait's sovereignty.
Desert Storm commander Gen. H Norman Schwarzkopf reiterated this yesterday.
But the Security Council rejected the offer, saying Baghdad must agree to all 12 U.N. resolutions related to the crisis before a cease-fire be set. Iraq agreed to that demand late yesterday in another letter.
Although the U.N. mandate authorizing the war specified the objective of driving Iraqi troops from Kuwait, the allies have clearly pursued a second objective as well: reducing the Iraqi military.
This story includes reports subjected to review by allied military censors.
Military analysts: Despite defeat, Iraqi war machine still has teeth
The Associated Press
He even has a division of his vaunted Republican Guard troops in Baghdad.
WASHINGTON — Despite the battering that his military machine took from the U.S.-led coalition, Iraqi President Saddam Hussein still has a million-man army, missiles and sizable stocks of chemical weapons, analysts say.
On paper at least, Saddam appears to be in reasonably good shape militarily, even while losing one of the 20th century's most one-sided wars, military analyst Kerneth Brower said yesterday.
But the troops Saddam has left are of worse quality than the ones
that were humiliated in Kuwait, said Brower, a fellow at Britain's Sandhurst Royal Military Academy.
Iraq also lost most of its tanks, artillery and air defenses in the Kuwaity debacle. In addition, Iraiq pilots flew more than 100 jet fighters and other planes to Iran, where they have been impounded.
Military analysts said Saddam had this much equipment stored out of harm's way: 1,000 tanks, 4,000 armored fighting vehicles and 2,000 pieces of artillery, hundreds of 100 and 100 more Scud missiles. He probably has biological weapons as well, the analysts said.
ROCK CHALK
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1991!
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