
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, March 7, 1991                   TAG: 9103070576
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A/1   EDITION: EVENING 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

TROOPS BEGIN RETURNING

U.S. soldiers, some still covered with desert sand, began leaving Saudi Arabia today in the first large-scale troop departures from the Persian Gulf. They left behind an Iraq where Saddam Hussein's troops were said to be executing dissidents and leaving the corpses in the streets as a warning.

Jubilant American soldiers made V-for-victory signs as they boarded military transport planes in the Saudi desert where they had spent nearly seven months training, waiting - and finally fighting a lightning war.

"We've done what the world wanted us to do," said 2nd Lt. Alfred Sullivan, 25, of Montgomery, Ala. "Now it's time to go home."

Troops from some units began arriving today in Britain and Germany on their way home.

In the Saudi capital of Riyadh, allied and Iraqi commanders were meeting today to discuss some of the war's unfinished business: repatriation of remains, return of Iraqi prisoners, and missing persons.

The missing include about three dozen foreign journalists who vanished while trying to cover the anti- Victory in gulf clears the way for old threat. A8 Saddam rebellion that flared in southern Iraq after the allies routed Iraq's troops last week, ending the war.

Cable News Network quoted a Red Cross official today as saying more than 20 of the journalists would be turned over to the Red Cross, possibly on Friday. CNN also quoted the official as saying that the Iraqis would be releasing about 2,000 Kuwaitis who had been held hostage.

The Red Cross in Geneva had said earlier that a delegation had traveled to Basra today to assess humanitarian needs.

As for prisoners of war, the allies hold about 63,000 Iraqi soldiers, and the Iraqis say they have freed all their allied captives.

Fifteen American POWs freed on Tuesday were recuperating today aboard the U.S. hospital ship Mercy in the Persian Gulf. Sailors and medical personnel welcomed them aboard Wednesday with applause and shouts of "Welcome back!"

Doctors who examined the former captives said some had suffered battle injuries, some had been slightly injured in allied bombing raids and most had been "slapped around" by their Iraqi captors.

Their release left 24 Americans unaccounted for in the war.

The war's end only brought new fighting in southern Iraq, where refugees said Saddam's Republican Guard used tanks and artillery to overpower insurgents in Basra, Iraq's second-largest city.

The refugees said government troops, as they regained control, executed some backers of the uprising, displaying their bodies around the city to discourage further unrest.

The revolt in the south coincided with an uprising by Kurdish guerrillas in the north. Iraqi army units stationed near the Turkish border have pulled back toward Baghdad, possibly to buttress Saddam's power.

In Saudi Arabia, Marine Brig. Gen. Richard Neal said the uprising was apparently being beaten down by Saddam's still-formidable security apparatus.

by CNB