Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, February 6, 1991 TAG: 9102060629
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A/1 EDITION: EVENING
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: RIYADH, SAUDI ARABIA LENGTH: Medium
Marine Brig. Gen. Richard Neal told reporters two SU-25s were shot down. He said two MIG-21s were listed as probably shot down.
Earlier, U.S. and Saudi military officials said four Iraqi planes had been shot down while trying to reach Iran.
The Saudi military spokesman, Col. Ahmed al-Robayan, confirmed today that four Iraqi planes were shot down, apparently in the past 24 hours. Al-Robayan said the other three planes reached Iran.
Marine Maj. Gen. Robert Johnston said Tuesday that about 110 Iraqi aircraft - mostly fighter jets - had taken refuge in Iran since the Persian Gulf War began Jan. 17.
Iran has promised to impound the aircraft until the war ends.
Meanwhile, Iraq today renewed its claims that allied air raids were battering civilian areas, reporting 150 people died in an overnight air strike. It was the Terrorism doubted in Norfolk bombs. B1 highest death toll reported by Iraq from a single raid in the Persian Gulf War.
As the unrelenting allied air attack continued on Iraq, a U.S. Marine amphibious assault force was moving into place today in the Persian Gulf. Allied commanders say, however, that any ground war to retake Kuwait probably will follow still more air attacks on Iraqi forces.
Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf, commander of Operation Desert Storm, said his greatest concern in the war is that the Iraqis are "capable of the most heinous acts."
"They have demonstrated that they have absolutely no value on human life," Schwarzkopf said in an interview broadcast today on "CBS This Morning." "It's sort of the mad dog syndrome. . . . In a mad dog there is no predictability."
The Baghdad government said the allies carried out 263 air raids and missile attacks overnight, including intensive bombing of residential areas.
The Iraqis said that in the southern Iraqi city of Nassariyah, about 150 people - including 35 children - were killed by the air assault. Many homes were reported hit.
Travelers arriving in Baghdad from Nassariyah reported the city came under intensive bombardment Tuesday night. They said military and industrial targets were hit.
The Iraqi government daily Al-Thawra reported today that 349 people had been killed in the southern port city of Basra since the allied raids began. It was not clear how the latest casualty reports would alter the previously announced civilian death toll of 428.
Iraqi officials said the allied bombs and missiles raining down on Baghdad overnight smashed a hospital, bridge, communications center and homes. Iraqi officials said two surface-to-surface rockets landed near a bus station, destroying two movie theaters and about 200 shops.
"Whether by mistake or deliberately, we don't like it, we could have been killed," Baghdad resident Ya'kub Abonna told AP correspondent Salah Nasrawi.
U.S. officials have repeatedly said the air attacks are targeting military and strategic sites. Military officials say efforts have been made to avoid civilian casualties.
The USS Missouri also was in action overnight, firing its 16-inch guns at targets along the Kuwaiti coast, the command said. The battleship destroyed a radar site, artillery and a surface-to-air missile position. A dug-in Iraqi military unit also was hit, but the command said it didn't know how much damage was done.
One allied air raid scored a possible hit on an Iraqi mobile Scud missile launcher, the U.S. command in Saudi Arabia said today. The launchers have been used to lob missiles at Israel and Saudi Arabia, although the attacks have tapered off in recent days.
Iran's official news agency said the roar of attacking allied planes could be heard pounding southern Iraqi cities every few minutes throughout the night and this morning. It said Iraqi air defenses apparently were silent.
The Iranian news agency said three huge explosions in the Iraqi city of Basra could be heard in the Iranian city of Khorramshahr, 25 miles away. Basra is the site of Iraq's military headquarters for the Kuwait theater.
Also today, U.S. military officials reported Iraq's elite Republican Guard has shown great skill in dispersing and concealing its forces, but is still being badly hurt by allied air strikes.
The Guard, one of the main targets of the bombing campaign, has extensively used decoys - including tanks made of plywood - to fool allied pilots, said the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Despite their ingenuity, however, the incessant allied bombing has "produced significant casualties, physical casualties, and losses in command and control and logistics," one military official said.
by CNB