Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, February 9, 1991 TAG: 9102090323
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Cox News Service
DATELINE: DHAHRAN, SAUDI ARABIA LENGTH: Medium
With the timing of a ground offensive the over-arching question of the day, military spokesmen said the air war has destroyed about 600 Iraqi tanks and 400 artillery pieces.
Another 13 Iraqi aircraft made it safely out of Iraq to Iran, the spokesman said, bringing to 147 the number that had escaped since the start of the war.
The ground invasion "could start today, it could start in a month," said Prince Khalid bin Sultan of Saudi Arabia, the operation's chief Arab commander. However, officers at the Pentagon and in Saudi Arabia contended the desert war was unlikely to begin until after Iraqi forces have been bombed for two more weeks or so.
Pentagon officials said they want to use air power to further reduce the fighting capability of Iraqi forces before the ground offensive begins. The delay would also allow late-arriving U.S. units to become battle-ready.
The 3rd Armored Division, just in from Germany, is still without all its tanks and helicopters. "We're the last division to come into the country so we just aren't ready yet," said division commander Maj. Gen. Paul Funk. He added he's "prepared to go to war with what I've got."
In Riyadh, Cheney and Gen. Colin Powell, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, were met at the airport by Gen. Schwarzkopf to begin two days of meetings. Cheney and Powell will return to Washington Sunday and meet Monday with President Bush to decide when to begin an allied ground assault to liberate Kuwait.
Meanwhile, Iraq again promised a bloody battle keep to its captured territory.
"Iraq and its leader will not make peace with infidels," said Radio Baghdad, speaking for President Saddam Hussein.
The Iraqi station said Bush and King Fahd of Saudi Arabia would be held accountable for Iraqi deaths caused by allied bombing. "The curse will haunt them and their families until doomsday," it promised.
A contrasting portrait of enemy resolve has been painted by defecting Iraqi soldiers and prisoners of war, said Gen. Khalid. They told of "execution battalions" stationed behind the front-line troops to kill deserters and of informers whose duty is to report on likely defectors, he said.
In London, British Defense Secretary Tom King predicted mass surrenders as bombers intensify their attack on Iraqi positions along the Kuwaiti-Saudi border.
The air war is now aimed at destroying entrenched forces in the Kuwait theater of operation, known as the KTO.
The KTO was hit with 600 aerial missions Friday, including 150 against the elite Republican Guard.
Military officers estimated the air war has knocked out at least 10 percent of the Iraqi tanks and artillery pieces and reduced the flow of enemy supplies to front-line troops by 90 percent.
Military analysts believe Iraq started the war with about 5,500 tanks and about 4,000 artillery pieces, some of which are capable of tossing shells more than 20 miles.
The visiting dignitaries seemed pleased with the aerial progress of Operation Desert Storm.
"You are the heart and soul of the most enormously successful air campaign in the history of the world," Cheney told members of the 48th Tactical Bomber Wing.
He discouraged speculation that the ground attack would come sooner rather than later. He emphasized estimates of allied casualties would be a major factor in setting the timetable.
"That has to be the No. 1 priority and it will figure very prominently in the recommendation we make to the president, and I'm sure will figure very prominently in the decision he makes," Cheney said.
"I don't want to be in the business at this point of publicly speculating about a particular date when the next phase of the campaign might begin," Cheney said.
by CNB