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

DATE: FRIDAY, February 15, 1991                   TAG: 9102150378
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: From The New York Times/ and The Associated Press
DATELINE: RIYADH, SAUDI ARABIA                                LENGTH: Medium

SHAKEN BY THE DEATHS OF HUNDREDS OF IRAQI

Bush administration officials said Thursday that they were standing firm on their assertion that the building was a legitimate military target and made clear that they were closing the books on the attack without further investigation.

However, the London paper The Independent, in a dispatch from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, quoted a senior U.S. military source as contradicting the official U.S. position that the facility was bombed because it was a command and control center. The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity said the shelter was bombed because Iraqi military officers were believed to be sheltering there.

Reporter Robert Fisk quoted the source as saying, "There's not a soul who believes that it was a command and control bunker."

The Independent also quoted the source as saying the carnage from the bombing had alarmed Saudi military officials, who are worried that the destruction of Iraq could destabilize the region in a postwar era.

U.S. officials in Washington have said they did not know why civilians were in the shelter and suggested Iraqi President Saddam Hussein might be using Iraqi civilians as human shields.

Reporters in Baghdad who toured the rubble of the shelter said they saw no sign it had any military use.

As they weighed the lessons of Wednesday's bombing, American officials announced a sharp increase in the rate of destruction of Iraq's main ground weapons in Kuwait.

They put the number of tanks demolished at 1,300 - almost a third of the 4,280 tanks Baghdad is believed to have had in position when the war began, and up from 750 claimed as killed five days ago.

The Pentagon has said there is no precise level of destruction that would trigger a land offensive, but the speed-up clearly brings closer the point at which President Bush could order a ground attack without fearing inordinate allied casualties.

Strategists are believed to be shooting for 50-percent destruction before ordering the ground assault. The commander of British forces in the Persian Gulf, Lt. Gen. Sir Peter de la Billiere, told reporters Thursday there are already "proposed dates" for the offensive.

The White House will ask Congress to authorize $56 billion for the first three months of fighting in the Persian Gulf, a senior administration official said Thursday. He said the United States will recoup 80 percent to 90 percent of the money from allies' donations. Allied countries already have pledged $41 billion, he said, and additional contributions are expected.

The official, speaking with reporters on condition of anonymity, refused to speculate when a ground war might begin but indicated it would not be within the next few days. Separately, White House press secretary Marlin Fitzwater said the ground war could begin "at any time."

One idea under consideration to avoid bombing mistakes, an American spokesman said, is dropping leaflets before bombing raids, warning civilians to stay out of target areas.

Intelligence procedures are also under examination, a staff officer added, to see whether the allies somehow missed the use of the bombed structure as a civilian air-raid shelter as well as a command post.

In Baghdad, the day-after scenes were etched in sadness and hate.

Body after body was pulled in grisly procession from the rubble. The death toll remained uncertain, in part because workers still had not reached all areas of the shattered structure.

Civil defense officials estimated more than 500 died, mostly women and children. A mortuary director said 288 bodies had been removed, including 91 children, CNN's Peter Arnett reported. Reporters at the scene counted at least 40 corpses, many decapitated or missing limbs, extricated over one 90-minute period Thursday.

The relentless, 24-hour-a-day bombardment of Iraq and Iraqi-occupied Kuwait continued, although most of the targets appeared to be troop emplacements, not military installations in cities like Baghdad and Basra.

With 2,800 new missions recorded, including 800 in and near Kuwait, plus 200 aimed at the elite Republican Guard units, the total reached 70,000 as the war entered its fifth week.