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

DATE: WEDNESDAY, February 20, 1991                   TAG: 9102200353
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: The Washington Post
DATELINE: DHAHRAN, SAUDI ARABIA                                LENGTH: Short

ALLIES BELIEVE IRAQ'S TOLL ALREADY HIGH

Iraqi troops in occupied Kuwait and southern Iraq are suffering "horrendous" casualties as U.S. and allied forces pound them with air strikes and artillery barrages in preparation for a possible ground offensive, a senior U.S. military official said Tuesday.

The official declined to estimate the number of Iraqi casualties or discuss an unconfirmed Iranian newspaper report that Iraq's deputy prime minister had informed Iranian officials of a casualty toll of 20,000 dead and 60,000 wounded in the first 26 days of the Persian Gulf War.

However, the U.S. official indicated more than 3,000 Iraqi soldiers may have been killed as a result of allied warplanes' destruction of Iraqi tanks alone. At least 1,400 tanks, one-third of the 4,200 tanks Iraq has deployed in the Kuwaiti theater of operations, have been destroyed in air strikes, officials at the Pentagon said Tuesday.

"I think they've suffered horrendous casualties, if you want the truth - not only killed but wounded," the senior American military source said here. He said the Iraqi medical system was "terrible" and wounded soldiers were dying for lack of treatment amid conditions that recalled the American Civil War.

In one attack, a pool report said, U.S. Apache helicopters knocked out two Iraqi tanks and several other vehicles in a raid more than 50 miles inside Iraq early Monday. Pilots said they caught an Iraqi encampment by surprise, firing Hellfire laser-guided missiles, rockets and cannon at the tanks, anti-aircraft guns and artillery.

by CNB