Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, February 23, 1991 TAG: 9102230208
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: The Associated Press and The New York Times
DATELINE: DHAHRAN, SAUDI ARABIA LENGTH: Medium
Smoke fumed over the desert, visible 40 miles into Saudi Arabia.
Napalm, a flammable gel, was used to set fire to the oil in deep trenches dug by Iraqi defenders to slow an invasion, the U.S. command said. It was the first known use of napalm in the Persian Gulf War.
Heavy anti-personnel bombs were aimed at Iraqi troops.
While allied gunners hammered forward positions with artillery, allied planes flew 1,000 sorties into Kuwait alone and 100 others targeted Saddam Hussein's Republican Guard, the U.S. command said.
Greasy black plumes rose over more than 140 of Kuwait's 950 oil wells, part of what U.S. officials called an "orchestrated, systematic" effort to paralyze the embattled emirate's production capability.
Yasser Arafat, chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization, warned in an interview published in France that Baghdad had mined every oil well in Kuwait, and allied intelligence officials said some of the burning wells were sending plumes of fire and smoke 400 to 500 feet into the air.
The border town of Khafji, battered in an early ground battle, took on an especially eerie cast against a backdrop of dark haze. At mid-day, the town was dark as night.
Rear Adm. Mike McConnell, the Pentagon's chief of intelligence, exhibited maps at the daily briefing in Washington showing fires in the big Rumaila and Bahra fields in northern Kuwait, as well as others south of Kuwait City.
The U.S. command spokesman, Marine Brig. Gen. Richard Neal said American soldiers had been trained to fight in the murky environment of oilfield fires, but McConnell said the smoke would make it harder for allied pilots to identify their targets.
Neal said the destruction appeared to be part of a "scorched-earth" campaign by the Iraqis.
President Bush had used the same term earlier in the day during an announcement of a U.S. ultimatum - Iraq must begin withdrawing from Kuwait by by noon EST today or be forcibly ejected by the allies.
Neal alluded to an allied ground assault when he quoted Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf, the U.S. commander in the gulf, as saying: "U.S. forces are fully prepared for execution of any action ordered by the President of the United States."
One U.S. Marine was killed and five others were wounded Friday in a continuing artillery duel, one of three separate skirmishes across the border since Thursday afternoon, Neal said.
Allied gunners, backed by attack helicopter and tactical fighters, destroyed 18 Iraqi tanks and 15 other vehicles, taking more than 100 prisoners, according to Neal.
Photographers near the front watched U.S. Marines load canister after canister of napalm onto combat support aircraft and saw them streak off to the north.
One American magazine photographer, who requested anonymity, said pilots told him they had been using the jellied gasoline on "bunkers and artillery positions" and other emplacements.
A senior Marine officer, who asked not to be named, said napalm's role in combat was to reach entrenched troops, "just like in Vietnam." However, Lt. Cmdr. John Tull, a Central Command spokesman, said napalm was used only on oil trenches. "It is not being used on personnel," he said.
Altogether, coalition aircraft flew 2,700 sorties against lines of communications and battlefield targets despite mixed weather patterns which grounded some helicopters, Neal said.
Neal said the thick veil of smoke over Kuwait would obscure the battlefield, hampering some air operations, but would not impede the overall ground campaign. "We are prepared for this," he said.
In desert foxholes and on assault ships in the Persian Gulf, troops exuded a boisterous confidence tempered by silent fears.
"I'm not worried about hitting the beach at all," said Lance Cpl. James Hartzog of Plant City, Fla., one of 17,000 Marines poised off Kuwait. "I just want to go in and get it over with and get home."
by CNB