Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, February 24, 1991 TAG: 9102240088
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A/1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
The United States mounted a massive ground assault against Iraqi troops in Kuwait about 8 p.m. Saturday.
Iraq's army had 28 to 33 divisions in Kuwait, totaling 545,000 troops, when the conflict began Jan. 17. They were equipped with 4,200 tanks, 2,800 armored personnel carriers and 3,100 artillery pieces.
But more than five weeks of bombing devastated Iraq's equipment; the Pentagon estimated it had destroyed 39 percent of Saddam Hussein's tanks, 32 percent of his armored vehicles and 48 percent of his artillery. Casualties were incalculable.
A long line of Iraqi infantry is dug in along Kuwait's border with Saudi Arabia, backed up by divisions of Iraqi tanks. And 150,000 troops of Saddam's Republican Guard are held in reserve on the northern Iraqi-Kuwaiti border.
The U.S. Army has 295,000 troops in Saudi Arabia while the Marines have 94,000, including an amphibious force of 18,000 men on ships in the gulf.
Other allied countries sent 205,000 troops to the Persian Gulf to face the Iraqis.
The United States has 2,000 tanks, more than 2,000 pieces of artillery and 2,200 armored personnel carriers on the ground in Saudi Arabia.
The allies' front-line soldiers:
Ten U.S. Army and Marine divisions, more than 160,000 combat troops. The U.S. combat forces include two divisions of airborne troops, three of armored and three of mechanized infantry. The Marines have two divisions on land and 18,000 men on ships in the Persian Gulf.
The British 1st Armored Division with more than 160 Challenger tanks. The British force includes the 7th Armored Brigade with 9,500 troops, successors to the famous "Desert Rats" of World War II.
The French 6th Light Armored Division with 12,000 men. The French deployed a 4,000-man French Rapid Action Force, including the Foreign Legion's 3rd Infantry Regiment with anti-tank missiles.
36,000 Egyptian troops with 480 tanks, paratroopers, commandos, chemical warfare specialists and infantry.
Syria's 15,000-man 9th Armored Division, with 270 Soviet T-62 tanks.
The Gulf Cooperation Council's rapid deployment force of up to 10,000 troops. The council force has 330 combat aircraft, 800 tanks and 150,500 troops from Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Oman, United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Kuwait.
The war so far has been fought largely by U.S. Air Force and Navy pilots flying bombing missions over Iraq and Kuwait.
The Navy has 82,000 sailors manning more than 115 ships in the gulf and flying 450 fighter jets. The Air Force has 56,000 personnel and 800 combat aircraft.
The American force of more than 530,000 soldiers is the largest deployed overseas since the peak of the Vietnam War in 1968, when 545,000 Americans were involved.
by CNB