Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, March 1, 1991 TAG: 9103010795
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: EVENING
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: DHAHRAN, SAUDI ARABIA LENGTH: Medium
U.S. officials warned that Iraq faced renewed fighting if it did not free allied prisoners.
In Kuwait, American soldiers hoisted the flag outside the U.S. Embassy as Ambassador Edward Gnehm arrived to take up his post.
When former Ambassador Nathaniel Howell left in December, he brought the flag to Washington with him. "He said at the time he left, `We're coming back,' " Gnehm said. "We are back and I bring his flag back."
On the battle front, allied military officials today reported a few cease-fire violations, including several minor exchanges of fire overnight initiated by Iraqi units presumed not to have learned of the truce.
Two U.S. doctors were killed this morning by mines as they tried to assist in taking Iraqi prisoners, and a bus carrying Iraqi soldiers was destroyed after it fired upon U.S. troops, the military said.
Talks about the return of POWs and other issues were set for Saturday, according to a senior British government source. The source said the meeting would be held at an unidentified military installation in Iraq, and the allied contingent would be led by the American commander, Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf.
"We are going to get back our POWs and we're going to do it fast," President Bush declared on Thursday. Forty-five Americans are missing, and at least eight are believed to be Iraqi prisoners.
Defense Secretary Dick Cheney said today that the Iraqis must cooperate. "We have the ability to resume hostilities at a moment's notice . . . the lights are out in Baghdad, they'll stay out until we get satisfaction," he said.
But the Iraqis made their own demands. "All foreign forces must leave our country immediately and stop all provocations," Foreign Minister Tariq Aziz told the Iraqi News Agency, according to Baghdad radio.
He said U.S. forces were acting in a manner contrary to the cease-fire, and he complained about continued U.S. reconnaissance flights over his country.
"Such acts represent evil intention and do not respect the announced stands and commitments," he said.
The allies were turning their attention to identifying Iraqis whose units were suspected of involvement in atrocities in Kuwait. But a senior U.S. military official in Riyadh said today that the Iraqi command in Kuwait City fled before the arrival of U.S. and allied forces and could escape prosecution.
"The Iraqi security forces saw the handwriting on the wall early and they got out . . . before the Marines were even within striking distance of getting in there," the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
At allied checkpoints, Iraqi soldiers straggling north toward the southern Iraqi city of Basra were screened. The checkpoints were functioning hours after Bush declared the cease-fire that took effect at 8 a.m. Thursday.
In Kuwait, gruesome stories emerged about the terror of the seven-month Iraqi occupation. Hospital staff members - including morgue workers and doctors - described atrocities they had witnessed.
Hadra Ahmad, a 29-year-old volunteer Red Crescent worker at Mubarak Hospital in Kuwait City, said today that she saw the bodies of scores of Kuwaitis who had been shot in the mouth, burned or mutilated.
"Why are they doing these things? We just cannot understand," she said. "But now our heart is clear. They are gone."
White House Chief of Staff John Sununu predicted the Iraqis would turn on Saddam once they realized "the magnitude of their defeat, the number of Iraqi prisoners of war taken by the allies, the number of lives lost by the Iraqis."
With Iraq's defeat, most of the half-million U.S. troops in the gulf were eager to go home. "I suspect you'll see a major movement of the U.S. forces out of the region beginning in the next couple of weeks," Cheney said.
"It took seven months to get in. It's going to take many months to get out," White House spokesman Marlin Fitzwater said in Washington. "But we're going to start a steady withdrawal."
by CNB