Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, March 3, 1991 TAG: 9103030105
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Meanwhile, the U.N. Security Council overwhelmingly passed a resolution dictating allied demands that Iraq must meet before a formal cease-fire is adopted.
No U.S. casualties were reported in the clash in southern Iraq, but two American soldiers died elsewhere in land mine explosions.
"The battlefield is still very active and very alive," a U.S. commander said. He said a permanent cease-fire is urgently needed to end Iraqi resistance and help locate hundreds of thousands of mines in Iraq and Kuwait.
Eleven of the 15 Security Council members voted for the cease-fire resolution. Cuba opposed it; India, China and Yemen abstained.
The resolution allows the allied coalition to resume the war if Iraq does not swiftly meet the council's conditions.
Under it, Baghdad must return all prisoners of war, abducted Kuwaitis and plundered property; accept liability for war damages; rescind its annexation of Kuwait; and disclose the location of mine fields and booby traps.
Similar conditions were to be presented today on the battlefield at a meeting among allied and Iraqi military commanders.
The resolution setting terms for Iraq's capitulation to the Security Council passed seven months to the day after Iraqi troops rolled into Kuwait and the council demanded their unconditional withdrawal.
Some of the non-aligned nations on the council, which wanted economic sanctions on Iraq lifted, critically called it the "surrender resolution."
Allied generals say the release of all POWs will be their top demand when they talk with Iraq military leaders today at a secret site near the Kuwait-Iraq border. The talks, originally scheduled Saturday, were delayed one day at Iraq's request.
"If we see stonewalling, if we see a lack of coming to the table and understanding the conditions the president has laid out," the allies will consider going on the offensive again, Brig. Gen. Richard Neal, a spokesman for the U.S. Central Command, told a briefing in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Iraq has advised the International Committee of the Red Cross in Geneva that it is ready for an immediate prisoner exchange, the relief agency said Saturday. But Iraq still refuses to say how many POWs it has or to identify them by name. Such a disclosure is required by the Geneva Convention.
One report indicated some allied POWs may have been killed in captivity. A ranking military officer in Saudi Arabia said the allies believe Iraqis tortured and killed two captive airmen. Both were thought to be Britons.
There are 13 known allied POWs, including nine Americans. Sixty-six allied soldiers are missing, including 45 Americans. The coalition partners also are seeking the release of thousands of Kuwaitis believed held in Iraq.
Many of those Kuwaitis were rounded up as Iraqi soldiers beat a hasty retreat from Kuwait City before it was liberated.
Now that Kuwait is back in the hands of Kuwaitis, tales of the nation's underground resistance are beginning to emerge.
On Saturday, the fighters told Associated Press reporter Greg Myre that their exploits included shooting down an Iraqi 747 jetliner carrying 126 Iraqi military officers and faxing maps of Iraqi positions to the allies.
In addition to the occasional clashes in Kuwait and southern Iraq, the war's aftermath has plunged the southern Iraqi city of Basra into chaos.
U.S. military sources described "a total breakdown of civil control" in Iraq's second-largest city but no clear indication of rebellion against Saddam.
They said aerial surveillance revealed a city clogged by throngs of people, its central square and main streets in "gridlock," and nearby roads lined with hundreds of tanks, trucks and other military vehicles parked haphazardly.
Meanwhile, an Iraqi opposition leader claimed "more than 90 percent of the army and its commanders" had rebelled against Saddam. Hassan al-Naqeeb, a retired army general, said from Riyadh that the opposition might set up a "national salvation government" in Basra.
Saddam has not addressed his people since Tuesday, when he announced in a radio message that all Iraqi troops would leave Kuwait by the end of the day. U.S. officers in Riyadh said they did not know where Saddam was - or as one official put it: "Saddam has shown up in more places than Elvis."
On the battlefield, an Iraqi armored column opened fire Saturday on U.S. Army troops who reacted by destroying or capturing about 140 tanks and other vehicles, a U.S. Army general said in Riyadh.
Commanders of the 24th Infantry Division (Mechanized) southwest of Basra believe the Iraqis got lost, said Brig. Gen. Steven Arnold, assistant chief of staff for plans and operations for the U.S. Central Command. When the Iraqis attacked, Apache helicopters and two task forces from the 24th Infantry struck back, and there was "a pretty good fight," he said.
by CNB