Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, March 8, 1991 TAG: 9103080412
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: From The Washington Post, The Associated Press/ and The New York Time
DATELINE: AMMAN, JORDAN LENGTH: Medium
In the state-controlled media's most explicit reference yet to the crisis, the Al Thawra newspaper said that "everybody who tries to undermine the security . . . is a traitor and a mercenary. All of them shall regret it. They will pay."
The strident defensive tone of the official media, combined with unconfirmed reports that Saddam has attempted to make deals with his Shiite Muslim and Kurdish foes, appeared to indicate growing worry within the government about whether it can contain the insurgency, which U.S. officials said Thursday has now spread to at least two dozen cities - twice the number reported last week.
The report that, for the first time, disturbances have broken out in Baghdad, the capital city with a population of 4 million, came from a number of Shiite and Kurdish opposition forces and could not be confirmed. Western reporters have been ordered out of Baghdad and those few who have not yet left are unable to travel freely.
Secretary of State James Baker, en route to the Middle East for a round of visits, said, "What's happening is that there is just one heck of a lot of turmoil in Iraq, particularly in southern Iraq, but not totally limited to southern Iraq."
In Washington, Defense Secretary Dick Cheney said the rebellion had spread to more than two dozen towns and cities and "is greater now than it was a few days ago." He noted, however, that Saddam retained the loyalty of "the only organized military force in the country."
Cheney declined to repeat assurances given Tuesday by the Pentagon that U.S. forces were not playing "any role whatsoever in fomenting or assisting any side" in Iraq's power struggle, saying that U.S. forces still in Iraq are focused primarily on "overt military operations." But he said that if there were covert operations, "I would never discuss them anyway."
U.S. troops will be streaming home from the Persian Gulf at a pace of 5,000 a day barring a new outbreak of fighting, Cheney said.
The Pentagon said freed American prisoners of war will return almost immediately, perhaps for a Sunday ceremony at Andrews Air Force Base near Washington.
Pentagon spokesman Pete Williams said all the U.S. POWs who had been held by Iraq would be returning on a single plane "within a few days, perhaps as early as Sunday." Twenty-one American POWs have been released, and Williams said U.S. officials believe that is all that had been held.
Cheney outlined chances for a far speedier return for most of the 540,000 U.S. troops than had been disclosed, one that could be accomplished by the July Fourth date President Bush has set as "a special day of celebration for our returning troops."
Langley Air Force Base in Virginia made frantic plans on Thursday for a heroes' homecoming for the planes and their crews today.
Two squadrons of F-15 fighters - the first land-based warplanes ordered to the war zone - were rushed to the Persian Gulf from Langley seven months ago. The Langley planes will be the first to return to home soil, just as they were the first to depart, and the welcoming committee will include the secretary of the Air Force, Donald B. Rice, and the Air Force chief of staff, Gen. Merrill A. McPeak.
In Iraq, reports from Shiite and Kurdish opposition figures said unrest has broken out in Thawra, a heavily populated neighborhood of Baghdad where many poor Shiite Muslims live. Mohammed Taqi Mudaressi, leader of the Islamic Labor Party, one of seven Shiite groups in an anti-Saddam coalition, reported from Damascus, Syria, that he had also heard of disturbances in Shulla, another thickly populated area in Baghdad.
Kurdish opposition leaders said rebels have seized several towns in northern Iraq and accepted the surrender of several Iraqi regiments.
Saddam was said Thursday to have offered Kurdish and Shiite Muslim opponents separate deals to join the central government.
Saddam's offer to Shiites of control of half of the government was rejected by Mohammed Bakr Hakim, Tehran-based opposition leader, according to Bayan Jabour, an aide in Damascus.
The proposal to the Kurds reportedly pledged an unspecified share in the central government, a return to wide autonomy promised in 1970 but never fully implemented, and "opening a new page in our relations," according to Kurdish sources.
Analysts in Damascus said that in the past, Saddam has used such power-sharing offers when his rule has been threatened, only to withdraw or whittle them down when he survives the crisis.
by CNB