Banner Graphic, Volume 21, Number 137, Greencastle, Putnam County, 13 February 1991 — Page 2

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THE BANNERGRAPHIC February 13,1991

Iraqi shelter is hit: 400 burned to death

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) Near the end of a punishing night of allied bombing raids, two missiles pierced the entrance of a bomb shelter and exploded inside, witnesses and rescue workers said. They said about 400 people were killed. Rescue workers clawing through the debris said eight survivors had been dragged from the rubble of the 40-foot-deep concrete shelter. IT WAS STILL ablaze six hours after the 4 a.m. attack. In Washington, a Pentagon official said he could not confirm or deny that the civilian shelter was hit but said, “If this has happened we would feel very bad about it.” Reporters taken by Information Ministry officials to the scene several hours later counted more than 40 charred bodies laid out on the ground. Dozens of other mutilated bodies had been dug out and removed before the reporters arrived, rescuers said. FIREFIGHTERS struggled to extinguish the flames. A senior civil defense official said scores of people remained buried in the rubble, but there was no hope any were still alive. “There are no survivors there anymore. The fire is melting the

Iraqi military no longer functions as an army

DHAHRAN, Saudi Arabia (AP) Each morning, Iraqi deserters show up at allied border posts in increasing numbers. Each night, the anti-aircraft fire from Iraqi forces is less coordinated. After four weeks of intense, day-and-night bombing, there are subtle signs of cracks in the Iraqi military’s resolve. “THEY HAVE STOPPED operating as a national army (pursuing) theater objectives,” said Capt. Jessie Morimoto, an Air Force intelligence officer. “What they’re doing now is trying to

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CONFERENCE ON TERM LIMITS February 15,1991 sponsored by: THE JOYCE FOUNDATION DEPAUW UNIV. CENTER FOR CONTEMPORARY MEDIA GREENCASTLE, IN ★“OPEN AND FREE TO THE PUBLIC***

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ANDY JACOBS Democratic Member of Congress 10th District-lndiana

ALSO PARTICIPATING IN THE CONFERENCE: Mr. David Keene President, American Conservative Union Ms. Elaine Kamarck Senior Fellow, Progressive Policy Institution Mr. Jon Margolis Columnist, Chicago Tribune Mr. Craig Kennedy President, The Joyce Foundation Mr. John Fund Editorial writer, The Wall Street Journal Mr. David Bohmer Sen. Vice President, Gov’t. Relations, Centel Corp. Mr. Mark Blitz Vice President for Programs, The Hudson Institute Mr. Jim Coyne President, Americans for Term Limitation Mr. Larry Hansen Raconteur Mr. Chris Gates Vice President Nat'l Civic League Mr. Glen Hicks Executive Director of Georgians to limit Congressional Terms IN OXFORD UNION STYLE, panel representatives will debate whether the Constitution of the United States should be amended to limit Congress tenure, thereby eliminating the possibility of a “permanent self elected congress.” CONFERENCE SCHEDULE s'jMCMS wad ™nn Pamd [rebate Prep. Emerson Room A “Term Llmlts-Ycsi” Emerson Room B “Term Limlts-Nol" 11:00-12:00 Meharry HaH, East College Oxford Union Debate 12:00-12:30 Media Center Tour of new facility 12:30-1:30 Lunch 1:30-4:00 Meharry Hall, East College Panel Discussions The Constitutional, Political a Practical Queens For more Information concerning the conference, please contact Sylvia eonrerenc. ceoremato,, at (317)

WAR In The GULF

metal. There’s no way any human being could have survived until now,” a senior civil defense official said on condition of anonymity. Witnesses said the shelter, in the residential al-Amerieh district, took direct hits from at least two missiles fired by allied warplanes. HEALTH MINISTER AbdelSalam Mohammed Saeed told reporters 1,000 people had been inside the shelter, one of five built in Baghdad during the 1980-88 war against Iran and designed to hold twice that number. But rescuers said the survivors and other neighborhood residents spoke of just 400 to 500 people inside the shelter when it was bombed. The eight survivors, all of them suffering severe bums, were taken

defend themselves as people.” Sporadic artillery duels along the border hint at that While Marines and other units have peppered enemy positions with artillery and rocket fire, the Iraqis’ response has been light and poorly aimed, despite the fearsome reputation of their South Africanmade 155 mm howitzers. IT IS ESTIMATED the Iraqis have deployed 3,100 artillery pieces in the Kuwait area. Yet few have fired at allied positions. “Enemy artillery has not endangered friendly artillery yet,” said

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to the nearby Yarmuk Hospital. One of them, Omar Adnan, said he was the only one in his family to survive. He said his three younger sisters, mother and father all died in flip QttQf'lr IN A FAINT VOICE, Adnan, 17, said: “I was sleeping and suddenly I felt heat and the blanket was burning. Moments later, I felt I was suffocating. “I turned to try and touch my mother who was next to me but grabbed nothing but a piece of flesh,” he said. No military installations are known to be near the middle-class al-Amerieh district. Several large arrows with the word shelter written on them in Arabic and English pointed to the shelter. A nursery school, a supermarket and a mosque surround the facility. THE PENTAGON official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the military was investigating by reviewing targets in and around Baghdad, interviewing pilots and checking gun camera footage. “We don’t know if this installation is what it is purported to be, a civilian bomb shelter next to a mosque and shopping center,” the official said. The Pentagon official added that

[" Operation Desert Storm j Col. Ron Richard, operations officer for the 2nd Marine Division. Morimoto said the nature of Iraqi anti-aircraft fire has changed. “Right at the beginning we saw the Iraqis responding as any scared Army would do,” firing large numbers of missiles at attacking planes, Morimoto said. Now, she said, the Iraqis operate in small pockets, working independently of each other. ‘THE PILOTS CAN’T believe they’re doing this and nobody’s fighting back,” she said. There are signs that many more Iraqis are willing to give up as the slow leak of deserters grows to a

Allies methodically pound away at newly revitalized air campaign

DHAHRAN, Saudi Arabia (AP) Meticulously and methodically, allied warplanes are searching out selected targets in a newly coordinated strategy that relies on F-16 fighter-bombers to do the spotting from on high. American pilots involved say the new strategy which includes concentrating on “killing boxes” of terrain to pulverize Iraqi forces has improved the effectiveness of the air campaign. THE PILOTS SAID Tuesday that before the change in strategy targets were becoming hard to find, some obscured by debris from previous raids, others by smoke from pits of burning oil that covers

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“it is not in the American tradition to go after civilians,” but said there was “substantial loss of civilian life when Iraq invaded Kuwait and that’s what precipitated this whole thing.” ALLIED OFFICIALS have said that they are bombing only military and strategic targets, but that some civilian casualties are inevitable. The missiles pierced nine feet of concrete during attacks that had been under way for several hours. Dozens of other Baghdad neighborhoods were hit in intensive overnight bombing sorties, which residents described as among the severest on the capital since the U.S.-led allies launched the air war on Jan. 17. The air raids lasted for 12 hours, letting up at 8 a.m. A TELECOMMUNICATIONS center in the al-Jadrieh district of the capital was destroyed and a similar facility in the neighborhood of al-Jamlieh was badly damaged. The Palace of Conferences, across the street from the al-Rashid Hotel where foreign reporters are staying, also was hit. Reports of casualties from districts other than al-Amerieh were not immediately available. The raids came as Baghdad radio

stream. Along Saudi Arabia’s northern border, clusters of up to 10 Iraqi soldiers show up at desert outposts each day, waving leaflets dropped by allied aircraft that tell them how to surrender. Officers say the official figure of 1,000 Iraqi prisoners is low. MARINES REPORT an increasing number of tired and hungry soldiers walking toward the border, hands in the air, eager for the food and cigarettes the Marines hand out. Once taken into custody, the prisoners are moved to growing tent cities at Saudi public buildings. At one location, about 60 miles from the Kuwaiti border, scores of prisoners in garish uniforms of printed pajamas walk exercise paths inside a soccer stadium. On Tuesday, 10 Iraqi front-line soldiers showed up at an Egyptian outpost after walking through the desert all night. “IT IS VERY BAD. Fighting, fighting, fighting, and for what? Nothing,” said one, a tank soldier named Saad Shab who served through the entire eight-year IranIraq war.

about a third of Kuwait. The F-16s are being used as combination target spotters and traffic cops to coordinate attacks on Iraqi tanks, artillery pieces and other targets. Allied planners have drawn a grid over a map of Kuwait and southern Iraq that specifies the oblong “killing boxes,” which are several miles on a side. ONCE ASSIGNED a box, the U.S, warplanes involved systematically search it out for Iraqi targets while F-16s serving as forward air controllers circle above. “The FACs are what’s saving us,” said Capt. Dewey Gay, an F--16 pilot of the 33rd Tactical Fighter

quoted Saddam Hussein as expressing a willingness to work with Moscow to try to end the war. IN RESPONSE, the White House said the first step would have to be withdrawal from Kuwait. “Iraq is prepared to extend cooperation to the Soviet Union and other nations and agencies in the interest of finding a peaceful, political, equitable and honorable solution to the region’s central issues, including the situation in the gulf,” the radio quoted the Iraqi president as saying. It said Saddam met with Soviet envoy Yevgeny Primakov late Tuesday, and Primakov gave Saddam a message from Mikhail S. Gorbachev. It said the message contained the Soviet president’s view of the conflict, but gave no details. AIDES TO Gorbachev said today were not yet prepared to comment on the Baghdad radio report. Gorbachev has expressed concern that allied war plans may exceed goals set out in U.N. Security Council resolutions that demand the withdrawal of Iraqi forces from Kuwait and the restoration of Kuwait’s government.

Shab and his comrades painted a bleak picture of Iraqi forces. Rations have been cut to one sandwich a day. Replacement parts and fuel are scarce. There are rumors that 20,000 Iraqi troops have died in allied bombing raids. The deserters say as many as half the front-line troops have walked away from their posts, heading north, to their homes. FARTHER ALONG the border, an Iraqi soldier surrendered to a U.S. helicopter crew after three of his comrades fled a forward observation post. “He had gone home to Iraq and found out his whole family had been put in prison when his name apeared on a deserters’ list,” said Capt. Michael Brills, 33, of West Springfield, Va. “He said a lot of his friends, he couldn’t say how many, had been killed in bombing raids.” The constant threat of death from the air takes its toll, said Capt. Morimoto. “When you’ve had somebody come in and bomb your position day and night, you’re not very well fed ... there comes a point when you say, ‘That’s enough,”’ she said.

Squadron. Previously, finding targets was hit or miss and pilots were wasting more and more time looking, he said. Forward air control has been done in previous wars by small, slow-moving, propeller-driven planes. That role in this war was previously filled by OA-lOs, a variant on the A-10, a slow-moving jet that can “loiter” over an area because its pilot is protected from ground fire by a titanium shield. BUT THE OA-10, which flies at only about 300 mph, lacks the F--16’s supersonic speed and range. Using the F-16 as an air controller enables the new system to be used farther north in Kuwait and southern Iraq. Gay and other pilots of the A-10s and F-16s that refuel and rearm in Dhahran said the new system enables the pilots to spend less time over enemy territory looking for targets and exposing themselves to anti-aircraft fire. The A-10s and F-16s tend to fly their missions by day, while F-15E Strike Eagles take over at night. F-15s are equipped with sophisticated radar and other electronic gear.

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Middle East Roundup By The Associated Press Here are developments in the Persian Gulf War. Around the Gulf: • Iraqi President Saddam Hussein has told a Soviet envoy that Baghdad is prepared to cooperate with the Soviet Union and other nations to find a peaceful solution to the Gulf War, Baghdad radio, monitored in Nicosia, reported early Wednesday. Soviet envoy Yevgeny Primokov gave Saddam a message from Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev during talks late Tuesday. “Iraq is prepared to extend cooperation to the Soviet Union and other nations and agencies in the interest of finding a peaceful, political, equitable and honorable solution to the region’s central issues, including the situation in the Gulf,” the radio quoted Saddam as saying. • In Baghdad a Soviet envoy was expected to meet with Iraqi President Saddam Hussein in a search for a solution short of a fight to the finish in the desert. The Soviets say an Iraqi withdrawal from Kuwait is a first condition for peace; Saddam has rejected such a pullout A French newspaper suggested, meanwhile, that Soviet advisers are still aiding the Iraqi military. If true, it could wreck the U.S.-Soviet consensus on the Persian Gulf. • Marine and naval gunners combined their fire with U.S. air strikes Tuesday to pound Iraqi tanks and artillery massed in southern Kuwait. Below the border, battle-ready American units shifted and maneuvered as they readied for ground war. The thunderous land-sea-and-air barrage could be described as part of “our training program,” the U.S. command said training for the major offensive that may lie just over the horizon. • Despite the non-stop air raids, Iraq retains its “lethal developed weapons,” the Iraqi Parliament speaker said in an apparent reference to chemical and biological weapons. Iraqi deserters, meanwhile, confirmed that frontline trenches have been filled with oil, to be set ablaze beneath advancing allied troops. • Iraq said allied rockets demolished the headquarters of a government ministry headed by President Saddam Hussein’s cousin, Ali Hassan al-Majid, a close aide who was put in charge of Kuwait after Iraq’s Aug. 2 invasion. Six people were killed in the night attack, civil defense officials said. • A Saudi soldier was killed and six others in a mine-clearing unit were injured when a mine exploded Monday in the border town of Khafji, said Saudi military briefer Col. Ahmed Al-Robayan. • In an unusual military communique read on Baghdad radio, Iraq disclosed nearly 100 air raids on military targets in southern Iraq and Kuwait. Normally, reports of such attacks are not aired. The Baghdad government claimed that civilian targets, including a maternity hospital and nursery, were hit in the latest round of allied raids. • Low cloud cover hung over northern Saudi Arabia Tuesday as allied planes flew 2,600 sorties, raising the total since the war began Jan. 17 to 65,000, said Marine Brig. Gen. Richard Neal. The stepped-up air war has caused a skybome traffic jam: “It’s like a freeway,” said one U.S. officer; another, squadron commander Col. Gary A. Voellger, said he worried about mid-air collisions. Washington: • President Bush talked over war plans at the White House with the visiting defense ministers of Britain and France, allies in Operation Desert Storm. Commanders here recommend three to four more weeks of air bombardment before launching a ground offensive, U.S. military sources say.