By R. Jeffrey Smith
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, February 25, 1991; Page A01

Post time line

The beginning of a ground campaign has unleashed the U.S. military to dismantle as much of the Iraqi military as possible and pursue Saddam Hussein's forces in and near Kuwait until they surrender, abandon their heavy equipment or are killed, according to senior military and civilian officials.

The pursuit of these goals is likely to bring much more difficult and potentially bloody fighting tonight or Tuesday with Iraq's Republican Guard forces, according to these sources.

U.S., British and French forces now moving north and east behind dug-in Republican Guard units will be in a position by tonight or Tuesday to engage those forces, sources said. Most of them are on the Iraqi side of the Iraq-Kuwait border, where they will be pursued. "There won't be any sanctuary inside Iraq for those forces who've been involved in occupying Kuwait," Defense Secretary Richard B. Cheney said yesterday in an interview on CBS's "Face the Nation."

Though the military is operating under strict rules requiring that Iraqi forces be encouraged and given an opportunity to surrender, senior officers yesterday said that they were engaged in what amounted to "total war" -- a more elaborate mission than simply expelling Iraqi forces from Kuwait.

Another senior official said the goal is to make sure the eight divisions of the elite Republican Guard in the Kuwaiti theater "don't escape."

"The Republican Guard . . . that's the real test yet to come," said House Armed Services Committee Chairman Les Aspin (D-Wis.) on the CBS program.

The strategy now being pursued on the ground was vividly enunciated Jan. 23 by Gen. Colin L. Powell, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who said his strategy was "very, very simple. First we're going to cut it {the Iraqi force in and near Kuwait} off, and then we're going to kill it."

"The next day's fighting will be the real crux of the operation," one government analyst said. He said that the level of resistance displayed by the Republican Guard -- little of which has been engaged so far -- will "tell the tale" of how long the war will last and what the toll of U.S. and allied casualties will be.

Several informed officials said the U.S. and allied plan for today and Tuesday is to continue pushing northward inside Kuwait toward the capital, Kuwait City, while simultaneously racing from Saudi Arabia through southern Iraq to the north and west of dug-in Republican Guard forces, long considered the "center of gravity" within Iraq's military.

The aim of the massive flanking maneuver to the west of Kuwait is to seal off those forces from communications and supply lines stretching south from the Iraqi heartland, blocking any escape to sites farther north.

"What we want to do is put them in a bag, tie the top of the bag, seal it, and then punch the bag," a defense official said on condition that he not be identified.

Army Maj. Dan Grigson of the 101st Airborne Division, who was engaged in a helicopter assault on Iraq, described the mission yesterday to an Associated Press reporter who was brought along. "Don't worry about Kuwait, it's a piece of dirt," Grigson said. "We're going after the Iraqi army. Once we destroy them, then Kuwait will be free."

There were several indications yesterday that the thrust to isolate the Republican Guard positions was well underway, but far from complete. French President Francois Mitterrand, quoting his defense minister, said French ground troops had advanced roughly 30 miles inside Iraq, a distance that U.S. officials say is less than one-third of the way to the allies' target.

Several officials said there are significant uncertainties concerning the Republican Guards' state of readiness. Before the war began the Guard was estimated to number 150,000 men, nearly all of them stationed in Iraq and along the Iraq-Kuwait border. They are better trained and have been treated better than ordinary Iraqi soldiers, and their successes in the eight-year war against Iran made them a battle-hardened force that had earned the respect of allied planners.

The Republican Guard has been hammered repeatedly in hundreds of B-52 "carpet-bombing" raids and pinched by the downing of key bridges needed to carry supply convoys across the Euphrates River or to provide an escape route into northern sanctuaries.

Thousands of U.S. precision-guided aircraft munitions and cluster bombs have also been used to destroy key Republican Guard command centers, ammunition storage sites and armored vehicle bunkers, but much of the force may have survived, officials say. "We don't really know the extent to which their leaders remain firmly in charge, or whether their units still have fighting discipline," one official said.

Another official said that the Republican Guard forces did not appear to have moved out of their fortified or dug-in positions during the first day of the battle, leaving unfulfilled a key U.S. battle aim. Early this morning, U.S. pilots said some Republican Guard tanks were moving south from their fortifications, Associated Press reported. Officials have argued that once the Iraqi forces are in motion, they will be highly vulnerable to destruction from the air and might not have to be directly engaged by ground troops.

"There could be some nasty fighting," one official said, adding however that "it's not a question of tens of thousands of {U.S.} casualties."

Several specialists on Iraqi affairs said yesterday the Republican Guard troops stationed inside Iraq might fight much harder than those in Kuwait because they would be fighting for their homeland, not for conquered territory.

A minor clash between allied forces and Republican Guard troops did occur during the first day, but it involved only a few Guard elements that were "assigned down {south} to some of the forward divisions," Cheney said.

One allied concern is that the Republican Guard may be more prepared to use stockpiles of chemical weapons than regular Iraqi units have been so far. Officials said yesterday that both the Guard and Iraqi forces near Kuwait City have stocks of chemical arms that they may feel compelled to use if surrounded and facing defeat.

One official said Iraq also may have withdrawn some of its heavy artillery to positions inside Kuwait City, posing a vexing problem for allied forces trying to retake the city without destroying it. "There are no winners from combat in cities," one expert said on condition that he not be identified.

Another official said the most important uncertainty was the morale of remaining Iraqi troops, which seemed low after a day of fighting in which thousands of soldiers were taken prisoner, but could revive later. "The determined enemy that won't give up . . . can do a lot of harm. I think that's the part that concerns me," the official said.

Staff writer George C. Wilson contributed to this report.