By Rick Atkinson and William Claiborne
Washington Post Staff Writers
Tuesday, February 26, 1991; Page A01

Post time line

Baghdad Radio last night announced that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein had ordered his army to make a fighting withdrawal from occupied Kuwait, a move the White House dismissed as insufficient to end hostilities as allied forces drove to encircle the embattled Iraqis before they could escape.

The retreat announcement, broadcast at 1:35 a.m. today (5:35 p.m. EST yesterday), said the Iraqi armed forces had been ordered to return to the positions they occupied before the Aug. 2 invasion of Kuwait but to fight forcefully any allied effort to stop them.

{Saddam told the Iraqi people in a radio address at 11:20 a.m. (3:20 a.m. EST today) that his army "will continue its withdrawal from Kuwait and complete it on this day," according to a translation monitored on CNN.}

Late last night, after an evening meeting between President Bush and his national security advisers, spokesman Marlin Fitzwater brusquely dismissed the initial Iraqi radio announcement as inadequate and challenged Saddam to "personally and publicly" announce his willingness to comply with all United Nations resolutions.

Fitzwater said the allies would not attack unarmed Iraqi soldiers in retreat but would continue to fire on forces "moving as a combat unit." Recalling "Saddam's many broken promises of the past," Fitzwater said, "We have no evidence to suggest the Iraqi army is withdrawing. In fact, Iraqi units are continuing to fight."

Fitzwater spoke shortly before the U.N. Security Council convened in New York for an emergency session. Soviet Ambassador Yuri Volontsov said he had offered the Security Council a copy of a letter from the Iraqi leadership to Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev promising immediate withdrawal from Kuwait and requesting a cease-fire. Sources said Bush was informed before the U.N. session of the letter and that he discussed the letter's text, translated from Russian, with his advisers.

Bush had summoned the National Security Council for a meeting that officials said was devoted to crafting a possible response should Iraq go to the United Nations and make a formal withdrawal offer.

The Iraqi retreat order came as the allies, destroying Iraqi tanks by the hundreds and capturing prisoners by the tens of thousands, pushed toward a climactic battle against the Republican Guard, U.S. officials said.

A U.S.-led armored force of well over 100,000 soldiers, thundering northeast across the Iraqi desert at a pace of more than 60 miles a day, is expected to envelop and attack eight entrenched Republican Guard divisions beginning today, according to a senior Pentagon official. Although the encirclement is not yet complete, allied air superiority and the positioning of air cavalry forces near the Euphrates River valley mean that any Iraqi retreat -- short of a mass dash on foot across the desert -- would be very difficult without heavy losses, officials believe.

The allied juggernaut, built around the tank-rich U.S. VII Corps, has met little resistance in part because a feint by the U.S. 1st Cavalry Division fooled the Iraqis into believing an attack was coming more to the east, up the Wadi al Batin -- a geologic rift that runs northward along Kuwait's western border.

Within Kuwait, U.S. Marines and coalition units encountered only sporadic artillery fire as they drove toward encirclement of Kuwait City. Since the ground war began Sunday morning, coalition forces have destroyed nearly 300 Iraqi tanks and captured more than 20,000 prisoners, U.S. officials said yesterday. Other Marine forces destroyed 50 to 60 tanks in an 80-tank Iraqi formation in Kuwait yesterday, and an Army armored brigade routed another armored mechanized unit of more than 150 vehicles, the officials added. Initial reports indicated that four U.S. soldiers had been killed and 21 wounded in the invasion, with four U.S. aircraft shot down, according to Marine Brig. Gen. Richard I. Neal.

The only stain on an otherwise overwhelmingly successful day for the allies was a Scud missile attack on a makeshift U.S. barracks in Khobar City outside Dhahran at 8:40 p.m. (12:40 p.m. EST). A total of 27 Americans were killed and 98 wounded in the strike, the first time the notoriously inaccurate Scud has hit U.S. military personnel, military officials said. An Iraqi spokesman in Baghdad was quoted as saying that the attack "was to punish those who gave up honor and conscience and turned the Arab youth into trenches of flesh."

Fitzwater expressed the administration's skepticism that the Baghdad Radio report would lead to a genuine Iraqi withdrawal, pointing to the Scud attack and earlier pullout ploys by Iraqi forces. "There are at least an additional 22 dead Americans tonight who offer silent testimony to the intentions of Saddam Hussein," Fitzwater spoke before the full toll from the Scud attack was known.

Fitzwater's statement calling for Saddam to personally announce his terms represented an escalation from Bush's request last Friday that Saddam "publicly and authoritatively" make his intentions known. Fitzwater said last night Saddam must accept U.S. resolutions that order Iraq to renounce its annexation of Kuwait and calls for Iraq to bear financial responsibility for the losses caused by the occupation.

U.S. officers could scarcely contain their delight and amazement at the ease of the allied advance, which Neal described as a "tremendous success." Marine Lt. Gen. Walter E. Boomer predicted the assault would be over "in a matter of days, not weeks," but cautioned that "it's not over 'til it's over." British Col. Barry Stevens said: "At the moment there's no doubt about it that we are making very good advances across the entire front. But again, let's not count our chickens. There's a long way to get yet."

In other action mentioned by Neal, U.S. A-10 "Warthog" attack planes destroyed 35 tanks; another 50 Iraqi T-62 tank crews had indicated "their desire to surrender"; 35 top-of-the-line T-72 tanks were destroyed; and coalition aircraft flew a record 1,300 sorties against targets in the Kuwaiti theater, including 700 "dedicated to close air support" of allied ground forces.

U.S. Secretly Moved Forces West

The VII Corps, dubbed the "centerpiece" of the allied ground attack by a senior Pentagon official yesterday, had in the days before the ground war was launched secretly moved from eastern Saudi Arabia along the Tapline Road to bases around the western Saudi town of Nisab. The XVIII Airborne Corps had moved even farther west. When the attack began at 4 a.m. Sunday (8 p.m. Saturday EST), the 1st Infantry Division was given the task of breaching Iraqi defenses by blasting 20 lanes across the border as quickly as possible to prevent Iraqi artillery from zeroing in on the invaders. Encountering little Iraqi resistance, the breaching was accomplished quickly and the rest of the corps poured into Iraq.

The distance from the corps' main body before the invasion began to the fringe of Republican Guard positions just north of Kuwait was about 150 miles, a senior Pentagon official said. The corps' tanks and armored personnel carriers, with the 24th Mechanized Infantry Division traveling on a parallel path just to the west, is racing abreast across the flat desert, led by 2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment scouts. The force also is believed to include Britain's 1st Armored Division, the U.S. 3rd Cavalry and 2nd Armored Division, making it potentially the most powerful tank force in modern warfare.

The corps commander, Lt. Gen. Fred Franks, is expected to establish three forward supply bases on the way to the Republican Guard positions, which may be guarded by units of the 82nd Airborne Division now held in reserve. The VII Corps could carve some dirt airstrips from the desert for C-130 cargo planes, but most of the vast resupply effort -- a single armored division in heavy combat uses 5,000 tons of ammunition a day -- will be moved by truck. Once emptied, those trucks will be used to transport Iraqi prisoners back to Saudi Arabia in an effort to alleviate what is becoming a serious logistical logjam for the surging allied armies.

Zeroing In on Republican Guard

If Saddam realizes "the Republican Guard are in danger, he may try to evacuate them," the Pentagon official said before news of the Iraqi retreat order. "But he has some challenges trying to get back across the Euphrates because the bridges have been destroyed. We made it much more difficult for him to retreat back north." Soldiers in the Guard are specially selected from other army units for their fighting prowess and political loyalty to Saddam, and the Guard has always been equipped with the best weaponry in Iraq's arsenal, including more than 500 T-72 tanks.

Despite nearly six weeks of relentless bombing and intense intelligence efforts, "one thing we haven't had a good feel for is how much damage we've done to the Republican Guard," the official said. "Their OPSEC {operational security} has been very good," making it difficult for U.S. eavesdroppers to monitor the Guard's radio traffic. Some Guard forces have been engaged "with the same success we're having against other forces," Neal said, but he declined to provide further details.

Unlike the Guard's disciplined operational secrecy, an official said, some units have been "forced up into the air" -- made to communicate by radio. Consequently, U.S. analysts are now convinced that Iraqi command and control is degraded so badly that brigade commanders in some cases cannot communicate with their battalion subordinates.

A combination of clouds, hazy weather and a blanket of black smoke hanging over much of Kuwait resulting from burning oil fires created some of the most dangerous flying yesterday since the war began, said Capt. Tony Basile. Flying in a formation of seven F-16As from the Syracuse (N.Y.) Air National Guard, Basile said that as they bore down on about 40 tanks dug into the sand, the pilots were forced to circle in a tight air space close to the ground because of poor visibility. "That smoke was just like a wall," the 35-year-old pilot commented.

As 7,500 Marines from an amphibious fleet came ashore in a Saudi port yesterday to reinforce the drive up the Kuwaiti coastline, the 2nd Marine Division reported the herding of 11,000 Iraqi prisoners, including two colonels and a general, back to camps in Saudi Arabia. "All we can do is herd them like sheep and push them along in the right direction," a Marine intelligence officer said.

A French light armored division -- accompanied by a brigade from the U.S. 82nd Airborne Division -- drove north toward the Iraqi town of As Salman, taking "only 36 hours to neutralize an enemy division and cross some 90 miles" of desert despite "islands of determined enemies," Brig. Gen. Daniel Gazzeau, a French spokesman, told reporters. "After a short hold caused by a severe sand storm, our units {on Sunday night} continued their offensive toward the north." The French captured more than 3,000 prisoners, Gazzeau added, and destroyed or captured "numerous vehicles, artillery pieces and other vehicles."

Not far away, the 101st Airborne Division created a forward arming and refueling point that could become the staging area for attacks by Apache helicopters and infantry units against retreating Iraqi forces, a U.S. military official said.

For the first time in the war Iraq fired a Silkworm anti-ship missile over the Persian Gulf. But "an alert radar man in the operations room" of HMS Gloucester, a British warship helping to protect the battleship USS Missouri, "spotted a small, fast-moving contact leaving the Kuwaiti coast," according to Cmdr. John Tighe of the Royal Navy. Fifty seconds later, two Sea Dart missiles roared from the deck of the Gloucester, shattering the Silkworm -- and its 1,200-pound warhead -- four miles from the ship.

A second Silkworm was detected but "ditched shortly after launch," Tighe said. The attack was the first Iraqi attempt to hit the huge allied armada since two French-built Mirage jets carrying Exocet missiles were shot down a month ago.

Bush, after morning consultations with Gen. Colin L. Powell, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Defense Secretary Richard B. Cheney, said "the news is good" from the war front but urged Americans to "guard against euphoria. There are battles yet to come, and casualties to be borne." Three hours after that warning, the Scud hit the U.S. barracks in Dhahran.

The president made only one brief public appearance, at a ceremony honoring Black History Month, and spent much of the day in lengthy sessions with his national security team and the Cabinet. For the first time since the war began Jan. 17, Bush called Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf to congratulate him for the "remarkable efficiency" of the war effort, according to Fitzwater.

U.N. Leader Says War Justified

The drive deep into Iraq sparked discussion -- and some grumbling -- among world diplomats about war aims. U.N. Secretary General Javier Perez de Cuellar, who had criticized the intensity of allied air attacks, yesterday called the incursion a justifiable strategy to free Kuwait from occupation.

"It appears that is something which is indispensable in order to attain the objective, which is to liberate Kuwait," Perez de Cuellar said as he entered the U.N. headquarters in New York. Security Council Resolution 678, adopted in November, authorized the use of "all necessary means" to evict Iraqi forces, but some Arab nations have claimed that an allied incursion into Iraq would exceed that mandate.

The secretary general also said the allied offensive does not abort chances for a diplomatic solution to the war. At the request of the Soviet Union, which failed in an effort to broker a last-minute peace deal to avert the ground war, the U.N. Security Council convened a closed-door session yesterday afternoon to discuss the conflict.

In a new attempt to achieve a peace, the Soviets told the council that Iraq was willing to "respond positively" to U.S. demands, diplomats said. The Soviets presented a three-point package of proposals centered on an Iraqi withdrawal. British ambassador Sir David Hannay described the package as "remarkably similar to that set out" by Bush in his ultimatum last Friday. But the only official communication from Iraq to the United Nations last night was a letter expressing Baghdad's willingness to support the six-point Moscow plan rejected by the allies last week.

Allied successes and further reports of Iraqi atrocities in Kuwait spawned intense debate yesterday over the future of Iraq and allied demands. British Foreign Secretary Douglas Hurd, describing Saddam as a "bogus, puffed-up frog of a man," said the allies nevertheless may have to deal with him in any post-war demand for reparations. Speaking to a House of Commons committee, Hurd said talks with Baghdad would be "much less likely to be fruitful" with Saddam in power. But, he added, the allies do not need to station troops permanently in the region or dictate "who should govern Iraq" to influence post-armistice arrangements.

On Capitol Hill, Sen. Richard Lugar (R-Ind.), said, "We should be bold enough to suggest to Iraqis that democracy is a good idea." But House Speaker Thomas S. Foley (D-Wash.) said Bush would be "ill-advised" to make Saddam's departure a war goal.

The allies renewed charges yesterday that the Iraqi occupiers are sacking Kuwait City. Lt. Gen. Khalid bin Sultan, commander of Saudi forces, warned that "all who have taken part in the many crimes against innocent civilians in Kuwait, whether by rape, murder or torture," will be remanded to an international tribunal as war criminals.

Allies to Stick to Timetable

Asked whether the allies would try to accelerate their recapture of Kuwait City in light of the reports, Neal said at a briefing in Riyadh that the allied war plan is ahead of schedule, but to "change that plan might either put at risk U.S. or coalition forces, {which} would not be prudent planning by military commanders."

Iraq again countered the allies' grand claims with grander counterclaims, including assertions that routed invaders "have abandoned their tanks, vehicles and equipment . . . and fled tripping over their own feet." A military communique yesterday also claimed that a counterattack by Iraq's 3rd Army Corps had driven the allies from Kuwait, while other forces foiled repeated attempts to seize occupied Faylakah Island in the Persian Gulf.

The communique also exhorted the Republican Guard to "burn the ground under the feet" of the invaders. Baghdad Radio played patriotic anthems, and morning newspapers in the Iraqi capital carried banner headlines -- printed in blood-red ink -- calling on the nation to "fight them, fight them, fight them."

But allied warplanes struck the Iraqi capital for the 39th consecutive night with raids that one resident called "a sleepless night of horror."

The first casualties began trickling into the Navy's Fleet Hospital Five in eastern Saudia Arabia shortly before midnight Sunday as a Blackhawk helicopter touched down with two wounded Marines, one of them with his left arm shattered by an Iraqi bullet nearly 19 hours earlier.

Despite his pain, Lance Cpl. Martin Wilcox, 24, from Seattle, said he felt good and wanted to return to his unit. Wilcox, who had been treated at a series of aid stations, said he was shot when his squad tried to get into position to breach an Iraqi minefield.

Marine Corp. Anthony Muskus, bandaged and bruised but anxious to get back to his unit, walked into the hospital with shrapnel wounds in his shoulder from a mine that killed another soldier who had been walking just ahead of him.

"I thought I was dead, but a couple of seconds later I heard voices and I knew I was okay," said Muskus, who added that he was saved from death by his flak jacket.

Atkinson reported from Washington and Claiborne from Saudi Arabia. Staff writers Dan Balz, Ann Devroy, Helen Dewar, Barton Gellman, David Hoffman and R. Jeffrey Smith in Washington, special correspondent Trevor Rowe at the United Nations and staff researcher Lucy Shackelford contributed to this report.