First Gulf War

By David Alexander
United Press International

President Bush told Saddam Hussein Friday to begin removing his troops from Kuwait by noon Saturday and have them all out in a week or face a massive ground war that could come at any time. Iraq countered by agreeing to withdraw, but on its own timetable.

The flurry of diplomatic activity came as anticipation of the long- expected ground attack heightened along the Persian Gulf war front.

"It's a hard and fast date -- noon tomorrow," White House spokesman Marlin Fitzwater said. "It's an ultimatum."

Iraq said allied forces already had begun the long-awaited ground assault. The United States denied the report, but a U.S. military official said, "We're ready to do it," and the allied air war continued without letup.

On the war front, dozens of oil facilities in Kuwait were set on fire, an act Bush called Saddam's "scorched-earth policy against Kuwait." The allies started clearing out areas along the front for a possible ground attack, using napalm for the first time in the war to try to burn up defensive oil ditches dug by Iraq.

After consulting with the allies in the 33-nation coalition assembled against Saddam, Bush said an original peace plan announced by the Soviet Union was "unacceptable" and the allies had their own demands.

"The coalition will give Saddam Hussein until noon (EST) Saturday to do what he must do: begin his immediate and unconditional withdrawal from Kuwait," Bush said. "We must hear publicly and authoritatively his acceptance of these terms."

A White House statement -- which was termed a "final effort" to get Iraq to abide by U.N. resolutions -- outlined the specifics the allies agreed upon, including that the Iraqi withdrawal must be completed "in one week."

During the first 48 hours, Iraqi forces must evacuate Kuwait City to permit the return of the Kuwaiti government, withdraw from the Saudi border, release all prisoners of war and others held against their will and return the remains of all slain service members.

The announcement came as Iraqi Foreign Minister Tariq Aziz was meeting in Moscow with Soviet officials to further discuss the plan that was originally proposed by Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev. A short time later, Aziz accepted a new plan.

Under the plan, Iraq agreed to withdraw "without delay and without conditions to withdraw." But it added the withdrawal would begin the day after the allies start a cease-fire; Iraqi troops would leave Kuwait City in four days and the entire country in 21 days. U.N. resolutions would be repealed after withdrawal, and prisoners of war would be released with three days of the cease-fire.

Gorbachev's spokesman Vitaly Ignatenko said Saddam had not yet approved the revised plan. "This paper (plan) is right now in Baghdad, and we are hopeful that at any minute we will get a reply," Ignatenko said.

Ignatenko said Gorbachev and Bush spoke by telephone for 90 minutes and the U.S. president listened "with a certain degree of attention" but "gave no assessment" of the new plan.

Bush, leaving the White House to spend the weekend at Camp David, said he was studying it. Asked about the second Soviet proprosal, Fitzwater said it was an "improvement" but restated the U.S. resolve that Saddam comply with the coalition plan.

"Suffice it to say it still doesn't quite meet our conditions," Fitzwater said. "The coalition has a plan for Saddam Hussein to meet and that's the one he has to live up to."

A Saddam statement released by the Iraqi Ministry of Information lashed out at Bush and his proposals -- calling him "God's enemy and devil's friend" with his "shameful ultimatum" -- but did not directly say whether he would abide by the timetable.

"Bush issued a final ultimatum for Iraq to withdraw by midday tomorrow but he is deceiving nobody but himself," a ministry spokesman said.

"Bush and his shameful ultimatum must be a result of Iraq's attempts to make peace," he said.

In proposing his deadlines, Bush said he was doing so to be more specific in light of Soviet peace efforts, "which very frankly we appreciate."

"I have decided that the time has come to make public with specificity just exactly what is required of Iraq if a ground war is to be avoided," Bush said, adding that Saddam "risks subjecting the Iraqi people to further hardship unless the Iraqi government complies fully with the terms of the statement."

Bush said the previous 24 hours had been dizzying, including Saddam's bellicose speech, followed by Aziz's "positive" response to the Soviet initiative.

"More importantly and more urgently," Bush said, "we learn this morning that Saddam has now launched a scorched-earth policy against Kuwait, anticipating perhaps that he will now be forced to leave. He is wantonly setting fire to and destroying ... the entire oil production system of Kuwait."

At the same time the Iraqi foreign minister envoy was discussing peace in Moscow, Bush said, "Saddam was launching Scud missiles" into Saudi Arabia.

The White House presented its analysis of the proposal to its allies, who are "very strong" in their support of the U.S. position, Fitzwater said.

In Moscow, Aziz and Soviet Foreign Minister Alexander Bessmertnykh met for 2 hours in a second round of talks to smooth out "weak points" in the peace plan, and Soviet Foreign Ministry spokesman Vitaly Churkin reported progress.

"We think our efforts have not been in vain," Churkin said. "If they are going to be successful remains to be seen, but we hope so."

U.N. Security Council resolutions call for Iraq's immediate and unconditional pullout from the emirate it invaded Aug. 2, and Bush has refused to back away from that demand during the nearly 7-month-old Persian Gulf crisis.

Gorbachev's original eight-point peace proposal, as announced early Friday, included a cease-fire, to be followed in two days by a "full and unconditional" Iraqi withdrawal from Kuwait within a "fixed time frame" and the release of all prisoners of war. The withdrawal would be supervised by a U.N. force including nations not involved in the war.

Soviet presidential envoy Yevgeny Primakov warned the allies not to initiate the much-expected ground offensive at this stage of the talks.

"If this (ground) war starts today, the whole world will see that it is started under the conditions when the Soviet Union has attained its greatest achievement in attempting to find a political settlement of the conflict," he said.

"It is becoming clear that if at this moment the achievement is frustrated by the war, the reponsibility will be taken by those who begin it," Primakov said.

Baghdad Radio broadcast an Iraqi military communique saying the ground war had begun Friday morning, a report the United States denied.

"The Iraqi armed forces General Command has announced that the aggressors launched their ground battle against Iraqi troops in the El Mansour theater of operations," the Iraqi broadcast said. It was unclear where the area was.

Marine Corps Brig. Gen. Richard I. Neal, deputy director of operations for the U.S. Central Command in the Saudi capital Riyadh, said if U.S. troops get orders to begin a ground campaign, "we're ready to do it."

"There's no guarantee that we're going to have a ground campaign at noon" Saturday, said Army Lt. Gen. Thomas Kelly, director of operations for the Joint Chiefs of Staff. "We have not been told to have a ground campaign, yet ... I feel fairly sure we're not going to do it at 12:01."

U.S. military officials acknowledged for the first time Friday that U.S. forces had used the highly flammable substance napalm -- a highly controversial weapon during the Vietnam War -- in the Persian Gulf war.

"Napalm is in theater and has been used recently," according to a statement released at the Pentagon. "It was used by the U.S. Marine Corps for the purpose of igniting fires in oil-filled trenches that the Iraqis dug as barriers."

In addition, Saudi troops cleared mines out of a 60-yard-wide path 6 miles into enemy territory as a possible ground route.

Detailing what Bush called Saddam's "scorched-earth policy," Rear Adm. Mike McConnell, director of intelligence for the Joint Chiefs, said "in excess of 150" oil wells -- 15 percent of those in Kuwait -- were set ablaze by the Iraqis, apparently to provide a massive smoke screen to interfere with allied military operations.

The Iraqi action also has unleashed an undetermined amount of highly toxic hydrogen sulfide, contained in the oil coming out of the ground.

A thick black blanket of smoke covered about one-half of the skies above Kuwait from oil fields along the northern border with Iraq and in the southern section of the country, and the smoke has made its way to Riyadh, about 300 miles away, McConnell said.

Kelly said some allied warplanes might have to fly under the smoke to properly target bombing raids, but, "We don't see anything that we don't think we'll be able to work through."

Neal also said one U.S. Marine was killed by Iraqi artillery fire and five more U.S. soldiers were injured in what he called an ongoing battle near the Saudi border with enemy territory.

In two other skirmishes between U.S. and Iraqi forces, 18 Iraqi tanks and 15 vehicles were destroyed, over 100 enemy prisoners were taken but no U.S. casualties were reported, Neal said.

The air assault against Iraq continued unabated, and there were more ground skirmishes along Saudi Arabia's border with enemy territory.

Saudi and U.S. military officials said Iraq fired three Scud missiles at Saudi Arabia Thursday night and one Friday, but all were either shot down by U.S. Patriot missiles or landed harmlessly in the desert.

Friday, February 22, 1991

Bush gives Iraq until noon Saturday to leave Kuwait