7 M TAT1| "S O' Associated Press Nebraskan
^ X ^1 Vlr w w ^ JL W GP %r Edited by Jennifer O Cilka Thursday, February 14,1991
Iraq: at least 500 dead from allied raid
BAGHDAD, Iraq - Rescuers and
weeping families dug charred, muti
lated bodies from a bomb shelter
blasted by allied warplanes Wednes
day in a pre-dawn strike.
Authorities said the attack killed
at least 500 civilians. If accurate, it
would be by far the highest civilian
toll reported from any single attack
since the Persian Gulf war began four
weeks ago.
The United States said the tar
geted facility was a military bunker
used as a command and control facil
ity. No evidence of any military pres
ence could be seen inside the wreck
age, and Iraqi authorities denied that
any military personnel had been us
ing the facility.
Foreign journalists, including two
reporters from The Associated Press,
were allowed to inspect the site and
were told, for the first time during the
war, that they could file their reports
without censorship.
The attack occurred about 4 a.m.
By nightfall, rescuers were still work
ing to remove huge chunks of con
crete from the 40-foot-deep facility
in the al-Amerieh district, a middle
class neighborhood.
Smoke still rose from the rubble,
and about 5,000 people were gath
ered nearby, many awaiting word about
missing relatives.
At mid-morning, more than 40
charred bodies were laid out on the
ground at a time as dozens of ambu- i
lances shuttled back and forth to
morgues. <
- i«-—
There’s no way any
human being could
have survived until
now.
Iraqi civil defense official
--
As reporters watched, the decapi
tated body of a woman was pulled out
and laid next to a small torso —
apparently that of a girl whose head
and limbs were blown off.
Containers of water could be seen
in the rubble. Outside the bombed
facility was a sign, in English and
Arabic, designating the place as a
bomb shelter, and loudspeakers which
appeared to be used to sound alarms.
One teen-ager, Omar Adnan, said
he was the only one in his family to
escape alive. He said his three younger
sisters, mother and father all died.
In a faint voice, Adnan, 17, said: “I
was sleeping and suddenly I felt heat
and the blanket was burning. Mo
ments later, I felt I was suffocating. 1
turned to try and touch my mother
who was next to me but grabbed noth
ing but a piece of flesh.”
Residents of the neighborhood
:rowded the scene, looking for rela
tives and friends. Men beat on their
:hests and yelled “Allahu Akbar!”
Arabic for “God is Great.” Women
:ried hysterically.
Witnesses said the first missile or
bomb hit the entrance of the facility,
jamming the only escape route. The
second strike, moments later, pene
trated the 9-foot-thick concrete roof
and exploded inside the windowless
shelter, the witnesses said.
A senior civil defense official said
there was no hope anyone remained
alive.
“There are no survivors there
anymore. The fire is melting the metal.
There’s no way any human being
could have survived until now,” he
said on condition of anonymity.
Health Minister Abdel-Salam
Mohammed Saeed told reporters there
were 1,000 people inside the shelter,
one of five similar structures built
during the 1980-88 war against Iran
and designed to hold twice that num
ber.
Other officials said 400-500 people
had moved into the facility since the
allied bombing began Jan. 17. Be
cause allied attacks were particularly
intense Tuesday and Wednesday, many
more people sought refuge in the
fortified structure overnight, the offi
cials said.
Eight survivors were taken to nearby
Yarmuk Hospital, and only two of
them appeared conscious. All suf
fered bums.
“Look at him. He’s the only one
alive of my family,” said Karim
Mohammed. A teen-age boy, who (
Mohammed said was his son Abdul
lah, lay unconscious on a hospital
bed.
Structure Destroyed in Baghdad
Allied warplanes destroyed an under
ground facility killing hundreds.
The United States called it ^ ^ s
a military command Mosqu©
center, not a bomb
* shelter. School
|
Witnesses say the first missile or bomb hit the entrance of the facility,
jamming the only escape route. The second penetrated the 9-foot
thick concrete roof and exploded Inside.
ourca: Pentagon briefing AP
Minefields an obstacle
for ground soldiers
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia - When
allied soldiers jump off for the
ground attack into Kuwait, one of
the most daunting obstacles they
are likely to face is the simple land
mine — a psychological as well as
physical weapon.
Mines and obstacles have been
part of the tactics of war for centu
ries and American officers here
have little doubt that breaching Iraqi
minefields will be a major task for
ground forces attacking Kuwait.
“It’s pretty massive — mines,
wire, trenches and now oil,” one
American colonel said, referring
to what the allies will face if they
move across the Saudi-Kuwait
border in an attempt to oust the
Iraqis.
Mines serve a number of pur
poses. First, they are used to deter,
slow or divert an attacking force
and disrupt a commander’s plans
and timetable. Second, they can
bring great psychological stress on
attacking troops.
Mines arc terrifying. Large ones
cripple or destroy vehicles. Others
blow off the feet and legs of infan
trymen. Some pop up out of the
ground waist high and explode.
Mines even can be filled with nerve
agents or mustard gas.
The explosives usually are used
in conjunction with obstacles such
as wire and ditches.
Burning ditches, one of the
expected obstacles along the bor
der, can be surmounted by bull
dozing sand into them and cover
ing the flames. U.S. military sources
also point out that burning oil causes
large amounts of smoke that not
only obscures the view of the at
tacking force, but that of the de
fending army as well.
The sources declined to go into
any other details concerning the
breaching of Iraq’s burning ditches.
Land mines can be set off by
pressure on them, by the magnetic
influence of vehicles passing over
them and by the vibration of ve
hicles. Anti-personnel mines can
be set off by pressure or by trip
wire.
The science of breaching is
practically as old as that of laying
minefields. Many of the techniques
used today date from World War
II.
Breaching can involve the use
of explosives to detonate the mines.
Combat engineer vehicles, which
move through a minefield at 3-5
mph, can be outfitted with bull
dozer blades to move the earth, or
front end rakes and heavy rollers.
Mobile bridges can be used to span
ditches. Bangalore torpedos — long,
thin pipe bombs — can be used to
destroy wire.
NelSra&kan
Editor Erk Planner General Manager Dan Shattll
472-1766 Production Manager Katherine Pollcky
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Assoc News Editors Jana Pedersen Sales Manager Todd Sears
Emliy Roaembaum Publications Board
Editorial Page Editor Bob Nelson Chairman Bill Vobejda
Wire Editor Jennifer O'Cilka 436-9993
Copy Desk Editor Diane Brayton Professional Adviser Don Walton
Sports Editor Paul Do meter 473-7301
The Daily Nebraskan(USPS 144-080) is published by the UNL Publications Board, Ne
braska Union 34, 1400 R St, Lincoln, NE, Monday through Friday during the academic year,
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ALL MATERIAL COPYRIGHT 1991 DAILY NEBRASKAN
Short recession now doubted
Retail sales continue to plummet
WASHINGTON — Retail sales
fell 0.9 percent in January after an
even worse December performance,
the government said Wednesday, in a
report analysts took as an ominous
sign the recession could be longer and
deeper than expected.
The Commerce Department said
retail sales totaled a seasonally ad
justed $148.2 billion, down from
$149.5 billion in December, when
sales dropped 1.5 percent - even worse
than the 0.4 percent first reported last
month.
It was the first back-to-back monthly
decline in seven months.
At the same time, January sales
were down 1.4 percent from those of
the same month of 1990, the first
year-over-year decline in 29 1/2 years.
Some economists had said the
recession would be short and mild,
lasting just two quarters, but many
now are having misgivings.
They point to the 6.2 percent un
employment rale in January that re
sulted in the loss of 232,000 jobs,
worse than the 150,000 loss the previ
ous month.
William MacRcynolds, forecast
ing director for the U.S. Chamber of
Commerce, said the economy was
“tumbling faster as the year started
than was realized at the ume.”
“The sharp downward revision in
December retail sales, along with the
decline in January, show that the
consumer is not ready yet to lead the
economy out of recession,” MacRey
nolds said.
A recession usually is defined as
two consecutive drops in the gross
national product - the nation’s total
output of goods and services. The
GNP dropped 2.1 percent in the final
quarter of 1990.
Retail sales are a major concern of
economists because they represent
about half of overall consumer spend
ing. Consumer spending, in turn,
accounts for about two-thirds of the
nation’s economic activity.
Retail sales grew just 3.8 percent
last year, the lowest level since the
last recession year, 1982, when they
grew 3 percent.
John Silvia, an economist with
Kemper Financial Services in Chi
cago, said overall spending remained
weak because more than a mi.lion
jobs had been lost since last summer,
“so income growth is slowing.”
Economist Cilbert Ben/, of the Swiss
Bank Corp. in New York said that
while there also is some concern over
the Persian Gulf war, “what does af
fect spending (most) is fewer people
out there making money."
Many analysts believe a lengthy
war would further fade consumer
confidence and curtail spending even
more.
Critics say Bush’s transportation plan flawed
WASHINGTON - President Bush
proposed on Wednesday a S 105.4
billion, five-year plan to prepare the
nation’s highways and mass transit
systems “for the next American cen
tury.”
But stale highway officials said
the proposal was inadequate, would
raise stale taxpayers’ costs and be
rewritten in Congress.
Mass transit officials said they have
been shortchanged. Environmental
ists contended the continued empha
sis on highways will dramatically
increase oil consumption and threaten
air-quality improvements.
Others criticized the bill’s encour
agement of tolls to pay for new and
repaired bridges and highways.
But Bush and Transportation Sec
retary Samuel K. Skinner said they
believe that the legislation is properly
balanced and that its highway provi
sions are needed to fix deteriorated
roads and bridges “so that America
can stay competitive in the global
economy of the 21st century.”
Skinner said each $1 billion spent
on highway construction creates 30,000
to 50,000 jobs.
Hal Rives, president of the Asso
ciation of State Highway Transporta
tion Officials, called the bill a good
start and added, “On a scale of 1 to 10,
we give the administration bill a 6.”
“It is not dead on arrival” on Capi
tol Hill, “but it will not pass as ar
rived,” said Frank Francois, execu
tive director of the association.
“The concept is good,” said Rives,
who is Georgia’s transportation com
missioner. “It streamlines the entire
program. But the funding is clearly
inadequate to meet our national trans
portation needs. And what money is
there is not fairly distributed.”
The bill proposed spending, in
addition to several minor programs,
$87.17billion on highways and $16.3
billion for mass transit over the next
five years.
In a series of policy shifts, the
legislation proposed giving priority
for federal highway aid to a 150,000
milc National Highway System, which
would be composed of the 42,000
mile interstate highway system and
other high ways important to the econ
omy and the national defense.
The federal government would pay
75 percent of the cost of repairing
existing roads and building new roads
in this system.
The annual federal share would
rise in each of the five years from $7.7
billion in 1992 to SI 1.2 billion in
1996.
The only higher priority would go
to completing the unbuilt 1 percent ol
the interstate system and to making
critical repairs. Such projects would
continue to be financed by the federal
government on a 90 percent-10 per
cent basis.
A lower priority would be given to
700,000 miles of important roads that
would be grouped in an Urban and
Rural Program. State povernments
would have to pay 40 percent of re
pairs and construction of such roads.
Federal sending on this program
would rise from S3.9 billion in 1992
to $5.7 billion in 1996.
Unsafe and deteriorating bridges
would also be targeted for repair or
replacement. The bill seeks an in
crease in such spending from SI.8
billion in 1992 to $2.8 billion in 1996,
with the federal share for such proj
ects at 75 percent.
