By The
Associated Press
Edited by Jennifer O'Cilka
■ ■ ■■■ , , .-■■■ M I .111 ■■ ■ ■ ■ ” "■ .. .. * ■ ■■ 1 ” "-—'
Air attacks fly
in face of protest
DHAHRAN, Saudi Arabia— From
the Kuwaiti coast to central Iraq, U.S.
and allied pilots pounded away at
fresh targets Thursday, unimpeded
by the international furor over the
Baghdad bunker tragedy.
The U.S. command, in response to
the death of hundreds of civilians in
Wednesday’s Baghdad bombing, said
it was looking for new ways to limit
such casualties.
The air war appeared to have made
major progress. The command said
one-third of Iraq’s tanks and artillerv
in the battle zone had been destroyed
strayed.
“ 6( -
Bush, Bush, you will
pay!
Baghdad crowd
- ff -
Strategists are believed shooting
for 50 percent destruction before
ordering the ground assault. The
commander of British forces in the
Persian Gulf, Lt. Gen. Sir Peter de la
Billiere, told reporters Thursday there
were already “proposed dates’’ for the
offensive.
A fourth U.S. aircraft carrier, the
USS America, has moved into the
Persian Gulf, joining die Ranger, the
Midway and the Theodore Roosev
elt, a Pentagon source confirmed
Thursday. The America had been in
the Red Sea. Planes from the war
ships are expected to fly cover over
allied troops in a ground assault.
Palestine Liberation Organization
head Yasser Arafat visited the site
and pledged solidarity with Iraq. “I’m
truly astonished at what has happened,”
he told reporters. “It has exceeded
completely the mandate of the United
Nations. It is a crime.”
The U.S. Air Force suffered a loss
as well Thursday. The two crewmen
of an EF-111 were killed when their
plane went down in northern Saudi
Arabia, apparently after being dam
aged in combat.
Two Iraqi Scud missiles fell on the
isolated town of Hafr el-Batin, de- i
molishing an auto-repair shop and
house, and slightly injuring four Saudi
civilians. Allied officers said the
missiles apparently broke up in flight.
Body after body was pulled in grisly
procession from the rubble of the
underground structure bombed by U.S.
warplanes early Wednesday, while it
was crowded with civilians seeking I
refuge from air attacks. 3
The Iraqis said it was only a civil- c
lan bomb shelter. But U.S. officials i
said they had indisputable evidence, c
from radio intercepts, reconnaissance 1
photos and other sources, that the I
concrete facility was being used as a c
military command-and-control cen
ter. They said they were unaware it t
harbored any civilians. f
Just a few hundred yards from the r
ruins, 5,000 mourners marched to the r
neighborhood cemetery to bury some
of the dead, in coffins draped with the s
Iraqi flag, in a mass grave, Associ- t
ated Press correspondent Dilip Gan- c
guly reported from Baghdad. t
“Bush, Bush, you will pay!” the
crowd chanted. 1
The United States has blamed j
President Saddam Hussein and the i
rest of the Iraqi leadership for the i
tragedy, saying they deliberately put
civilians “in harm’s way” at a poten- 1
tial target. i
and identify radars observing
aircraft and jam them.
Wingspan: 63 ft. (fully spread)
Length: 73 ft. 6 in.
Maximum speed: 1,650 mph
Range: 2,925 miles
Built by: Grumman (General
Dynamics)
Source: Jane's All the World's Aircraft AP
Administration
to ask Congress
for war funds
WASHINGTON — The White
louse will ask Congress to authorize
56 billion for the first three months
f fighting in the Persian Gulf, a sen
jr administration official said Thurs
ay. He said the administration be
ieved the expected ground war with
raq would be “very violent, very
uick.”
The official, speaking with report
rs on condition of anonymity, re
used to speculate when a ground war
night begin but indicated it would
iot be within the next few days.
He said the administration envi
ioned that a ground war would be
>rief, suggesting as a model the six
lay Arab-Israeli war of 1967 rather
han the eight-year Iran-Iraq war.
“There will be basically mobile
ank battles and those usually take
>Iace very quickly — very violent,
rery quick,” the official said. “I think
t will move swiftly.”
Separately, Marlin Fitzwater, White
louse press secretary, said the ground
var could begin ‘ at any time.
Air Force traffic cop
patrols corner of sky
OVER SAUDI ARABIA — Dozens — sometimes hundreds — of little
green symbols flash on a computer screen. Some inch forward toward red
s flashes on a map of Iraq and Kuwait; others hang back, waiting for their
turn.
Away from the swarm, to the north and west, other green symbols
move about freely in more open spaces — airspace deop inside Iraq.
The computer screen, which easily could be mistaken for a fast-paced
video game, is aboard a U.S. Air Force AW ACS plane high above Saudi
Arabia. From this high-tech vantage point, the Air Force directs a daily
ballet of sorts, tracking an allied air siege that often includes more than
200 planes airborne at one time.
On this night, as on most since the opening days of the war with Iraq,
the Air Force’s traffic cop in the sky is policing a crowded, but one-way,
street.
All we re doing is going up there, dropping bombs and breaking all of
his toys,” Col. Gary A. Voellger, commander of an Oklahoma-based
AW ACS wing, told a visitor. “Welcome to the friendly skies.”
AW ACS is an abbreviation for Airborne Early Warning And Control.
The planes, bristling with radar and electronic monitoring equipment, are
designed to keep track of allied aircraft and watch out for hostile ones.
Lately, there hasn’t been much need for the latter.
Still, crew members watch intently for the enemy that never comes, the
red V that would, in this deadly showdown, represent in Iraqi airplane.
With none in sight, the word goes out from the AW ACS to all the green
symbols — the hundreds of allied warplanes — “Picture Clear.”
This day’s program includes 2,800 allied sorties and runs 950 pages.
The warplanes roaming in western, central and northern Iraq are
hunting Scud missile launchers, bombing bridges, raining laser-guided
munitions down on hardened aircraft shelters, and circling to protect allies
and prevent Iraqi planes from scooting to Iran.
As midnight approaches, a wave of B-52 bombers arrives on cue. On
the screen, they appear the same as the comparatively tiny F-15s. But as
they pass methodically over their target, an Iraqi missile facility at Taji, it
is clear they are different.
The distant yellow glow on the horizon offers proof.
Throughout a 17-hour AW ACS mission, the first flown by journalists
since the war began four weeks ago, green symbols were stacked one atop
the other along the crescent-shaped western Kuwait border.
At the receiving end are troops in southern Kuwait and two Republican
Guard divisions along the Iraqi side of the Kuwait border.
Always there are “packages” of fighters and bombers waiting to go
next.
“It kind of looks like Safeway on payday - they’re just lining up,”
Voellger said. “We own the skies.”
Indeed, not one Iraqi aircraft was detected airborne during an AW ACS
mission that began at midday Wednesday and ended just before dawn
Thursday. As the sun rose, allied aircraft were still pounding Iraqi ground
forces, artillery and forward command posts.
Moscow shoppers scoff
at plan to increase prices
MOSCOW — Government proposals to
hike retail prices by up to 200 percent brought
sighs of resignation from Soviet shoppers
who said Thursday that it would do nothing
to put more food and goods on empty store
shelves.
The plan, which must be approved by the
Soviet legislature, would eliminate govern
ment subsidies to producers.
Wages, pensions, children’s welfare
payments and other income would be in
creased to compensate for at least some of
the higher prices, according to the govern
ment newspaper Izvestia and state televi
sion.
The plan is an attempt to close the large
gap in the Soviet Union between the cost of
producing goods and wholesale prices. It
would not end central government control
over prices, a cumbersome system that must
be dismantled before a free market econ
omy can ever exist in this vast nation.
“It’s not going to do any good for any of
us,” said Sergei Baranov, a worker at a
Moscow machine tool factory. ‘The com
pensation is laughable. The prices are too
high even now compared to our pay.”
Russian federation President Boris Yeltsin
told the legislature of the largest and most
populous Soviet republic that the proposals
call for a 200 percent increase in prices for
meat, bread and flour.
Milk and fish prices would rise 130 per
cent, eggs and vegetable oil by 100 percent,
sugar by 135 percent and cigarettes by 50
percent, the independent Interfax news agency
quoted Yeltsin as saying.
Soviets urged to mind treaty
VIENNA, Austria — Former Soviet allies
on Thursday joined the West in warning that
there could be no “business as usual” at arms
talks unless the Kremlin complied with a treaty
to slash tank quotas and other non-nuclear
weapons.
The stand of the Eastern European coun
tries, still formally allied with Moscow in the
moribund Warsaw Pact, illustrated the Sovi
ets’ increasing isolation in Europe.
The West says the Soviets are trying to
exclude three motorized infantry divisions of
about 1,000 tanks from a historic East-West
arms treaty signed last November in Paris.
Western countries also are concerned about
the movement of thousands of Soviet tanks
outside the zone covered by the treaty and
figures the Soviets have provided on the quan
tity qf weapons they possess. r_
. “No one supported the Soviets,” Hungarian
chief negotiator Istvan Gyarmati told reporters
after the meeting. “It’s very serious, it’s more
than serious,” he said. “We hope this is not the
prevailing policy in Moscow.*'
There has been evidence in the Soviet Un
ion recently that hard-line rightist military
officials are gaining influence, affecting the
policies of President Mikhail Gorbachev.
U.S. Secretary of State James Baker sug
gested delaying congressional ratification of
the Paris treaty because of questions about
Soviet compliance. Hungary has said it would
not submit the treaty for ratification until the
Soviet position was clarified.
The treaty commits all countries to strict
limits on the number of tanks and oter conven
tional weapons.
The new round of the Conventional Forces
in Europe talks are to focus mainly on the
number of soldiers stationed on the continent.
But the Soviets were told Thursday that there
would be no progress in those talks until they
complied with the treaty they signed in Paris.
Western diplomats quoted U.S. chief dele
gate James Woolsey as warning the meeting
that it could “not conduct business as usual”
until the Soviet position was clarified.
New San Francisco law
Unwed register romance
SAN FRANCISCO — Chris Mi
nor and Richard Muiholland, sport
ing matching leather jackets and
boots, beat the Valentine’s Day rush
and became the city’s first domestic
partners.
“It’s a real milestone, not only in
our relationship, but for the gay
community,” said Minor, who had
waited since 5:30 a.m. on the steps
of City Hall.
His chilly vigil paid off when the
couple became the city’s first legal
domestic partners shortly after 8
a.m., a test case on the first day that
unwed couples could officially
register their romances with the
city.
About a dozen couples were
waiting when City Hall opened for
an expected Valentine’s Day deluge
of gays, lesbians and unwed hetero
sexuals taking advantage of the first
opportunity to sign up under the
new law.
Among the first wave were
Christmas Leubrie, a 41-year-old
nurse, and her lover of six years,
Alice Heimsoth, 39, a city health
worker.
“We worked hard on this,” said
Leubrie, who was active in the cam
paign to get the law approved by
voters last November. “It’s about
love and recognition of relation
ships,”
City Hall already had 100 wed
dings scheduled for Valentine’s
Day, and no one was sure how
many domestic partners would
show up to add to the throng.
Estimates ranged from 50 to 5,000. -
By 11 a.m. about 70 couples had
paid the $35 fee to file their decla
ration with the county clerk.
Voters passed the law in Novem
ber after narrowly rejecting a
similar ballot initiative in 1989. The
city’s Board of Supervisors had
adopted a domestic partners
ordinance in 1982, but former
Mayor Dianne Feinstein vetoed it as
too costly.
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