Reporter Tells of ‘Terrifying’ Desert Escape From Kuwait

A group of nine foreigners, including three Americans, bolted across the Kuwaiti desert to this border town today in an effort to avoid an Iraqi order to gather at a downtown hotel.

“No one responded to the Iraqi call, as far as I know, but everyone is making a rush to get out of Kuwait,” said Stephanie McGehee, an American stringer for the Associated Press who was in the group. Contact with McGehee was lost two days after the Aug. 2 invasion as the Iraqis gradually cut off all telephone and telex lines.

On Thursday, Iraqi military authorities ordered Britons and Americans to assemble at Kuwait hotels but then failed to turn up to meet them. There are about 4,000 Britons and 2,500 Americans in Kuwait.

McGehee said she escaped along with two other Americans, a Briton, a Canadian and four Indians.

She said she had heard that only two Britons showed up at the Regency Palace hotel in response to the Iraqi order. They were told: “We have no room for you, stay in the ballroom.”

“We believe it was all only an Iraqi show, but everyone is trying to get out,” she said.

McGehee said that in order to escape, she and the others had all dressed as Kuwaitis. Since she spoke Arabic she sat next to the driver. She carried the identity card of a Lebanese friend.

“As soon as we left the paved road, we ran into Iraqis, and they said we had to go back,” she said. “We moved away and then took another turn through the desert sands and made a dash for it,” she said.

“It was very, very terrifying,” she added.