171 Americans Fly to Freedom : Refugees Fear for Husbands, Tell of Iraqi Atrocities

About 170 American women and children flew to freedom today after five weeks trapped in Kuwait, and some said Iraqi troops were pulling premature babies from hospital incubators and cutting the ears off members of the Kuwaiti resistance.

Many of the women burst into tears when asked by reporters about the husbands they left behind in Kuwait after boarding the first U.S. evacuation flight from the occupied emirate.

The U.S. Embassy initially said about 200 people were aboard the flight, but corrected the figure to 171. The women and children and two American men--one elderly and one ailing--flew via Baghdad on an Iraqi Airways Boeing 707.

“My husband was very upset. He is hiding. It is very scary,” said a woman from Wisconsin who asked to be identified only as Joe-Marie.

“He is afraid for his life and I don’t know if I will see him again,” she added, breaking into sobs. “The Iraqis search from house to house.”

A woman who identified herself as “Cindy” from San Francisco said about 1,300 Americans were in hiding in occupied Kuwait.

“Foreigners are waiting. They are begging and begging for them (U.S. forces) to come. They gave me a message when I left--’Please tell them to come.’ Kuwait is destroyed,” she said.

She and another woman, who identified herself as “Rudi,” said Iraqi troops took premature babies out of incubators in Kuwait.

“Iraqis are beating people, bombing and shooting. They are taking all hospital equipment, babies out of incubators. Life-support systems are turned off. . . . They are even removing traffic lights,” Cindy said.

“I know of two Americans who were shot in the hands and had their legs broken when they tried to escape. . . . Other men have been taken and we don’t know where they are,” she added.

“The Iraqis are beating Kuwaitis, torturing them, knifing them, beating them, cutting their ears off if they are caught resisting or are with the (Kuwaiti) army or police,” she said.

She said she had hidden at home with her husband since Iraq invaded Aug. 2 because of house-to-house searches by troops for foreigners, resistance members and Kuwaiti officials.

Patricia Hammer of Denver said she hid with a group of Canadians and that Palestinian friends brought them food. “We never thought we would ever get out,” she said.

She said she is divorced from a Kuwaiti who refused to let her leave with their children. “I asked him to send them if it gets worse. I hope he will. I don’t know if I will see them again.”

Iraqi President Saddam Hussein has barred most Western men from leaving Kuwait or Iraq. Many of those not in hiding are being held as human shields against possible attacks by U.S.-led forces in the Persian Gulf and Saudi Arabia.

The evacuees were taken to a hotel near Amman’s airport, where they were briefed by U.S. Ambassador Roger Harrison and waited for papers to be processed before heading to the United States.

Harrison told journalists waiting outside the hotel that the Americans were “tired but in good spirits.” He said they felt relieved and he expected more American woman and children to fly out of Iraq next week.