Iraq Seizes Diplomats in Kuwait Briefly; U.S. Hints of a Response : Gulf crisis: Attack on diplomatic quarters of France, Canada and Belgium is seen as an attempt to step up pressure on embassies remaining in Kuwait. Meanwhile, Western nations vow to send more soldiers, tanks and ships.

Iraqi soldiers stormed the French, Canadian and Belgian diplomatic quarters in Kuwait on Friday, briefly detaining the U.S. consul and several other diplomats. President Bush declared the crackdown “outrageous” and hinted at a possible U.S. response.

The Iraqi troops held five Western consuls for several hours and arrested French citizens as the occupying forces stepped up the pressure on holdout embassies to close their doors in Kuwait city. The U.S. Embassy was not involved in the incidents, but the U.S. consul was detained while visiting at the Canadian ambassador’s quarters.

In a stern warning, Bush said he drew no distinction between the raids on the embassies of American allies and an attack on the U.S. diplomatic compound itself.

The incidents “underscore the brutal behavior of Iraq” and “add up to clear violations of international law,” the President said.

“They do raise tensions; they clearly do,” he added.

Meanwhile, Western nations promised more soldiers, tanks and ships for the military machine confronting Iraq, and American troops fired a warning shot at an Iraqi tanker. Troops boarded the ship briefly before allowing it to proceed when they found that it held no “prohibited cargo,” a U.S. Navy spokesman said. American troops fired twice before at Iraqi ships and boarded another on Sept. 4, when a tea-laden Iraqi-flagged freighter refused to divert its course.

The incidents at the embassies were the most serious confrontations involving diplomats in the emirate since Iraq ordered the embassies closed Aug. 24.

Iraq denied that its soldiers entered the foreign compounds, which it referred to as “former diplomatic missions.” The official Iraqi News Agency said the troops were under strict orders not to enter the compounds.

At least 17 embassies in Kuwait have defied an Iraqi order to close, and Baghdad has tried to make life insufferable for diplomats, in several cases surrounding the missions with troops and cutting off power and water.

After the raid on the French compound, French President Francois Mitterrand called an emergency Cabinet meeting for Saturday. He said the Iraqi move “is an aggression, and we will respond to it.”

While Iraq bore down on defiant diplomats, military pressure built on Iraq.

Britain said Friday it would send an armored brigade of more than 120 tanks and 6,000 combat troops to the Persian Gulf. British Defense Secretary Tom King said another squadron of Tornado ground attack aircraft and additional air defense aircraft would also be sent.

The British forces mark the first dispatch of tanks and significant ground troops by any Western country besides the United States since Iraq’s Aug. 2 invasion and subsequent annexation of oil-wealthy Kuwait.

Canada on Friday committed a dozen fighter jets and a total of 450 fliers and ground crew. “This is not a conflict between Arabs and the West, nor is it a conflict between Iraq and the United States,” said Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney. “It is Saddam Hussein against the civilized world.”

Several other nations, including West Germany, Italy, Belgium and South Korea, pledged either money or equipment Friday to support the multinational contingent in the gulf.

Japan, facing allegations that it has been too tightfisted during the crisis, pledged $3 billion on top of $1 billion in non-military aid.

Meanwhile, the U.N. sanctions on trade with Iraq were taking their toll on the Iraqi economy. The ruling Baath Party newspaper Al-Tharwa said that starting last weekend, Iraqis were to be limited to three pieces of bread a day. Rationing of sugar, rice, cooking oil, soap and detergent began in some neighborhoods earlier this month.

The 6-week-old Middle East crisis also was taking its toll on the U.S. economy. The government announced Friday that wholesale prices shot up 1.3% in August.

The Labor Department blamed virtually the entire increase on higher oil costs since Iraq’s invasion, which led to a 4-million-barrel daily shortfall of oil worldwide and pushed fuel prices up by about 20%. Oil prices moved higher Friday, to $32 a barrel.

Bush, meanwhile, asked Congress for $1.9 billion more to cover the costs of deploying the 150,000 U.S. troops in the Middle East. Operation Desert Shield is costing Washington an estimated $1 billion a month, officials have said.

Iraq has massed an estimated 265,000 troops along or near Kuwait’s border with Saudi Arabia since Hussein sent his forces into the emirate in a dispute over oil, land and money.

Saudi officers have told of hundreds of Iraqis defecting from the forces in Kuwait. Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf, the U.S. commander in Saudi Arabia, said Friday he had no solid numbers but was sure some had abandoned their posts.

He said some were sent back with food and water and told to convey the message that “things are pretty good over here.”

The raids on the diplomatic compounds in Kuwait appeared designed to intimidate diplomats who have remained in their embassies to symbolize their rejection of Iraq’s annexation of Kuwait. The diplomats also are trying to provide some protection for their citizens trapped there.

Iraqi soldiers forced their way into the French ambassador’s residence early Friday and seized the military attache and three civilians. The diplomat was later released, but the civilians’ whereabouts were not known.

At the Canadian compound, troops entered and briefly detained the consuls from the United States, Britain, Ireland, Australia and Canada, who were meeting there. Canada issued a formal protest with Iraq.

Soldiers also entered Belgium’s diplomatic compound in Kuwait and ordered the two remaining diplomats to leave, officials said in Brussels. The soldiers left after the diplomats fled to the ambassador’s residence nearby.

About 2,200 Americans remain captive in Iraq and Kuwait, and some Western men have been transferred to strategic Iraqi installations to deter attacks by Western forces. Many Western women and children have been allowed to leave Iraq and Kuwait on chartered flights in recent weeks.

An Iraqi Airways Boeing 747 chartered by the U.S. government flew 382 foreigners, most of them Americans, to London, the British Foreign Office said. They were to depart for Baltimore on Saturday.

Hundreds of thousands of refugees from Arab and Asian nations have fled Iraq and Kuwait though Jordan and Turkey, straining the already tight resources of both nations.

In a late-night session Thursday, the U.N. Security Council voted 13 to 2 on the U.S.-sponsored resolution to allow food shipments to Iraq only to alleviate “human suffering.” Cuba and Yemen opposed the measure, saying all food should be allowed in.

Early Friday, the council’s committee on sanctions approved a request by India to send a ship loaded with 11,000 tons of food to Kuwait to feed about 120,000 stranded Indian citizens.