Bombardment Will Go On for Weeks, Pentagon Says

Pentagon officials said Wednesday that the massive aerial bombardment of Iraq “will continue around the clock for perhaps weeks” following the initial wave of attacks on chemical and nuclear facilities, air fields, military communications sites and mobile missile launchers.

Defense Secretary Dick Cheney said Iraq had barely responded to the surprise U.S. air assault and suggested that losses of U.S. aircraft and crews had been minimal.

But military officials told lawmakers that the air campaign that began with a swarm of U.S., British, Saudi and Kuwaiti warplanes would likely halt briefly during daylight hours in the Middle East today while intelligence analysts assess the extent of damage to targets.

“The air part will continue until it is finished,” said Gen. Colin L. Powell, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Officials indicated that hundreds of key military targets would be destroyed before the air campaign would turn to an attack on Iraqi ground troops, tanks and artillery massed in Kuwait and southern Iraq.

No U.S. ground troops have been committed to the initial assault, Cheney said. Officials said that ground attacks on fortified Iraqi positions will not begin until after intensive air strikes, perhaps lasting weeks.

Wednesday’s carefully planned attack appeared to be following the script laid out over the past several months by military officials and air warfare experts. It was an overwhelming demonstration of air power, and air power alone, at least in this early stage of the war.

There was no indication when the attacks would end.

Cheney contrasted the operation with the December, 1989, lightning-quick invasion of Panama, when Panamanian Defense Forces were largely subdued in the first day.

“We are in the very early stages of this operation,” said Cheney. “It is likely to run for a long period of time.”

The attack began with the launching of low-flying Tomahawk cruise missiles from the battleships Missouri and Wisconsin in the Persian Gulf. The highly accurate missiles were programmed to strike Iraqi command centers and missile launch sites. The missiles also served to force Iraqi air defense crews to “light up” their search radars, thus revealing their locations.

Then, under cover of darkness and fog at 3:00 a.m. Thursday Middle Eastern time, U.S. Air Force F-117 Stealth fighters, F-15E Strike Eagles, F-16 Falcons, F-111 fighter-bombers, F-4G Wild Weasels and and Navy A-6 Intruder bombers streaked northward toward their targets in Kuwait and Iraq from numerous U.S. bases in the gulf region. They were joined by aircraft from Saudi Arabia, Britain and the remnants of the Kuwaiti Air Force, officials said.

Military officials said that some 70 Iraqi mobile missile launchers, including batteries capable of hurling chemical-tipped Scud missiles into Israel, were among the first targets of the air campaign.

Also apparently hit in the first hours of battle were airfields, communications centers and power plants, early reports indicated.

Iraqi Air Force planes apparently did not challenge the U.S.-led air armada.

“There is every appearance we caught them totally by surprise,” a senior military official said. The surprise, and the lack of response by the Iraqi Air Force, resulted in few losses of U.S. aircraft. “There were minimal losses--if any,” said the official, who was in the operations center of one of the military services during the first hours of the battle.

Reconnaissance aircraft and satellites will photograph all the Iraqi targets bombed in the initial attack to determine the extent of the damage, the official said. Any of the targets left intact will be bombed again in subsequent waves of attacks, he indicated.

Rep. Robert K. Dornan (R-Garden Grove), a member of the House Armed Services Committee, said military experts told him the raids were timed to end as dawn broke so surveillance satellites could begin relaying information to assist in targeting the next round of sorties.

Hundreds of ground-based and carrier-based fighter planes--F-15s, F-16s, F-14s and F/A-18s--swept the skies to protect the U.S. bomber fleet.

Numerous air-refueling tankers, AWACS command-and-control craft and electronic warfare planes went up to support and direct the attacking air force.

Prior to the attack, the United States had assembled a huge air armada, including more than 2,000 combat and support aircraft. Allied nations contributed several hundred more front-line fighters and bombers.

Every relevant weapon in the United States arsenal is likely to be used to continue the strategic air campaign over the next several days. Each aircraft carries specific armament and has a narrow mission.

Thousands of tons of ordnance will be dropped in what is expected to be the most intensive aerial bombardment ever conducted. Electronic warfare technology will be employed on a scale never before attempted, officials have said.

Cheney and Powell said that all four services were involved in the assault, but that no ground troops were used.

“It is strictly an air operation for the time being,” said Cheney.

But an Army official said that Army special operations helicopters and other commando units specializing in deep reconnaissance were employed in the opening hours of the campaign.

Republican Sen. Alan Simpson of Wyoming said Cheney and President Bush told him that attacks on the command centers had been a major success, creating major problems for the Iraqis.

“They blew out command and control centers at each location,” Simpson said. “The Iraqis take their orders from a single point.”

But Powell flatly refused to say whether Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein had been killed in the attacks or whether after the apparent destruction of communications centers had cut him off entirely from his military force.

“We have not been tracking Mr. Saddam Hussein for the purpose of targeting,” Powell said.

Senior Pentagon officials were exhilarated by the apparent success of the first wave of attacks, but said that the bombing will be pursued until every significant military target is destroyed. “This will continue around the clock for days,” one ranking military official said late Wednesday.

Staff writer Robert W. Stewart contributed to this report.