2nd Wave Hits Iraq : U.S. Urges Saddam to Give Up as Bombs Keep Falling : 1 U.S., 1 British Jet Lost; Allied Troops on the Move

The United States and its allies followed up devastating pre-dawn air strikes with a second wave of daylong attacks today in a furious bid to drive Saddam Hussein’s armies from Kuwait and break his military might.

American military officials said the Iraqis offered minimal resistance and that U.S. fighter-bombers would keep pounding away to prevent Hussein from marshaling his forces.

The White House demanded that Hussein surrender. The State Department said it is too late for him to end the fighting by offering to withdraw from Kuwait. “The pause for peace is over,” said spokeswoman Margaret D. Tutwiler.

Defense Secretary Dick Cheney said at a morning Pentagon briefing that one U.S. and one British aircraft had been lost.

The American plane was an F/A-18 Hornet fighter-bomber, and Cheney said the pilot was the first American combat death in Operation Desert Storm.

Britain said one of its Tornado fighter-bombers was lost, with its two crewmen missing. France said that four of its planes were hit and that one pilot was wounded.

Baghdad radio claimed Iraqi anti-aircraft units shot down 14 attacking warplanes, but several American officials called the claim an exaggeration. An Iraqi diplomat in Algeria claimed Iraq had shot down 76 enemy planes.

U.S. and Saudi military officials in Saudi Arabia said allied ground forces were moving north and had taken up positions closer to the Kuwaiti border. It was not clear whether the movement was in preparation for an offensive.

In Washington, Gen. Colin L. Powell, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, would not confirm or deny reports on movement of ground troops.

A threatened Iraqi strike against Israel never occurred--perhaps, Israeli officials suggested, because the allies knocked out the missiles in western Iraq aimed at the Jewish state.

Cheney said U.S. and allied planes had flown 1,000 sorties by early today. Early targets in the raids on Iraq and occupied Kuwait included military bases and command and control centers. The attacks continued throughout the day in Iraq.

There was no way to assess civilian or military casualties, nor the extent of damage. But a Kuwaiti minister in Dhahran said that perhaps hundreds of wounded were in several hospitals in Kuwait.

Cheney described the initial phase of the war as “so far, so good.” But he cautioned against early assumptions of victory, saying: “There have been casualties, and there are likely to be more casualties.”

Powell said he was “comfortable that we were able to achieve control of Iraqi air space. That’s not to say the Iraqi air force has been totally destroyed.”

At the White House, President Bush declared the wave of air strikes against Iraqi forces “successful as much as possible.”

The Cable News Network today broadcast footage from Iraqi television showing Hussein praying in what looked like an office. Wearing his uniform, he bowed his head, then knelt on a Muslim prayer rug. CNN said only that the footage had been taped earlier.

After surviving the attack on his capital, a defiant Hussein repeatedly used the airwaves to say Iraq would triumph despite the massive aerial pounding.

“Success is assured,” said the president in an early evening television news broadcast, referring to Bush as “the Satan in the White House.”

The only reported Iraqi offensive strike appeared to have been an artillery attack that set three oil tanks ablaze in northern Saudi Arabia, with no injuries reported.

“We can put pressure on 24 hours a day,” said Col. Hal Hornburg of Dallas, commander of the 4th Tactical Fighter Wing in Saudi Arabia. Sand swirled wildly as fighter jets took off every few seconds.

A pilot who flew one of the first bombing sorties, Lt. Col. Don Kline, said Iraqi pilots did not engage them. “I was surprised with that,” he said.

The first allied air strike came before dawn, the second about seven hours later. The second wave attack scored direct hits on the Iraqi Defense Ministry and the post office headquarters, the British Broadcasting Corp. reported.