Headlines, Broadcasts Tell World of War’s Outbreak

“BANGDAD” declared the Daily Star of London. In Beijing, shoppers huddled around radios at outdoor market stalls. Hundreds of New Yorkers gazed up silently as news of the war’s outbreak flickered around the Times Square ticker.

Thick black headlines and around-the-clock broadcasts told the world of the U.S. and allied attack on Iraq to oust Saddam Hussein’s troops from Kuwait, the emirate invaded five months ago.

Iraqi radio went off the air before the attack, but was back broadcasting hours later, carrying a defiant speech from Hussein. The Iraqi News Agency, monitored in Nicosia, continued to transmit but its reports were hopelessly garbled--perhaps because of jamming.

Government-run radio and television stations in Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and other gulf countries broadcast reports of the military operation in a straight-forward fashion, based entirely on announcements from Washington.

The Kuwait radio-in-exile, broadcasting from the Saudi port city of Jidda, was jubilant. It blared religious slogans, decried Hussein and assured homeless Kuwaitis that their homecoming was at hand.

“Victory belongs to Kuwait and the people of Kuwait,” the radio said. “Saddam Hussein will be taken to task, and he will have to pay dearly for his grave perpetrations.”

Newspaper headlines were predictably large:

“U.S. UNLEASHES ALL-OUT ATTACK ON IRAQ,” proclaimed the 2-million circulation Dong-A Ilbo newspaper of Seoul, South Korea.

The Sun of London’s front page read “BLITZ ON BAGHDAD.”

The Paris-based International Herald Tribune put out special editions, as did the Telegraph Mirror of Sydney, which filled 10 of 11 pages in its extra with gulf news.

The Courier-Mail of Brisbane, Australia, also issued a special edition, its first since World War I.

Major French newspapers stopped their presses to remake front pages.

Jordan’s state-run radio initially ignored the war’s outbreak, instead broadcasting a religious program. It was through Israeli TV and radio transmissions from British Broadcasting Corp. and Voice of America that Jordanians first learned of the bombing of their neighbor.

Jordanian radio’s first mention of the attack came two hours after the initial strike. Morning newspapers, however, carried banner headlines about the war, along with front-page instructions from the civil defense department advising people to stay indoors.

Tass, the Soviet government news agency, reported events in short, straight-forward dispatches.

The Times Square ticker, which has alerted New Yorkers to world-shaking events for decades, brought the news of the attack on Iraq in slow crawling letters.