On Baghdad Radio ‘News,’ Truth Becomes a Casualty : Morale: Faced with the need to rally troops and civilians, broadcasts edge further from reality.

Iraqis awakened on Sunday to learn that their “heroic missile forces” had struck “devastating blows” in Scud attacks on both Tel Aviv and Riyadh overnight, according to announcements throughout the day on Baghdad Radio.

Similarly, the state-run station, now renamed Mother of Battles Radio, reported Sunday that Syria had turned over to U.S. officials in Damascus seven American pilots who had been shot down during allied air strikes on Iraq but somehow made their way into Syrian territory.

Both reports were not only untrue, but further removed from reality than Baghdad Radio has been since the start of the Gulf War 19 days ago, analysts said.

In its report on the Scud attacks, which, in reality, were either intercepted by U.S. Patriot missiles or thudded harmlessly into unpopulated areas of the Israeli Occupied West Bank on Saturday night and Sunday morning, Baghdad Radio quoted an Iraqi military spokesman as saying, “Our heroic missile force dealt a destructive blow to the city of Riyadh, the den of treason, disgrace, infidelity and atheism, with al-Hussein (Iraq’s customized long-range Scud) missiles after midnight last night.

“In response to the enemy attacks, and to avenge the Arab blood in Iraq and Palestine, your heroic missile force last night used al-Hussein missiles to deal a devastating blow to Tel Aviv.”

The military spokesman then used the “news” in an attempt to rally Iraq’s forces, both civilian and military: “Oh heroic men of the missile force, continue your blows,” he declared. “God is on your side. The challenge will continue until (the allied forces) recognize . . . our right to our land and the rights of our people of Palestine.”

In another report, Baghdad Radio first announced that Syria had turned over to U.S. Embassy officials in Damascus several American pilots who had been shot down by antiaircraft fire “during air raids on residential areas in Iraq.” The implication was that the pilots had reached Syria on their own power.

The clear intent of the report was to embarrass Damascus by suggesting that it was even closer to the U.S. politically than its token military force in the anti-Iraq coalition would indicate.

But the report was instantly challenged by the British Broadcasting Corp. world service and other Western radio accounts monitored in Baghdad. The independent analysts pointed out that if the Iraqi report was right, then Iraq’s offer of rewards of up to $34,000 for allied pilots who are captured alive was having no effect on its citizens.

Within hours, Baghdad altered its broadcast to indicate that the pilots had been shot down by Iraqi forces but somehow managed to parachute into Syrian territory.

In any event, there were no downed pilots, according to the official Syrian Arab New Agency and the U.S. Embassy in Damascus.