Mitterrand Sees Ground War by End of Month

French President Francois Mitterrand and Britain’s commander of Persian Gulf forces said today a ground war is inevitable to force Iraq out of Kuwait.

Mitterrand told a televised news conference in Paris that the ground offensive will begin before the end of the month.

“The ground battle promises to take place in coming days, in any case sometime this month,” Mitterrand said during the interview with four French television journalists.

U.S. Air Force jets, meanwhile, shot down at least two Iraqi SU-22 fighter-bombers trying to flee into Iran today, and a third Iraqi SU-22 was listed as a probable kill, a U.S. military spokesman said.

Also today, a U.S. Navy FA-18 was lost in the northern Persian Gulf as it returned from an apparently successful mission over enemy territory. Search operations were under way to try to locate the pilot, who was listed as missing, Marine Brig. Gen. Richard I. Neal said.

The U.S. command in Riyadh also reported that two Iraqi helicopters had been shot down by American planes and that one U.S. Army UH-1 Huey crashed from noncombat causes, killing one soldier and injuring four.

Off Kuwait, the battleship Wisconsin followed the lead of its sister ship, the Missouri, firing its 16-inch guns in battle for the first time since the Korean War. The Wisconsin fired 11 rounds on an Iraqi artillery position, Neal said.

The British commander, Lt. Gen. Peter de la Billiere, said that, although three weeks of massive air strikes had succeeded in softening up Saddam Hussein’s large, dug-in force of ground troops, “I believe the land war is inevitable.”

“There is no indication that the Iraqi army is going to crack in the immediate future” from air strikes alone, De la Billiere told reporters in Riyadh. “We’re now moving on to the next phase in this battle, which is going to be the ground war, probably the most difficult and certainly the final phase of the war.”

Asked in Paris if he believes that a ground offensive will be necessary, Mitterrand said: “It is inevitable and it will be very hard. We are entering a difficult time of the war.”

The French president said he did not want the U.S.-led coalition to take part in a long-term occupation of Iraq. He said the allies should stick to their U.N. mandate of expelling Baghdad’s forces from Kuwait.

Earlier today, France’s new defense minister, Pierre Joxe, said French forces will be in the front lines of any ground campaign.