Allies Press Air War, Report 600 Tank Kills : Persian Gulf: Cheney, Powell exhort troops and begin consultations on a possible ground assault. An Iraqi Scud strikes Tel Aviv, injuring 20 and damaging apartment buildings.

Allied warplanes screamed across blinding-blue desert skies to blitz Iraqi troops in the trenches and bunkers of Kuwait and southern Iraq on Friday, and a Saudi commander said the Iraqis have organized “execution battalions” to shoot any of their soldiers who might try to flee.

The allies focused their bombing extra tightly on the Kuwaiti theater of operations as Defense Secretary Dick Cheney and Gen. Colin L. Powell, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, visited U.S. troops and Powell exhorted them with his familiar battle cry about the Iraqi army of occupation in Kuwait.

“We’ll get this over with a simple process,” he said. “We’ll cut it off and kill it.”

Speaking of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, Powell said, “He has seen what our Air Force can do, and he’ll see a lot more of it in days and weeks ahead.”

What the Air Force has done since the start of the Persian Gulf War was outlined at allied headquarters in Riyadh by Marine Maj. Gen. Robert B. Johnston, chief of staff for the U.S. Central Command, and another senior military official, who declined to be named. They said an estimated 600 of Iraq’s 5,700 tanks and 400 of Iraq’s 3,200 artillery pieces in Kuwait and Iraq have been destroyed.

These, however, are not necessarily enough kills, Johnston said, to encourage a ground campaign. “We have assigned no particular percentage,” he said, “that will drive us to a decision (on launching a ground campaign).”

In other developments:

Johnston said the number of Iraqi warplanes that have fled to Iran has increased to 147. The commander of allied naval operations said they include Iraq’s deadliest anti-ship planes--and that they pose a greater danger now to ships in the Persian Gulf than they did when they were at home, because they are closer.

The senior military official said air attacks have cut by 90% the flow of materiel to the more than 500,000 enemy troops in the Kuwaiti-southern Iraq theater. He also said that allied aircraft knocked out a mobile missile launcher just north of the Saudi-Kuwaiti border and that a British helicopter destroyed an Iraqi patrol boat.

Iraq hit Tel Aviv with a Scud missile early today. An Israeli army spokesman said at least 20 people were hurt, none seriously. Several apartment buildings were damaged; one burned. The Scud was armed with a conventional warhead. It was not clear whether the incoming missile was hit by Patriot interceptors before it struck.

Allied planes knocked out a telecommunications building in Baghdad, witnesses said. They said overnight raids killed or wounded several people. Travelers from Jordan said a bridge and six trucks were hit on the Jordan-Iraq highway. Baghdad Radio said President Bush and his family will be haunted “until doomsday” for spilling civilian blood.

There were growing signs of resistance in the U.S. House of Representatives to a U.S-led ground assault. A group of 30 House Democrats joined in the first organized anti-war effort in Congress by signing an appeal to President Bush against any escalation of the fighting in Iraq and occupied Kuwait.

In Moscow, Syria’s defense minister said the Syrian and Soviet governments would support an immediate cease-fire if Saddam Hussein announced a timetable for withdrawing his troops from Kuwait within a month. The United States wants Iraq to begin an immediate and massive pullout before any truce can begin.

The report of “execution battalions” came from Prince Khalid ibn Sultan, the Saudi lieutenant general who is commander of Saudi and other Arab forces in the Gulf.

Arab forces in the allied coalition learned about the battalions from some of the 936 Iraqi prisoners of war currently in captivity, Khalid said. Many of the prisoners came from the Kuwaiti theater of operations--occupied Kuwait and southern Iraq. The commander indicated that the special units probably have killed a number of Iraqi soldiers.

Khalid quoted the prisoners of war as saying there are special agents and informers in the Iraqi ranks who report on soldiers who might be planning to abandon their posts and that it is impossible for would-be deserters to know who they can trust.

The prisoners described the “execution battalions” as being a part of units along the Saudi-Kuwaiti border, the Saudi commander said. He added that they also were feared to be among the Republican Guard, considered to be some of Hussein’s best troops.

The Republican Guard was used to execute deserters during the eight-year Iran-Iraq War.

Khalid also made it clear that if there is a ground assault, Saudi forces would not pursue Iraqi troops all the way into Iraq. “I wouldn’t be talking about when the land war would start,” he demurred, “but I would assure you that it will end in Kuwait.”

Cheney and Powell

Secretary Cheney and Gen. Powell arrived in Saudi Arabia to consult with Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf, the allied commander in the Gulf, and other allied commanders about prospects for beginning a ground assault into the Kuwaiti theater. They will fly back to Washington on Sunday and report to President Bush.

Bush has said he will use their recommendations to decide whether to order such an attack.

Before meeting with allied generals, Cheney and Powell gave a pep talk to a hangar full of cheering officers and men of the 48th Tactical Fighter Wing at a U.S. air base in southwestern Saudi Arabia. The wing flies F-111F jets out of the Lakenheath air base in Britain.

“We came here to . . . kick them out,” Powell said of Iraqi troops dug deeply into the sands of occupied Kuwait. “We gave them some advice a couple of months ago: Move it or lose it. They wouldn’t move it, and now they’re going to lose it.”

Cheney told the fliers that the allied air war is “the most enormously successful air campaign in the history of the world.”

His comment, however, came one day after he acknowledged to reporters that air bombardment alone probably will not achieve the goal of ousting the Iraqis from Kuwait. Instead, Cheney said, ground forces might have to mount an attack to flush entrenched Iraqi troops out of their defenses.

Once out of their bunkers and trenches, he said, the Iraqis would be far more vulnerable to allied bombing.

Cheney’s comments suggested for the first time that U.S. ground troops could be used in a more limited role than the large-scale assaults that have been discussed to date. And defense officials made clear that concern for minimizing U.S. casualties, which Cheney called “the No. 1 priority,” might be driving deliberations on a ground assault.

But as Cheney and Powell prepared to meet with Schwarzkopf, fliers from the 48th Tactical Fighter Wing had no doubt about the success of the air war.

“We’re beating the crap out of them,” said Capt. Dean Stengl of Santa Cruz, Calif., an F-111F pilot who has flown 19 combat missions. “We go where we want,” he said. “We just dominate.”

Cheney and the Emir

In addition to visiting U.S. pilots, Cheney met in the Saudi mountain resort of Taif with the exiled emir of Kuwait, Sheik Jabbar al Ahmed al Sabah.

Among the strongest proponents of a rapid ground campaign to take back Kuwait, the emir told Cheney nonetheless that Kuwaitis “understand” those who are reluctant to start a land assault before more aerial bombardment is completed. “We want our friends to minimize casualties,” the emir said.

Powell had asked the emir to “give us a little time for complete victory,” said a senior Pentagon official, who asked to remain anonymous.

The emir urged the United States to cast some of Kuwait’s 7,000-man army in a key role in the “liberation” of Kuwait. The official said Cheney readily agreed.

But the emir also expressed concern over damage the war is doing to his country. An official traveling with Cheney said the emir had inquired about the effects of bombardment by 16-inch guns on the U.S. battleships Missouri and Wisconsin, which are shelling coastal regions of Kuwait.

He also sought assurances that not all of Kuwait’s oil pipelines and its pumping machinery would be destroyed by the allied bombing.

There was no immediate word about Cheney’s reply.

The secretary ended his visit by telling the emir: “I hope the next time we meet it will be in Kuwait city.”

Naval Fears

The report that Iraqi jets fleeing to Iran now number 147 brought an expression of concern from Vice Adm. Stanley Arthur, the U.S. commander of allied naval operations in the Persian Gulf.

Arthur said the aircraft include Iraq’s most sophisticated ship-killing planes. “I don’t subscribe,” he said, “to the theory that they went there just for a vacation.”

When he was asked if he accepted Iran’s assurances that Iraqi planes would not be allowed to leave before the end of the war, Arthur said: “I just can’t bet on that. With so many ships in a small body of water, I have to know what’s on either side of me. It means instead of looking in one direction, I’m looking in three or four.”

Among the first Iraqi planes to arrive in Iran, Arthur said, were French-made F-1 Mirages armed with anti-ship Exocet missiles. In addition, he said, some missile-equipped Super Frelon helicopters also escaped to Iran.

The coastal terrain of Iran means that allied ships would have much less time to react to an attack from the aircraft than if they had stayed at home. A series of valleys run parallel to the Iranian Gulf coast. They could allow aircraft to streak along undetected, Arthur said, until they were within 40 miles of U.S. ships.

From Iraq, he said, the distance would be up to 200 miles.

Officers commanding land forces were less concerned.

Marine Maj. Gen. Johnston, for instance, said plans are in place to deal with the Iraqi planes if they take to the air.

“From Day One we’ve been prepared to defend our forces 360 degrees,” Johnston told reporters in Riyadh. He said he is satisfied, for the present, with Iran’s promise to keep the Iraqi jets grounded until the end of the war.

Scud Attack

The Scud attack on Tel Aviv awakened Israelis about 2:45 a.m.

They saw at least one Patriot streak into the sky. It was followed by a large explosion. But it was impossible to know whether the sound was from a successful interception or the impact of the missile in the city.

The missile struck in a neighborhood of apartment houses and stores, creating a crater about six feet across. One house was half-demolished. Two others had roofs blown off and windows broken. Dozens of others had their shutters wrecked and windows shattered.

A chunk of twisted wreckage from the Scud wound up on a sidewalk. It was about half the size of a small car. Residents gathered to gape at it, and one planted an Israeli flag in the middle of it.

“This is a catastrophe,” said Rami Mordov, a student who lives in the neighborhood. “My mother is so afraid.”

When he heard the impact, he said, “my whole body trembled. . . .

“It was quiet for days, and people thought this was it. Today it seems Saddam will not let us forget him.”

It was the first Scud attack against Israel in six nights.

The Israeli government has indicated it will take no immediate retaliatory measures unless a large number of people are killed or Iraq strikes with a warhead containing poison gas.

In Baghdad

In a report from Baghdad, Mammoun Yousef, a Reuters correspondent, said witnesses told him that U.S. and allied planes had knocked out a telecommunications building overnight and killed or wounded several people.

The telecommunications building was in a residential district called Adamiyah, he said, and the air attack shattered windows in many houses. He said pieces of aluminum from the building were scattered over 500 yards.

Two of the six trucks hit on the road between Baghdad and Jordan were still burning when travelers passed, Yousef said. He said the trucks were seen between Ramadi, 70 miles west of Baghdad, and the Iraqi border town of Rutba.

Yousef said the travelers also reported seeing about 20 cars damaged from previous raids.

The newspaper of Iraq’s ruling Baath Party, Al Thawra, quoted Mohammed Ali Tawil, manager of the Ilwya maternity hospital, as saying that 35 to 45 premature deliveries have been occurring daily since Jan. 17, when the war began, because of fear and lack of proper medicine and nutrition.

“(Saudi King) Fahd and Bush and others will be held personally responsible for each drop of blood shed on the pure soil of Iraq, every school demolished, every factory wrecked and every civilian and scientific facility hit,” Baghdad Radio said.

“The curse will haunt them and their families until doomsday.”

War Resistance

In Washington, there were growing signs of resistance in the House of Representatives to an American-led ground war.

A group of 30 House Democrats, virtually all from the party’s liberal wing, joined in the first organized anti-war effort in Congress by signing an appeal to President Bush against any further escalation of the war against Iraq.

“We should not significantly increase the level of combat operations at this time,” said California Rep. Ronald V. Dellums (D-Berkeley), who started the campaign. “I call upon all Americans who are concerned that we are on the verge of great destruction at an enormous price to share this concern with their elected representatives at all levels.”

Six representatives from California joined the appeal. Besides Dellums, they were Barbara Boxer of Greenbrae, Pete Stark of Oakland, Anthony C. Beilenson of Los Angeles, Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco and Julian C. Dixon of Los Angeles.

Cease-Fire Effort

Support from Syria and the Soviet Union for a cease-fire came during a visit to Moscow by Syria’s defense minister, Mustafa Talas.

“When Saddam Hussein announces that he will withdraw from Kuwait and gives a timetable, for instance, that he will withdraw within a month from Kuwait, it would be possible for the international community then to demand a halt to military operations,” Talas said in an interview broadcast on Radio Moscow.

The offer was much more conciliatory than U.S. policy, which is that the Iraqis must begin immediate and massive withdrawals before any truce can begin.

Talas said the idea of a cease-fire linked to an Iraqi timetable for withdrawal was based on “new directions” from Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev. The Syrian official was interviewed in Moscow during a visit which ended on Wednesday, but the interview was broadcast Friday.

U.S. officials in Washington said it was not clear whether Gorbachev supports such a compromise plan. They said some Soviet officials appear to have been actively seeking a way to meet Iraq halfway on the cease-fire issue, while others have insisted that Moscow fully supports the U.S. formula.

Times staff writers Douglas Frantz in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia; Kenneth Freed in Nicosia, Cyprus; Carey Goldberg in Tel Aviv, and Doyle McManus and William J. Eaton in Washington contributed to this report.