Iraqis Hit by Air, Land, Sea : Heaviest Pounding Yet by Allies

Allied forces pounded Iraqi front-line positions along the Kuwaiti border today from the land, air and sea in the most extensive assault on forward positions by the multi-national coalition since the beginning of the war.

At the same time, American pilots reported knocking out four mobile Scud missile launchers, as well as a convoy of up to 50 vehicles in southern Kuwait.

Brig. Gen. Richard I. Neal said the assault on the Iraqi front lines was launched by both the Saudis and the Americans against targets in southeastern Kuwait.

“We thought there was a good opportunity to take them on,” said Neal, who described the targets as dug-in tanks, artillery and armored personnel carriers. He said the allies hammered the positions with fire from the battleship Missouri, as well as bombing runs, artillery and multi-launch rocket systems.

The Iraqis did not return fire during the three-hour assault and there was no sign that they were massing, Neal said.

Neal also said that while the final decision for a ground assault rests with President Bush, the troops in the field will continue to provide an ongoing assessment of when the best time might be to strike.

“We will know when the right day is,” he said.

The assault against the Iraqi forward positions came on a day in which the allies launched an estimated 2,600 sorties, bringing the number since the beginning of the air war to more than 65,000.

The Scud launchers were hit overnight, after the missiles were fired at both Saudi Arabia and Israel. Neal said U.S. pilots, on what has become known as “Scud patrols,” knocked out four launch sites, and that a fifth blew up, apparently with a missile ready to be fired.

Neal also said an American F-15 shot down an Iraqi helicopter overnight in northern Iraq and that 675 sorties were flown against Iraqi positions in Kuwait. Of those, about 225--including B-52 bombing runs--were against the Republican Guard, the Iraqi force viewed as the best troops arrayed against the allies.

The attacks came as the government of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein claimed that the allies had once again hit a number of civilian targets throughout Baghdad and other cities. The government said the most recent targets were a hospital and a nursery and has claimed that thousands of people have been killed since the start of the air war.

Meanwhile, British Defense Secretary Tom King and his French counterpart, Pierre Joxe, met today with Bush to discuss the ground war against Iraq. They were also to meet with Defense Secretary Dick Cheney and Gen. Colin L. Powell, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Meanwhile, Soviet diplomat Yevgeny Primakov was in Baghdad searching for ways to end the fighting.

Neal said the allies had made no changes in their targets since the Soviet diplomat, and others, began arriving in Baghdad to seek ways of reaching a cease-fire. “I wouldn’t buy a ticket on a local airline going in and out of Baghdad,” he said.

Neal also said that it has become apparent that Iraqi troops are not taking care of their war machinery.