Kuwaiti Officials Eager to Rebuild : Liberation: The exiled emir says there will be three months of martial law. Most of capital is freed.

Regrouping here for a march into their liberated country, officials of Kuwait’s government-in-exile said Tuesday as Kuwait city was being freed of Iraqi occupation that they were eager to return home and begin rebuilding their war-ravaged country.

One of the first steps toward that end, the exiled Kuwaiti emir announced, will be the implementation of a three-month period of martial law.

Amid reports that citizens were celebrating in the streets in the Kuwaiti capital as Iraqi soldiers fled northward, government officials said the resistance inside Kuwait was moving to take control of police stations and remaining government buildings to maintain order until a new interim martial-law government is set up.

“Our joy is overflowing, thanks be to God. The enemy is turning tail,” said Kuwait Radio.

However, Pentagon officials said U.S. Marines were still engaged in a fierce tank battle near Kuwait city’s international airport, and said pockets of Iraqi resistance remained within the capital.

But Kuwaiti officials considered the battle for liberation all but over and began taking steps to reclaim their governmental seats.

The martial-law decree, signed by the emir, Sheik Jabbar al Ahmed al Sabah, appoints Crown Prince Saad al Abdullah al Sabah as martial-law governor, acting in consultation with the Kuwaiti army and other allied forces.

“With the grace of God, Kuwait has been liberated from the Iraqi aggression. . . ,” the emir said in his decree. “Now it is the time for a greater battle, when all the efforts should be directed toward rebuilding what has been demolished and repairing what has been damaged, to ensure the return of normal life on the territory of Kuwait out of the remnants of aggression and to protect life and property against all dangers.”

Kuwaiti authorities in Dammam and Taif, which has been home for the government-in-exile since the Aug. 2 Iraqi invasion, said reports from inside the capital indicated that most troops had left the city, following Iraqi President Saddam Hussein’s order to withdraw.

Iraqi soldiers were reported to be leaving the capital city “in confusion,” according to Kuwait’s official news agency, KUNA. There were unconfirmed reports that soldiers were taking a number of hostages, possibly more than 1,000, with them as they fled the city. Included among the hostages reportedly were Kuwaiti, Syrian and Egyptian nationals, the latter two Arab countries that are serving with the allied coalition.

Kuwait’s army, accompanied by U.S. Marines and other allied forces, was preparing to enter the city today. Marines already were in control of the U.S. Embassy in Kuwait city.

Amid fears that a power vacuum in the city could lead to security problems in the wake of the Iraqis’ departure, the Kuwaiti resistance was attempting to assume some control of the capital. Some officials were particularly concerned that angered Kuwaitis might seek to take revenge on Palestinians and others who had collaborated with the Iraqis during the occupation.

“They don’t want that, and they’ve been very assiduous all along in saying this is not the way they’re going to liberate the country,” said a Western official working with the Kuwaiti government.

Some exiled Kuwaitis were scheduled to enter the country today to determine supply needs and to work with allied forces to help identify Kuwaitis in the city. There were reports that some Iraqis were donning civilian clothes and attempting to pose as Kuwaitis, according to Kuwaiti government officials.

Over the past few days, the 22nd floor of a luxury hotel in Dammam, about 200 miles south of the Kuwait border, has been converted into an interim headquarters for the government-in-exile. Officials there were preparing to launch a massive convoy of food, water and medical supplies to the emirate.

Hotel room doors are crudely marked in pencil with the names of each ministry, and flustered and exhilarated Kuwaitis rushed through the hallways.

“When we hear good news, we always get in a hurry to finish these things. We all hope to go to Kuwait tomorrow,” said an Information Ministry spokesman who is helping to organize a 30-vehicle supply convoy soon to be headed for Kuwait city.

A storage yard the size of six football fields near the hotel is loaded with stockpiled supplies awaiting transport north.

Kuwaiti officials said one of Kuwait’s three water desalination plants is under allied control, but large tanks of water were among the supplies scheduled for delivery by convoy this week.

Teams of Kuwaiti workers already were working to restore electricity and water supplies, which are available only sporadically throughout the country. Iraqi authorities had been reported over the last several days to be engaging in widespread destruction in the Kuwaiti capital, blowing up four luxury hotels and the Parliament building and damaging several other government buildings.