WINDING DOWN THE WAR

The whirlwind success of the ground operation in the Gulf has left behind a series of challenges and issues that will be addressed in coming days:

REDEPLOYING PERSONNEL, EQUIPMENT

A massive redeployment of the 539,000 U.S. troops in the region is now being planned. The Army hopes to have half its troops in the region out by mid-May. The numbers of Marines and Navy personnel will begin shrinking soon, although one or two aircraft carriers are expected to stay behind, as are some Air Force personnel.

RETURNING POWS

A swap of prisoners of war began Monday with the release of 10 allied POWs. The International Commitee of the Red Cross will oversee the exchange in the coming weeks. Although a timetable was not spelled out, clearly it will take some time to arrange the return of the massive numbers of Iraqi prisoners. An estimated 65,000 are now held, including 1,400 captured Sunday on a Kuwaiti island.

The allies claim 13 POWs, including nine Americans, and 66 troops missing in action, including 35 Americans.

BURYING IRAQI DEAD

Iraqi dead, estimated to range from 50,000 to as many as 100,000, are being identified when possible, then buried in the desert battlefields. The list of dead will probably never be complete, however, will a count be accurately made. Some dead have already been buried in mass graves. Iraqi wounded who have been taken prisoner have been treated in the medical facilities set up in advance of the ground war by U.S. forces.

RESTORING ORDER IN KUWAIT

Martial law has been in effect since Sunday, while Kuwaiti troops continued searching for Iraqi stragglers and clearing the area of mines, booby-traps, unspent shells and other explosives and abandoned weapons. Half of Kuwait’s citizens are now in exile, and the government is asking that they remain where they are for at least a few weeks until order can be restored.

FIRST STEPS OF REBUILDING KUWAIT

Kuwaiti Planning Minister Salman Abdul-Razek says some water is already being pumped in the city, and power could be restored within two weeks. The government in exile has already begun to let contracts for major rebuilding projects, with preference clearly being given to businesses in nations that helped free Kuwait.

LEAVING IRAQI TERRITORY

Allied forces holding territory in southern Iraq will be withdrawn once the cease-fire agreement reached Sunday is ratified in Baghdad

CLEANING THE ENVIRONMENT

An estimated 2 million barrels of crude oil poured into the Gulf during the conflict--or eight times the amount spilled in the Exxon Valdez accident. Experts from around the world have been dispatched.

FIGHTING OIL WELL FIRES

Rolling smoke from oil wells set on fire by retreating Iraqis obscured the sun in much of the northern Gulf. Contracts to contain and extinguish the 600-odd oil well fires have already been signed with a number of U.S. firms, including the much-publicized and legendary Red Adair Co.

CLEARING BURIED LAND MINES IN DESERT AND IN GULF

As part of the cease-fire agreement reached Sunday, Iraqi commanders turned over information on the whereabouts and types of hundreds of thousands of mines planted in the desert battlefields, on Kuwait’s beachfront and in the sea.

COLLECTING MILITARY EQUIPMENT IN DESERT

U.S. commanders said Sunday they would continue to search for Iraqi war materiel in Kuwait and southern Iraq. Much of the equipment will be destroyed, but anything considered valuable will be seized by coalition countries for their own use.