Schwarzkopf, in Kuwait, Gets Sandy Souvenir

Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf, architect of the allied campaign that drove the Iraqi army from Kuwait, paid his first visit to the liberated emirate on Tuesday.

Walking on a Persian Gulf beach with Gen. Jabbar al Sabah, the commanding general of Kuwait’s armed forces, Schwarzkopf stopped, bent over and filled two small bottles with sand.

“This is sand from the liberated beaches of Kuwait,” Schwarzkopf said. “ . . . We’re very proud to be able to do this. . . . This is something that I promised myself that I would do.”

In other Gulf developments Tuesday:

* The Red Cross has informed U.S. authorities that one American and five Britons are among 14 allied service personnel whose remains Iraq has promised to return, Pentagon officials said.

* Arab diplomatic sources said the emir of Kuwait could return home from exile Thursday.

* British Royal Navy divers found a number of bodies that had been bound and weighted so they would sink in the murky waters off Kuwait’s coast, a British television network reported.

During his triumphal tour of Kuwait city, Schwarzkopf told journalists that “I am very happy to see that the city is not destroyed.

“I am very happy to see that the bombing we did was against Iraqi targets,” he said. “But most of all I’m just happy to see that the city is liberated and that it’s back in the hands of Kuwait.”

Schwarzkopf ruled out a long-term U.S. ground troop presence in the region and said he hopes the cease-fire with Iraq holds and that the war is truly over.

“As far as I’m concerned it’s over. Saddam Hussein had better know it’s over. If Saddam Hussein makes the mistake of starting it again, then he’s going to have a lot more trouble than he has on his hands in Iraq right now,” he said.

Meanwhile, a chartered Red Cross aircraft flew to Baghdad on Tuesday to pick up the bodies of the 14 allied soldiers, but it returned to Saudi Arabia without the remains, according to U.S. military officials in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

The Pentagon said it was told by the Red Cross that the dead American was Navy Lt. William T. Costen, 27, of St. Louis, an A-6 Intruder pilot from the carrier Ranger whose plane was shot down over Iraq on Jan. 18.

Also on Tuesday, the Pentagon said it has found and identified the body of a Marine Corps aviator previously listed as missing.

Capt. David M. Spellacy, 28, of Columbus, Ohio, died in the crash of his OV-10 observation plane, which was shot down in Kuwait by Iraqi antiaircraft fire on Feb. 25, officials said.

The Pentagon’s official list of Gulf War MIAs now numbers 21.

On the diplomatic front, Arab officials said Tuesday that Kuwait’s emir, Sheik Jabbar al Ahmed al Sabah, may return to the emirate in a couple of days.

The emir has been in exile in the Saudi resort of Taif since Iraq captured Kuwait on Aug. 2.

Off the coast of Kuwait, British navy divers searching for mines found a number of bodies near the port of Shuaiba, 40 miles south of Kuwait city, Britain’s Independent Television News reported.

“Their arms and legs have been tied together, with some form of weight, either a chain or a sinker, and actually thrown into the harbor,” ITN quoted Royal Navy diver Ozzie Hammond as saying.

Many of the victims were believed to be Filipino dock workers.