Hussein Retaliates With War of Words

As the United States and Britain relentlessly carried out a third wave of airstrikes early today, the Iraqi regime fought back on the stage of world opinion, with President Saddam Hussein telling Arab television viewers that he will kneel only “before the face of God” and never to his enemies.

And in a witting echo of Republicans during impeachment proceedings on Capitol Hill, Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tarik Aziz branded President Clinton a liar to his people in the Monica S. Lewinsky affair and declared that the U.S. president has also been lying to Americans about Iraq.

In Washington, Defense Secretary William S. Cohen told reporters that U.S. ships and warplanes had already launched more cruise missiles against Iraq than the total number fired at the country during the entire five weeks of bombing in the 1991 Persian Gulf War.

Cohen did not reveal the exact number of cruise missiles launched in the current attack, but Pentagon officials said more than 200 missiles cascaded on Iraqi targets in the first two days of the strike. There have been no U.S. or British casualties, Cohen said.

He was guarded in his overall estimate of the effectiveness of the bombing. “We, in fact, have had some very good success with our strikes,” he said, “but not all of them have gone exactly as planned.”

The still, cool night in Baghdad was pierced by the wail of air-raid sirens every few hours, sometimes followed by the tap-tap-tap reports of antiaircraft guns. The sound of explosions from bombs was faint in the distance. About 4 a.m., huge explosions shook Baghdad.

The U.S.-British attacks reverberated in Iraq and beyond Friday:

* Clinton administration officials scurried to repair the rent relations with Russia over the bombing--symbolized by Moscow’s recall of Ambassador Yuli M. Vorontsov from Washington a day earlier.

* In Southern California, Muslim Americans stepped up criticism of the U.S.-led bombing raids against Iraq with vigils and protest demonstrations, fiery sermons, letter-writing campaigns and calls to White House officials.

* Administration officials declined to say whether the airstrikes would end before the arrival of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, which begins today. A senior Clinton foreign policy advisor said no decision has been made on when to end Operation Desert Fox but suggested that the lion’s share of the mission was complete. “I don’t think we’re going to go too far into next week,” the official said. “We’re approaching the end of the operation. We’ll be looking tomorrow to see what remains to be done.”

* Gen. Henry H. Shelton, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, acknowledged that allied planes were showering leaflets on Iraqi troops in southern Iraq, which borders Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. He said the leaflets admonished the troops “to stay put, not to threaten their neighbors.” If the Iraqis did stay put, Shelton reported, the leaflets promised that “they would not be engaged.”

So far, the U.S.-British campaign has not appeared to chasten the Iraqis.

‘We Will Not Kneel,’ Hussein Declares

“By God, we will not compromise,” Hussein said Friday in a taped television address carried first by the Qatar-based satellite television station Al Jezira, whose current-affairs broadcasts are de rigueur in Arabic-speaking countries.

Praising his people for steadfastness against what he called “agents of Satan,” he declared: “We will fear nothing but God, and we will not kneel except before the face of God.”

Wearing a light khaki uniform, Hussein made his first public appearance since the military campaign began, and the broadcast seemed intended in part to demonstrate that the Iraqi leadership is still unharmed by the raids. Officials in Baghdad said it would have been put on Iraqi television first but could not because of disturbances caused by the bombing raids.

Far from being cowed by the attacks of military sites and government buildings that have killed dozens of Iraqis and wounded scores more since early Thursday local time, Aziz acted at a news conference as if Iraq had won the confrontation with Washington.

He said that Iraq will never allow chief U.N. weapons inspector Richard Butler back into the country and that the only way the world will be able to reestablish monitoring of Iraqi weapons programs is if economic sanctions are finally lifted.

Aziz excoriated Butler for allegedly colluding with the United States to create a report on Iraqi noncompliance with U.N. resolutions that he said was merely an excuse for the aerial campaign. Aziz labeled the bombings “criminal aggression” in contempt of the international community.

“Baghdad will not receive a criminal and vulgar person who was used in a despicable manner to harm the Iraqi people,” Aziz added.

At the United Nations, Butler said he had no intention of resigning, and he received strong support from the United States after the Iraqi condemnation.

“If anything would be resignation material, it would be if the United Nations broke its promise on sanctions--that when disarmament is done, sanctions will go,” Butler said. “That would be resignation material.”

Peter Burleigh, the U.S. representative to the U.N., said: “We don’t want Ambassador Butler to resign--period. We think he has been a very effective professional executive chairman of the Special Commission under the most extraordinarily difficult situation.”

In Washington, Cohen provided more details of the U.S.-British campaign and acknowledged that there had been strikes against a radio and television building in Baghdad and an oil refinery in Basra, two targets that Aziz had described as “civilian.”

But Cohen insisted that both targets were military. He called the radio and television facilities “part of the command-and-control operations of Saddam Hussein and how he communicates to the Iraqi people as far as his propaganda is concerned.”

Cohen said the Basra refinery, which suffered “a very limited attack,” was used “for the illegal shipment of oil . . . in violation of the Security Council resolutions.”

Pentagon officials said the targets in Iraq included 27 surface-to-air missile and air-defense sites, 18 command-and-control centers, 19 facilities used by Hussein’s Special Republican Guard units, 11 sites for the production of weapons of mass destruction, eight headquarters buildings for the regular army or the Republican Guard, five airfields and the Basra refinery.

The accuracy of the strikes varied, according to U.S. assessments. Navy Rear Adm. Thomas Wilson, describing the results of the strikes on the missile and air-defense sites, said one was destroyed, two severely damaged, two lightly or moderately damaged and eight not damaged at all. The Pentagon was still assessing the damage, if any, to the 14 other sites.

Life in Baghdad continued with little outward sign of panic.

Intent on rebutting U.S. assertions that the attacks are solely targeting military sites, officials organized visits by foreign journalists to sites of damage in civilian areas. Among them was a cratered street in the Karada district of Baghdad, a middle-class area near the Tigris River, and the Museum of Natural History, where display cases of stuffed lions were shattered. In a Gulf War-style precision attack, a missile pierced the roof of the 10-story headquarters of the Military-Industrial Commission on Thursday evening, apparently gutting it inside but leaving the walls standing. The attack shattered glass in the nearby Rashid Hotel, used by business executives, diplomats and journalists.

Iraqi officials have not released any new casualty update since the 25 dead announced after the first day of bombings.

The United States, meanwhile, was trying to heal its diplomatic wounds Friday.

White House Press Secretary Joe Lockhart said Clinton had written a letter to Russian President Boris N. Yeltsin in which Clinton stressed that although the two governments disagreed on the bombing of Iraq, “we have an important bilateral relationship . . . [and] we shouldn’t let a disagreement in this area sidetrack progress we’re making in other areas.”

In the meantime, Vice President Al Gore and Secretary of State Madeleine Albright conveyed similar messages by phone to Russian Prime Minister Yevgeny M. Primakov and Russian Foreign Minister Igor S. Ivanov. In addition, Albright planned to visit Moscow in late January, according to State Department spokesman James P. Rubin.

In public, Russian officials continued to show their anger over the strikes and to insist that diplomacy was the only sensible way to deal with Iraq and Hussein.

“Things must be called by their names,” Dmitri D. Yakushkin, Yeltsin’s press secretary, told reporters. “A military strike is a military strike. This is impermissible. They must be stopped.”

But, he went on, “there can be no talk of a break in relations with Britain and the United States.”

State Department Stresses Allies’ Backing

At the State Department, Rubin was very defensive over news reports that the United States was receiving tepid support for its bombing, even from allies.

“Any suggestion that our allies are not supportive of us is nonsense,” he said. “If you go throughout Europe, Japan, other countries--the Canadians, the Australians, the New Zealanders--across the board, our allies have been very supportive.”

But he acknowledged that he was not talking about “a rah-rah level of support.”

“What we consider a reasonable level of support is to place the blame for the consequences on Saddam Hussein,” Rubin said. “Any country that is in that category, we believe, is supportive.”

Southland Islamists Criticize Bombing

But even domestically, support was not always forthcoming. In Los Angeles on Friday, an overflow crowd of about 2,000 packed the Islamic Center of Southern California on Vermont Avenue. In an emotional sermon, Hassan Hathout decried the bombing for heaping more atrocities upon the beleaguered Iraqi people while failing to stop Hussein or eliminate his weapons of mass destruction.

Hathout and other center officials also criticized the U.S. for shoring up Hussein in the first place--by arming him in his war against Iran, for instance--and for not holding Israel and other nations to the same standards on weapons programs.

The Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations has sent out e-mail urging people to speak up against the bombings. The group urged people to contact politicians and the media, donate to relief organizations and hold vigils and seminars and the like.

“There is no reason for the United States to act as policeman of the world,” said Mahmoud Ezzeldime, 56, a computer programmer. “The people of Iraq have had to suffer enough.”

Daniszewski reported from Baghdad and Meisler from Washington. Times staff writers John J. Goldman at the United Nations, Elizabeth Shogren in Washington and Teresa Watanabe in Los Angeles contributed to this report.

IRAQ

Divided feelings: Most in the Arab world dislike Saddam Hussein but say the military strikes won’t work. A17

Focusing on mission: The president’s political fate is the last thing on the minds of pilots flying against Iraq. A22

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Iraq’s tools of Destruction

Airstrike damage from the Gulf War and six years of U.N. inspectors destroyed much of Iraq’s arsenal of weapons, but Iraq retains some materials and personnel capable of reviving many of its nuclear, chemical, biological and missile programs.

weapons of mass destruction (DOD, IADB): In arms control usage, weapons that are capable of a high order of destruction and/or of being used in such a manner as to destroy large numbers of people. Can be nuclear, chemical, biological, and radiological weapons, but excludes the means of transporting or propelling the weapon where such means is a separable and divisible part of the weapon.

Source: The Official Dictionary of Military Terms

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BIOLOGICAL WEAPONS

Living bacteria or chemicals derived from a living organism:

Anthrax (Bacillus anthracis): Fever, respiratory difficulty, chest pain, followed by shock and death two days later.

How victims get infected: Coming into contact with spores by touch

Time to take effect: 1-6 days of incubation, 3-5 days of illness

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Botulinum toxin (Clostridium botulinum): Vomiting, constipation, dizziness, dry throat and mouth, blurred vision, muscle weakness, eventual respiratory failure, possible death

How victims get infected: Inhaled or ingested, absorbed by skin or eyes

Time to take effect: Few hours to days of incubation, 24-72 days of illness

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Gas gangrene (Clostridium perfringens): Kills muscle cells, causes bloating, shock, jaundice, internal bleeding, liver cancer

How victims get infected: Enters open wounds and causes infection

Time to take effect: Death can occur within 6 hrs.

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Alfatoxin (Aspergillus flavus and Aspergillus): Jaundice, internal bleeding, liver cancer

How victims get infected: Ingested, inhaled

Time to take effect: Months to years

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Ricin (Castor bean plant): Kills cells, impedes breathing and circulation, death within two days.

How victims get infected: Inhaled, ingested or injected

Time to take effect: Causes death within two days

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CHEMICAL WEAPONS

Artificial chemicals that affect the nervous system:

VX: Prevents transmission of nerve signals, causing headache, impaired vision, tightness in chest, oxygen deprivation, death by suffocation

How victims get infected: Through skin or inhaled

Time to take effect: Time to take effect

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Sarin: Disrupts nerve cell communication, causing spasms, nausea, nervous system collapse and death

How victims get infected: Through respiratory tract or absorbed through skin

Time to take effect: Minutes

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Mustard gas: Itching, burning sensation in lungs, tissue swelling, then blisters and infection; eventually can cause cancer of the mouth, throat respiratory tract and skin, possibly leukemia and birth defects

How victims get infected: Inhaled

Time to take effect: Toxicity can occur within minutes

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HOW WEAPONS ARE DELIVERED

Biological and chemical weapons can be loaded in missile warheads such as modified Scuds, in aerial bombs and aircraft aerosol spray tanks. In addition, chemical weapons might be launched in rockets. It’s unknown whether any of Iraq’s long-range missiles (1,860-mile-range) remain.

Department of Defense officials believe that Iraq has dual-use facilities--weapons factories also used for pharmaceutical, agricultural and biomedical purposes.

Modified Scud B missiles have a longer range that the old Scuds. Modified versions called Al-Husayn and Al-Abbas could deliver warheads filled with biological and chemical weapon material 372-403 miles.

Liquid artillery shells containing chemical nerve agents such as VX might be fired from a mobile cannon. The shell explodes in the air, spraying deadly liquid onto troops and terrain below.

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Iraq’s Possible Arsenal

Biological Weapons

Anthrax: 2,245 gallons

Botulinum: 5,125 gallons

Gas gangrene: 90 gallons

Aflatoxin: unknown

Ricin: unknown

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Chemical Weapons

VX: Up to 200 metric tons

Sarin: Up to 200 metric tons

Mustard gas: 500-600 metric tons

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Nuclear Weapons

Operation Desert Storm disrupted much of Iraq’s nuclear program; it is unknown how much remains. Iraq may be hiding bomb-making components.

Sources: State Department; Dept. of Defense; Jane’s Defense; Center for Defense Information; CNN

Researched by JULIE SHEER / Los Angeles Times

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The Damage Tally

Pentagon officials said that the U.S. and Britain launched more than 200 missiles and bombs at more than 75 Iraqi targets in the first two days of the strike. Targets included surface-to-air missile and air-defense sites, command-and-control centers, special guard units, weapons of mass destruction production sites, army headquarter buildings, airfields and a refinery.

Sources: Staff reports, Associated Press