U.S. Says Strikes Badly Disrupted Iraqi Regime

The U.S.-British bombing of Iraq last month may have killed several top Iraqi government figures, Pentagon officials said Friday as they ordered more warplanes to the Persian Gulf to meet a growing threat from what they called a “shaken” and “desperate” President Saddam Hussein.

Gen. Henry H. Shelton, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the bombing hit “several key individuals in the upper structure” of Hussein’s regime. In a separate briefing, Marine Gen. Anthony Zinni, the U.S. military commander for the Middle East, raised an earlier estimate of Iraqi military casualties from the December bombardment to as many as 2,000 dead.

The generals cautioned Friday that their casualty estimates of the December strikes were based on “reports” to the U.S. government from a variety of sources that might not be fully reliable.

Earlier this week, in congressional testimony, Shelton said the raids might have killed or wounded as many as 800 members of Hussein’s Republican Guard and 600 members of the Special Republican Guard, a key security force.

The Iraqis have put their casualties among the Republican Guard much lower, with a death toll of less than 100, saying the troops had time to disperse before the attacks began.

Shelton and Zinni painted a portrait of a regime that they contend was badly disrupted by the U.S. and British raids.

The officials said the attacks’ aftermath brought signs of disloyalty and resentment among Hussein’s forces, met in turn by a brutal crackdown from Baghdad. The latest assessments of battle damage showed that the destruction to Hussein’s infrastructure might be more extensive than first believed, the officials said.

Their briefings came during a week in which Hussein has repeatedly sent his fighter aircraft into U.S.-patrolled “no-fly” zones in the northern and southern regions of Iraq in apparent hopes of downing U.S. pilots and regaining the propaganda upper hand. In response, the Pentagon is dispatching eight additional F-16 aircraft, plus four fuel tanker planes, to bolster the air patrols’ ability to knock out the Iraqi radar that is threatening them, officials said.

Zinni said the evidence suggested that while Hussein appears to want to threaten U.S. planes, the Iraqi pilots who are flying into the no-fly zones are not at all eager to enter space where they must challenge better-trained pilots in more sophisticated aircraft.

“We are not seeing a lot of enthusiasm to engage directly,” Zinni said.

There have been 40 violations since Dec. 23 of the zones, which were set up in the wake of the 1991 Persian Gulf War to protect ethnic minorities in Iraq’s north and south.

Zinni said the most striking sign of Hussein’s predicament was a speech he gave this week denouncing rulers of other Arab regimes as “throne dwarfs” for their failure to resist the United States.

Zinni said such intemperate comments were “remarkable” and appeared to reflect Hussein’s deepening frustrations.

“That was clear evidence of his isolation,” Zinni said. “I do believe, personally, that he is shaken.”

Shelton concurred: “I think that Saddam is feeling the pressure, is becoming more desperate.”

Other evidence came in intelligence reports that Hussein has executed several leaders of an army division in the south of Iraq who might have bridled at a new leadership hierarchy that was imposed last month, apparently to ensure the troops’ loyalty.

The new leader of the southern region, Ali Hassan Majid, is known for having used chemical weapons against Kurds in the north of Iraq in 1988 and ruthlessly striking rebellious Shiite Muslims in the south, Zinni said. He surmised that Majid might have ordered the executions after army commanders, unhappy with his appointment and the new hierarchy, balked at his instructions.

“My best take on it is they resented the orders they received, they resented who gave the orders,” Zinni said. In the ranks, “there is some disgruntlement with how this is done and who they report to.”

Zinni said that after sifting through evidence of battle damage, the Pentagon believes that Operation Desert Fox will set back Hussein’s regime further than previously thought.

Officials had previously estimated that the bombardment would disable Hussein’s missile-building factories and other key sites for “at least a year.” Yet Zinni said further study suggests that the missile program probably will be out of commission for two years because of damage to difficult-to-replace equipment.

Further study also revealed that the bombs damaged some key buildings so badly that they were beyond repair, the general said.

In more than 600 sorties, the U.S. and British warplanes struck 100 sites, badly damaging 85% of their targets, the Pentagon says. The targets included command posts, communications centers and military and security police headquarters.

However, the Pentagon might face a tricky public relations problem if Hussein continues his challenges to the no-fly zones.

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), a former fighter pilot, told Shelton at a hearing this week that it is “unconscionable” that the military has not sought to destroy the Iraqi air force that is now challenging them.

U.S. military officials contend that it would be a big job, and a risky one, to go after the estimated 200 to 300 planes in Hussein’s air force. The aircraft are not highly concentrated, and many of them are well protected by air defense sites, officials say.

Yet if any U.S. pilots are downed, McCain and other critics will be able to say that the Pentagon should have heeded their warning.

McCain has “perfectly positioned himself,” one defense official said.

Meanwhile, at the United Nations on Friday, chief weapons inspector Richard Butler asked U.S. delegate Peter Burleigh to provide information about reported efforts by Washington to use the inspectors to collect intelligence against Hussein.

At issue is whether eavesdropping equipment supplied by U.S. intelligence agencies went beyond helping the U.N. Special Commission, or UNSCOM, find hidden armaments and were used by the United States to try to bring down Hussein’s regime.

“Regarding the specific allegations that the United States assumed the lead role in an UNSCOM operation to uncover Iraq’s covert weapons and intelligence networks,” Butler said in a statement, “at no point have I given authorization to place any part of UNSCOM’s operations under the control of the United States or any other supporting government.”

Newspaper reports have charged that the United States--which processed the inspectors’ data--gave UNSCOM only a portion of the intercepts and retained information useful against Iraq’s government.

Times staff writer John J. Goldman at the United Nations contributed to this report.

* ARABS COOL TO HUSSEIN: Iraqi leader’s war of words with his neighbors has eroded support for him in the Arab world. A4