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Ground war to begin at several points

Allies to encircle, divide Iraqi troops, retake Kuwait
WASHINGTON. Feb 23: A ground war for control of Kuwait which seems incrcas ingly likely, could be a frustrating. bloody affair despite weeks of punishing Allied air attacks against entrenched Iraqi troops. US military official say. reports Reuter.
Even if American-led coalition forces use speedy armoured columns and highly mobile airborne and amphibious troops In coordinated drives to encircle Iraqi troops and artillery, close combat will take a toll on the attackers.
'It's not going to be a snap...war Is a bloody thing." Army Lieutenant-General Tom Kelly, a senior official with the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters this week.
"I can still draw up 15 scenarios every day that will cause us a lot of problems.' Gulf US Commander General Norman Schwarzkopf told the Los Angeles Times newspaper.
Senior Pentagon officials, who asked not to be identified, stressed there were still a half million Iraqi troops in and near Kuwait and that minefields. chemical artillery shells, allies.
"Even If you don't take them head on. it will probably be frustrating at points to say the least. Don't look for this thing to be over in a week." said one of the officials.
The official refused to give any hint at the liming for a ground war after Iraqi President Saddam Hussein vowed in a speech on Thursday that his country would continue the struggle in the Gulf war. confident of victory .
Al the White House, spokesman Marlin Fitzwater implied President George Bush had not yet made a final decision on when to launch a ground offensive.
When and if Bush gives the order for the attack by ele meats of a 700.OOO-st rung coalition force, it is expected to result In an attempt to encircle. divide and conquer rather than a broad, head-on charge against entrenched Iraqis.
Instead of thrusting whole Allied divisions across 100 mites (160 km) of Saudi border into Kuwait at once, defence officials have indicated that a ground war would begin at several points, including an amphibious landing tn northeastern Kuwait and a strike Into southern Iraq west of Kuwait The attack could come as early as this week, the same week that US marines 46 years ago launched an attack on the Japanese-occupied island of Two Jima in the Pacific. Those forces had been softened by a massive air and naval bombardment. but the attackers suffered nearly 23.000 dead and wounded in capturing the .jungle island during World War
II.
All but about 200 of the 23.J00 Japanese defenders died, manv in suicide attacks.
Major-General Harry Jenkins Commander of a
17.000 man US marine amphibious force in the Gulf, told reporters on Wednesday that he would try to avoid a direct attack on Iraqi defences in any risky assault on the beaches of Kuwait
He said abroad the command ship USS Nassau In the Gulf that an amphibious landing would likely cause substantial damage to civilian property on the coastline.
Jenkins, who commands an amphibious force that has been at sea for six months, said possible operations for his troops included a full-scale landing, or mote limited operations or even a decoy assault or feint to He down coastal defence troops while Allied ground forces launched attacks elsewhere.
He said that much of the Kuwaiti coastline is urban and that buildings, many of them fortified by Iraqi troops, would be targets for naval gunfire and air strikes before marines hit tbx- beach.
in Saudi Aranbia on Thursday. US Marine Brlga dicr-General Richard Neval suggested that fighting to liberate Kuwait city, for example. could be very difficult.
They (Iraqis) have woven themselves into the very fabric and structure of Kuwait city, he told reporters.
US Chiefs of Staff Chairman General Colin Powell and his Gulf commanders stress that . mobility and air power are keys to isolating and chopping up Iraqi defenders, many of them in underground bunkers.
"I'm not going to go stupidly into what he (Saddam) believes is his strength... We will go against his weaknesses with otr strengths." Powell told reporters returning with him from a visit to Saudi Arabia last month.