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Bush's ceasefire order in response to Allied defeat, says Iraq

Guns silent in Gulf
★ Our quarrel is not with the Iraqi people, says Bush as he announces coalition demands for a formal ceasefire
★ More than 40 out of 42 Iraqi Divisions are destroyed in the 100-hour ground war
★ French forces will stay in Iraq as long as UN wants
★ Gorbachev's peace plan was basis for ceasefire: Soviet official says
★ Hungry Iraqis curse Saddam in broken English
★ US infantrymen were less than 100 miles from Baghdad
* 150,000 Iraqi soldiers may have died in the fighting
NICOSIA Feb 28: The guns fell silent In the Gulf on Thursday after US President George Bush announced Wednesday night that Kuwait is free and Iraq defeated. He declared Allied forces would suspend fighting at midnight (0500 GMT Thursday), report agencies.
"This war Is now behind us." the President said. "Ahead of us Is the difficult task of securing a potentially historic peace."
He said the suspension of combat operations was dependent upon Iraqi forces not firing upon coalition troops or launching more Scud missile attacks.
He also sakl Baghdad must comply with all United Nations resolutions.
"At every opportunity. I have said to the people of Iraq that our quarrel was not with them but Instead with their leadership." Bush said. This remains the case. You the people of Iraq are not the enemy. We do not seek your destruction. We have treated your POWs with kindness".
President Bush said, coalition political and military terms for a formal cease-fire Include the following requirements: Iraq must release Immediately ail coalition prisoners of war. third country nationals and the remains of all who have fallen. Iraq must release all Kuwait detainees. Iraq also must Inform Kuwaiti authorities of the location and nature of all land and sea mines. Iraq must comply fully with all relevant United Nations Security Council resolutions. This Includes a rescinding of Iraq's August decision to annex Kuwait and acceptance In principle of Iraq's responsibility to pay compensation for the loss, damage and Injury Its aggression has caused.
The coalition calls upon the Iraqi government to designate military commanders to meet within 48 hours with their coalition counterparts at a place In the theater of operations to be specified to arrange for military aspects of the cease-fire.
Further. I have asked From Page I Col 8 rctary of Stale James A. Baker to request that the United Nations Security Council meet to formulate the necessary arrangements for this war to be ended.
If Iraq violates these terms, coalition forces will be free to resume military operations. Bush added.
World leaders in the antiIraq coalition declared victory and credited their resolve against Saddam Hussein as a cease-fire took effect In the Gulf on Thursday, but they said peace remains to be secured.
A leading Soviet official, however, claimed Mikhail Gorbachev’s peace plan was the basis for Thursday’s cease-fire.
AP from Paris says: The French government announced the end of hostilities in the Gulf War on Thursday as 24 French soldiers wounded in a minefield explosion returned home for medical treatment.
Defense Minister Pierre Joxc told a news conference that French troops would remain in Iraq as long as wished by the international community to guarantee the peace.
The soldiers are systematically destroying equipment abandoned by Iraqi troops fleeing the Allied blitzkrieg, he said
He added. French troops in Iraq will hold their positions until the United Nations workers out cease-fire details.
British Prime Minister John Major satd early Thursday lie fully agreed with President Bush's announcement of a cease-fire in the Gulf War.
"The Prime Minister and President Bush talked by telephone Wednesday evening", said a statement issued by his office.
Iraqi forces AFP says have been ordered to observe a cease fire In the Gulf war. offi cial Baghdad radio announced al 11.00 am Baghdad time Thursday.
'Orders have been given to Iraqi forces to refrain from taking the initiative to open fire" on enemy troops, a military spokesman said in a broadcast monitored in Nicosia.
‘We are happy with the end of military operations, for that will spare our sons and other human beings bloodshed." he said.
The Iraqi spokesman said Bush's call had been In response to the "defeat" of Al-
lied troops in southern Iraq on Wednesday.
"Iraqi forces inflicted heavy losses on the enemies and taught them an unforgettable lesson in fighting Wednesday night in Basra province and other regions
The spokesman made no mention of reports that Iraq had bowed to Allied demands and unconditionally accepted all 12 United Nations Security Council resolutions on the Gulf crisis.
Iraq remained defiant to the end. saying Its armed forces "taught the allies lessons which worried them militarily and politically."
Allied forces devastated more than 40 of 42 Iraqi divisions in the four-day ground war and the surviving remnants were being allowed to return home when the ceasefire started Thursday morning, a senior US military source said.
At the 8 am (0500 GMT) cease-fire deadline. Allied forces were ordered to slop
offensive operations and go into defensive positions, the source said, speaking on condition he was not identified.
The Allied troops carried out offensive operations until the deadline, backed by continued air strikes against escape routes and strategic targets, the source said.
At least 80.000 Iraqi troops have been taken prisoner since Allied forces crossed into Iraq and Kuwait, including about 40 who Initially surrendered to a pilotless Marine drone reconnaissance aircraft and were photographed by its camera, the source said.
At deadline time, the fighting was concentrated in three areas: two in northern Kuwait where demoralized Iraqi troops were trying to head home and one in southern Iraq against remnants of Saddam Hussein's best-trained Republican Guard units, the source said.
The US commander. Gen H Norman Schwarzkopf, said Wednesday night that Allied forces had "closed the gate" for Iraqi troops to escape north with their tanks and artillery. But that changed after the ceasefire started.
US Screaming Eagles infantrymen were less than 100 miles (160 kilometres) from Baghdad on Wednesday after an assault deep into Iraqi territory.
More than 8.000 infantrymen were airlifted into Iraq during more than 72 hours of continuous operations. No American casualties were reported. and they encountered little resistance.
The lighting strike began early Monday, when hundreds of helicopters moved thousands of troops in what the division said was the largest airborne assault in military history.
Within three hours. Blackhawk. Cobra, and Chinook helicopters led by Apache attack choppers, moved more than 3,000 soldiers into Iraq.
The next day scores of helicopters launched what officers said was the longest air assault ever, dropping three battalions of infantrymen about 130 miles (210 kilometers) into Iraq. On Wednesday thousands more roared into Iraq on helicopters.
Bumed-out shells of civilian and military vehicles dotted the road. Bedouin tents filled the horizon, surrounded by herds of skittish sheep that sprinted in all directions as attack helicopters buzzed the fertile plain. Along the highway dozens of ragged-looking Iraqi civilians looted one burned-out truck that had been carting flour
Women turned from the looting to expose a single
breast to American soldiers and point to their mouths in a sign troops inlcrprcted to mean they had babies to feed. Iraqi men also pointed to their mouths and cursed Saddam Hussein In broken English.
Scores of Iraqi tanks lay in flames, smoldering in dug-in fortifications of sand and dirt.
The Iraqi air force, though powerful was never a factor The allies quickly established superiority in the skies and pounded Iraqi targets at will for the entire war. The Iraqi Navy was quickly sunk or dis ablcd.
Much of Iraq's air force fled to Iran, and some Iraqi planes were destroyed on the ground despite Iraqi efforts to shelter them in hatdened bunkers.
While the allies brought In high-tech weaponry. Iraq's most powerful weapons turned out to be among its crudest. It sowed the Gulf war mines and used modified Scud missiles to terrorize Israel and Saudi Arabia.
Allied losses were put at: 126 killed In action. 56 miss ing in action and 13 prisoners of war.