File: 082696_d50028_126.txt
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Wednesday --- Three Iraqi tank battalions attack allied positions in Saudi Arabia near Kuwai
border. Iraqis occupy abandoned port town of Khai~i before being driven back along virtually the entire
front by U.S. Marines and Arab infantry. Twelve Marines are killed, two wounded, the first U.S.
ground troops to die in combat. Iraq loses at least 24 tanks and a dozen other vehicles. (New York
Times, January 31, p. Al.)

Bush Administration scrambles to contain political damage from a Soviet-American communique that
embarrassed President Bush by indicating the U.S. was offering a cease-fire and willing to link: the
Persian Gulf war to the Palestinian dispute. (New York Times, January 3 i[, p. Al.)

Western military officials report the Iraqis have created a new oil slick by opening valves at. the
Mina Al Bakr oil terminal, northeast of the Kuwaiti island of Bubiyan. (New York Times, January 31,
p. All.)

U.S. and British helicopters and fighter-bombers destroy at least six Iraqi missile-carrying patrol
boats in a 12 hour battle in the northern Persian Gulf. (New York Times, January 31, p. A13.)

Chancellor Helmut Kohl says he will seek to amend the German Constitution, which prohibits
dispatch of German troops to combat zones outside the NATO theater. Germany also offers a ~;soo
million defense package to Israel, including Patriot missiles, equipment to contain poison gas, an-d two
submarines. (New York Times, January 31, p. A14.)

The U.S. estimates its costs for military operations in the Persian Gulf for the first three months 0
1991 to be $60 billion. Current costs are now running about $500 million per day. So far, estimates
of "burden-sharing" pledges from U.S. allies:

Kuwait $18.5 billion
Saudi Arabia $14.3 billion
Japan $11.9 billion
Germany $5.5 billion
U.A.E. $1.6 billion
Korea $ 145 million

(USA Today, January 31, p. 7A.)

An officer in China's People's Liberation Army and diplomats in Beijing disclose Chinese leaders
were secretly searching last month for a country willing to smuggle weapons to Iraq even as they
pledged support for the arms embargo against Saddam Hussein's military. Western diplomats say it is
unlikely Beijing will go ahead with such sales amid the current hostilities in the Gulf. (Christian
Science Monitor, January 31; p. 1.)

In a Washington Post survey, 85 percent of Americans express a "great deal1, or "quite a lot" of
confidence in the military, the highest figure in at least two decades. The 85 percent confidence rating

2-100