File: 082696_d50028_141.txt
Page: 141
Total Pages: 274

Five people have died in previous attacks, two from injuries and three from heart attacks suffered when
missiles landed. Twelve more have died from suffocation or other problems related to wearing gas
masks during alerts. (New York Times, February 17, p. 19.)

-- In contrast to American assertions that Iraqi morale is sinking, Pakistani, Sudanese and Jordanian
refugees say Iraqi spirits remain high and anger against the U.S. is nearly universal. (New York Times,
February 17, p. 21.)

Arab members of the coalition at war with Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Syria, BaInain, Oman, Qatar,
the United Arab Emirates and the exiled Kuwaiti Government, re-affirm their united stand, and again
call on Baghdad to withdraw from "all Kuwaiti territories without conditions or strings. ` (New York
Times, February 17, p. 21.)

February 17
Sunday --- Iraqi Foreign Minister Tariq Aziz arrives in Moscow for a meeting with Soviet President
Mikhail S. Gorbachev in which Moscow hopes to discern whether Iraq's conditional offer of a
withdrawal from Kuwait on Friday represents an opening bid to end the war. Mr. Aziz's visit is the
focus of intense interest in the Soviet Union and abroad. (New York Times, February 18, p. Al.)

Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir says Israel would not be willing to discuss any new regional peace
initiatives until the war ends. (New York Times, February 18, p. A7.)

) --- U.S. troops clash with Iraqi forces on the Saudi frontier as the Iraqis probe troop dispositions. Two
Americans are killed and six are wounded when their M-1 13 armored personnel carrier and Bradley
fighting vehicle are struck by American Hellfire missiles fired from Apache attack helicopters. Of the
14 American ground troops killed in the 32 days of fighting, ten have been listed as victims of "friendly
fire." (New York Times, February 18, p. Al.)

Indications of an imminent ground attack are evident, as tank transporters, ammunition vans, off-
road trucks and vehicles of every description pour north and west across the desert towards the frontier.
} (New York Times, February 18, p. Al.)

Iraq prevents the Red Cross from meeting allied prisoners of war and from determining how
desperate conditions have become in battered Iraqi cities. (New York Times, February 18, p. A7.)

The Army states its disciplinary problems among soldiers in Saudi Arabia is less than a third of that
for Army troops stationed elsewhere in the world. This is attributed in part to absence of drugs and
alcohol in Muslim Saudi Arabia. (New York Times, February 18, p. Al.)

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