25 Feb (continuing) Iraqi SCUD missile is fired at Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, breaks up in flight
                         scattering debris over a U.S. housing compound in suburban Al
                         Khobar, killing 27 U.S. Army Reserve personnel, wounding 100
                         others. A SCUD missile fired at Qatar impacts harmlessly.
                   DOD reports 600 fires are now burning in the KTO, including 517 oil well-
                         heads.
                   At 1735 (EST), Baghdad Radio announced that Iraq's "Foreign Minister
                         informed the Soviet ambassador....which constitutes a practical corn-
                         pliance with U.N. Security Council Resolution 660", and Iraqi Presi-
                         dent Saddam Hussein had ordered his troops to make a fighting
                         withdrawal from occupied Kuwait and return to the positions they oc-
                         cupied before the 2 August 1990 invasion of Kuwait.
                   The White House responds, stating there is "no evidence to suggest the Iraqi
                         army is withdrawing. In fact, Iraqi units are continuing to fight.... We
                         continue to prosecute the war. We have heard no reason to change
                         that.... And because the announcement from Baghdad referred to the
                         Soviet initiative, Saddam Hussein must personally and publicly
                         accept explicitly all relevant U.N. Security Council resolutions."
                   Navy implements third "stop loss" action, applying to Navy (Regular and
                         Reserve) cryptologic technician interpreters who are Arabic linguists,
                         and whose effective dates of retirement or separation fall on or after 2
                         March 1991.

26 Feb             On Baghdad Radio, President Saddam Hussein announced Iraqi troops
                         have begun withdrawing from Kuwait and will be completed today.
                         In the 25-minute speech, Hussein maintained that Kuwait
                         is a part of Iraq which was separated from it in the past, and current
                         circumstances are such that armed forces are forcing us to
                         withdraw.... It should be borne in mind that Constantinople was not
                         conquered in the first battle; the result was achieved in other battles."
                   Preside~nt Bush reacted calling Hussein's speech "an outrage. He is not
                         withdrawing. His defeated forces are retreating. He is trying to claim
                         victory in the midst of a rout, and he is not voluntarily giving up
                         Kuwait. He is trying to save the remnants of power and control in the
                         Middle East by every means possible and here, too, Saddam Hussein
                         will fail. Saddam is not interested in peace, but only to regroup and
                         fight another day, and he does not renounce Iraq's claim to Kuwait.
                         To the contrary -- he makes clear that Iraq continues to claim Ku-
                         wait.... He still does not accept UN Security Council resolutions or the
                         coalition terms of 22 February, including the release of our POWs, all
                         POWs, third country detainees, and an end to the pathological de-
                         struction of Kuwait. The coalition will continue to prosecute the war
                         with undiminished intensity.... It is time for all Iraqi forces to lay
                         down their arms. And that will stop the bloodshed.... The liberation
                         of Kuwait is close at hand."
                   At G +3, DOD announces that U.S. and coalindn forces are engaging, out
                         flanking, out-maneuvering and destroying armed and fully retreating

                                           A-4O

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