Activity 20, The Bombed Out Bomb Shelter
The Air War: How Targets are Chosen
The intelligence analysis U.S. officials offered last week to buttress their case reveals a great deal about the painstaking methods they use in the air war in the gulf. Preparations for the strike on the bunker began months before the bombs actually fell. The CIA, for example, interviewed contractors and workers, including Koreans and Pakistanis, who constructed the bunker and about 20 others like it in Baghdad during the Iran-Iraq war.
Satellite photographs of the building showed at least two additions: a newly hardened roof and communications equipment that was protected against electromagnetic effects of nuclear blasts. The satellites also snapped pictures of military vehicles parked outside and men in uniform entering and exiting the building. A wire-mesh fence surrounded the bunker; its roof had been painted with camouflage and fake bomb holes.
The clincher came last month, when U.S. intelligence satellites picked up radio transmissions from the bunker, sending orders to Iraqi military units in the Kuwait theater of operations. Missing from the accumulated evidence were any photos of civilians entering the bunker at night in search of safety. American officers say they assumed that civilians were being kept out because it was a military security area and the wire-mesh fence was there for that purpose.
Source: Adapted from Bruce W. Nelan, "The Air War: How Targets are Chosen," Time Magazine, February 25, 1991, p. 27.
A senior civil defense official said scores of people remained buried and there was no hope that any of them were still alive. . . A black-robed woman survivor, cursing the U.S. screamed: "May the same fate be inflicted on them."
In a satellite telephone interview, which the BBC World Service said was free of Iraqi censorship, reporter Alan Little described the rescue operation as "almost panic-stricken."
Asked if there were any military or strategic installations nearby, he said: "Not as far as we could see and certainly as far as the Iraqi authorities would be prepared to tell us."
Source: Adapted from The Sydney Morning Herald, February 14, 1991, p. 1.
In the propaganda stakes, Iraq is now playing effectively the civilian-damage card, even though it is impossible to verify its claims. . . that one-third of the 96 air raids on Monday night were directed at civilian targets.
Radio Baghdad said yesterday that enemy aircraft had attacked a number of bridges, "a general hospital, a maternity hospital, a nursery, civilian cars, a wooden bridge, a water storage tank and tents occupied by nomads."
The BBC's Alan Little reported from the Iraqi capital last night: "Shortly after midnight a series of explosions shook the center of the city. A fourth bridge over the Tigris took a direct hit."
Source: Adapted from Paul McGeogh, "Not-so-strategic Targets Reported Hit in Baghdad," The Sydney Morning Herald, February 14, 1991, p. 27.
Allied Leaders Claim Bombed Bunker Was Legitimate Military Target
HUNDREDS OF IRAQIS KILLED IN SHELTER
Hundreds of women and children were killed or wounded when American bombers blasted a packed air raid shelter in Baghdad yesterday. The heavy civilian toll, the greatest in a single incident in the war, stunned the world and led to renewed questioning of the bombing campaign.
Allied leaders moved swiftly to defend the attack, saying that the bunker was a military command and control center giving instructions directly to Iraqi forces. But the huge loss of life and the graphic pictures of the victims may have a devastating impact on public opinion.
Source: Martin Fletcher, "Allied Leaders Claim Bombed Bunker Was Legitimate Military Target," The (London) Times, February 14, 1991, p. 1.
Fitzwater's Statement on Bombing of Building in Iraq
Washington, Feb. 13 (Reuters)--Following is a transcript of a statement today by Martin Fitzwater, the White House spokesman, as provided by News Transcripts, Inc.:
Last night coalition forces bombed a military command-and-control center in Baghdad that, according to press reports, resulted in a number of civilian casualties.
The bunker that was attacked last night was a military target, a command-and-control center that fed instructions directly to the Iraqi war machine, painted and camouflaged to avoid detection, and well documented as a military target. We have been systematically attacking these targets since the war began. We don't know why civilians were at this location. But we do know that Saddam Hussein does not share our value in the sanctity of life. Indeed, he, time and again, has shown a willingness to sacrifice civilian lives and property that further his war aims.
Civilian hostages were moved in November and December to military sites for use as human shields. P.O.W.'s reportedly also have been placed at military sites.
Used with permission from Reuters. Adapted from The New York Times, February 14, 1991.
Iraqi President Saddam Hussein apparently hopes by emphasizing causalities "to drive a wedge between the United States and the Arab world and Europe, and encourage the U.S. peace movement," said Jim Philips, a Middle East analyst with the Heritage Foundation.
Source: Manilla Bulletin, February 14, 1991, p. B-22
Iraqi officials claim 500 civilians were killed when bombs from a US Stealth jet struck a bomb shelter in a middle-class Baghdad neighborhood before dawn Wednesday.
With distraught relatives looking on, crews spent hours pulling charred bodies--mostly women and children from the rubble. Terry Gander, who edits Jane's NBC Protection Equipment annual: "The idea is that they are intended to be military shelters, but the upper area is let out to the locals," and downstairs is where military officials are set up.
Source: Adapted from Manilla Bulletin, February 15, 1991.
Washington, Feb. 13 (Reuters)--Excerpts from Pentagon Remarks on Iraqi Concrete Building's Destruction.
Navy Captain David Herrington: Why do we know this is a command-and-control facility? We know a great deal about this facility. For example, we know that in the early 80's during the Iran-Iraq War, this facility was constructed. But the key point is, it was converted to a military command-and-control facility in the late 1980's. As a part of that conversion, it was taken over by the military. There was clear and definite association with command-and-control equipment. That command-and-control equipment that was there was actually hardened--it was hardened to protect itself against both normal bombing attacks that would take place plus it was even hardened to the point that it would withstand a nuclear attack. In other words, it had electromagnetic over-pressure E.N.P. protection, electromagnetic pulse protection.
The point being that this is not a shelter in the classic sense of the word. It had a lot of military-associated equipment there. It has a camouflaged roof, and a barbed wire security fence around it.
General Thomas Kelly: First, everything we're seeing is coming out of a controlled press in Baghdad, so we don't know what all the facts are, we don't have a free press there asking hard questions like you all do here. We didn't know that there were people in there. I think I heard on TV earlier today they were going in there every night, but that was strictly hearsay. They could have been put in there last night. We simply don't know.
We don't know what the logic would be to put civilians in a place that had the roof painted camouflage and was the only building in the neighborhood that had the roof painted camouflage.
Used with permission from Reuters. Adapted from The New York Times, February 14, 1991.
BAGHDAD AIR RAID SHELTER BLASTED IN ALLIED ATTACK
Allied bombs hit a large air raid shelter in the center of Baghdad yesterday and many casualties were feared, the American Cable News Network reported.
CNN correspondent Peter Arnett said in a live report from the Iraqi capital that the shelter was built to accommodate 1,500 people. It took a direct hit during a night of intense air raids on Baghdad and Arnett and Iraqi officials regarded the blasting of the shelter as a major disaster.
Source: "Baghdad Air Raid Shelter Blasted in Allied Attack," The Ethiopian Herald, February 14, 1991, p. 1
There was thick smoke coming from the roof of a squat concrete building just ahead. A large crowd blocked our way. I saw a sign on a power pole with the traffic sign symbol of a running person, the word "Shelter" written in English and Arabic. I pushed my way through to a chain link fence that surrounded the smoking building. There was frenzied activity in the yard inside. Fire fighters were pushing a water hose up a ramp and into an open steel door in the building. Others were hacking at another entryway, which was jammed. Uniformed military officers were shouting orders. A truck was backed up to the ramp and firemen were carrying down bundles wrapped in blankets and Iraqi flags, and loading them into the vehicle. The crowd murmured in anguish whenever they emerged carrying the bodies.
The shelter manager, Hassan Janadi met me at the entrance. As Ala'a translated, an agitated Janadi estimated that more than four hundred civilians had been in the shelter, mostly women and children. Some had been trapped behind steel doors jammed shut by the intense heat. He said local people brought their own bedding and food to the bunker. This was one of twenty similar shelters around the city constructed in 1984. Ala'a was weeping. "How could America do this?"
We saw no paint or camouflage. Civilians I met at the scene said they had been using the shelter since the war began. I saw an antenna about ten feet high but no other evidence of a high-tech command center. The shelter was located at the center of the suburban community, surrounded by a mosque, a school and a supermarket.
Source: Adapted from Peter Arnett, Live from the Battlefield; From Vietnam to Baghdad, 35 Years in the World's War Zones. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1994. 411-413.
Emotions at the funeral swung chaotically from rage to grief and back again. Hundreds of men and women lined Basra Street as the pickups passed, each holding one or two coffins, many of them tiny. All were covered with the Iraqi flag, showing that the victim was considered a national martyr of war. Men fired bursts from Klashnikovs or shots from revolvers into the air. Others in the streets answered with more automatic fire. Some gunmen were as young as 12.
Most people had lost friends or family. Banners carried messages such as: "Bush killing civilians is a crime."
Salah Jubori, a merchant, left the parade to say: "I lost my sister, her daughter and her son, aged 15 and 18. They were killed while they were sleeping. I shall never rest until I see coffins in Washington. I can only think of revenge."
Source: Adapted from Marie Colvin, The (London) Times, February 14, 1991, p. 1.
World Reaction to Shelter Deaths and Success of Air Attacks Means Land War Near
BOMBING OF BUNKER HASTENS LAND WAR
Well-informed administration sources in Washington also said that the military success and the propaganda disaster of the Baghdad bombing pointed towards an acceleration in the course towards a ground war. Asked if the difficulty of avoiding civilian deaths was a factor in the military timetable, the White House spokesman, Marlin Fitzwater, said "everything is a factor."
At the same time, America is reassessing its targeting to try to avoid a similar public relations disaster. One idea being considered is publicizing attacks on certain "dual use" targets in advance.
Defense Department officials say it was perhaps inevitable that Saddam would show the political ruthlessness to turn the allies' technological advantage against them, purposely putting civilians in the path of laser-guided bombs. Senior planners admit that this tactic boosts the argument for diversionary tactics and an earlier start for the ground war.
Source: Adapted from Peter Stothard, "World Reaction to Shelter Deaths and Success of Air Attacks Means Land War Near," The (London) Times, February 14, 1991, p. 1.
Expect no quarter, give no quarter is an old adage about any war, but here there was a deliberate and successful attempt to make the Gulf War look like a benign and righteous call to arms, in a manner that recalled the crusaders of old. Even after the first reports of the Baghdad bomb-shelter attack by a "precise" missile, the Pentagon statement from Washington is that they (the Pentagon) have no way of knowing if any of this is true--"we just have no way of knowing," the spokesman is alleged to have said. This ignorance in the hi-tech environment that spots Iraqi missile launchers in a matter of second[s] from as far away as Australia cuts little ice and erodes the credibility so necessary for instruments of state in any democracy. Is this the larger definition of the war's aim as prescribed in the U.N. resolution to liberate Kuwait--to flatten Iraqi women and children--or is it just "kicking ass," as an irate Mr. Bush had ounce threatened?
Source: Adapted from C. Uday Bhaskar (a Commander in the Indian Navy), "Ripping the Hi-tech Veil," The Statesman (Calcutta), February 14, 1991, p. 1 & 7.
Bahrain, Feb. 13--At least 700 civilians, most of them women and children, were feared killed when two U.S. missiles blasted an underground bomb shelter in Baghdad early this morning, reports PTI, quoting Iraqi Radio and Western correspondents in Baghdad. But the Pentagon claimed it had no way of confirming the bombing. CNN's Peter Arnett reporting live from Baghdad quoted the manager of the shelter, Mr. Abdullah Azzan Hussan Jamali, as saying that 150 to 250 bodies had been removed so far from the shelter which housed a school, a mosque and a supermarket in al-Ameriya district.
A CBS broadcast in Washington said that there was no military installation anywhere in the middle class neighborhood. The Iraqi Health Minister, Mr. Abdul Salaam Mohammed, said in Baghdad the bombing was a "criminal, premeditated and well-planned attack against civilians."
The attack coming in the wake of repeated U.S. denial of civilian targeting by the allied forces is certain to strengthen the Soviet charge that the coalition was far exceeding the U.N. resolution mandate to drive the Iraqis out of Kuwait.
The CBS broadcast said: "The charred and mutilated remains of the victims were being carried out in a blanket. Some were hardly recognizable as human. Some people wept uncontrollably. One officer said several members of a single family had died."
Arnett said when the journalists were taken to the site after about three hours after the incident, "There was tremendous heat there (inside). Firemen were trying to pull the steel door which they said contains rooms where women and children were spending the night," Arnett reported.
BBC correspondent Jeremy Bowen, who quoted a figure of more than 400 dead, said hostile Iraqis denounced foreign reporters at the scene as "criminals, savages and animals." Adding: "I was glad to get away."
He said he saw bodies badly mutilated and burned. A BBC announcer said some pictures received were too dreadful to show.
The U.S. President, Mr. George Bush has at the same time rejected as "lies" the eye-witness accounts by the Soviet presidential envoy, Mr. Yevgeni Primakov, and Western correspondents of civilian casualties and damage in Baghdad and insisted that the accounts were cranked out by "the Iraqi propaganda machine."
Back from a week's visit to Iraq, the former U.S. Attorney-General Mr. Ramsey Clark, said in New York that the U.S. coalition bombing of civilian targets and areas to break the will of Iraqi people amounted to "war crimes." He urged the U.N. to send an investigation team.
Source: Adapted from The Statesman (Calcutta), February 14, 1991, p. 1.
An unrepentant Bush Administration courted a propaganda disaster and put the cohesion of the Gulf alliance at risk yesterday, insisting in the teeth of televised evidence of hundreds of civilians corpses that US precision-guided weapons had struck "the legitimate military target of a command bunker" in Baghdad.
Mr. Aziz said there were 400 people, mainly women and children, in the building when the bombs struck. He wrote in protest to the United Nations Secretary-General, Javier Pérez de Cuéllar: "We request the United Nations, and request you personally, to condemn this hideous crime."
This grim evidence that the new "smart" weapons are only as good as the intelligence which identifies their targets was the first serious sign of fallibility in the hi-tech US war machine.
The defiant reaction of the White House and the Pentagon suggested that the US was slow to appreciate the political impact of the incident.
The US Defense Secretary, Richard Cheney, said that two US bombs were dropped intentionally "with great precision" on a reinforced Baghdad command and control bunker.
He said that President Saddam Hussein "may have indeed encouraged civilians to occupy what he knew to be a military facility."
In the Commons, Douglas Hurd, the foreign Secretary, described the bombing as a tragedy, but insisted that "the responsibility lies heavily with someone like Saddam Hussein who commits aggression."
The US Central Command in Riyadh, which ordered the raid, evidently decided yesterday that if it was going to be criticized anyway, the best form of defense was attack.
The spokesman in Riyadh, Brigadier-General Richard Neal, said it was a deliberate and technically successful raid on a legitimate military target--a hardened command and control bunker. He said the air force planners felt "very comfortable" with their choice of target. It was a big, hardened structure recently camouflaged with fresh paint, and for the past two weeks had been in communication with Iraqi forces in the Kuwait theater of operations.
Asked if the US regretted civilian deaths, General Neal said: "You're damn right. The coalition had repeatedly stressed that it was not intent on destroying the Iraqi people. If 400 civilians had been killed, as reported, then the American people would be saddened."
Source: © The (Manchester) Guardian, February 14, 1991, p. 1. Used with permission.
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