Iraqis Kuwait

Not every enemy soldier fled north in February when coalition forces chased Saddam Hussein's army back to Iraq. Dozens of Iraqi stragglers, perhaps hundreds, have shed their uniforms and taken up residence in vacant homes here in this suburb of Kuwait city, authorities said Friday. Between 30 and 35 Iraqi soldiers posing as stateless Arabs have already been rooted out, according to Kuwaiti army intelligence officers. Many of the soldiers are believed to be survivors of the Feb.

The Clinton Administration has obtained what it regards as credible evidence that the government of Iraq tried to assassinate former President George Bush three weeks ago, and President Clinton's top advisers are divided on how to respond, Administration officials disclosed Friday.

The Clinton Administration has obtained what it regards as credible evidence that the government of Iraq tried to assassinate former President George Bush three weeks ago, and President Clinton's top advisers are divided on how to respond, Administration officials disclosed Friday.

An American bomb-disposal expert, free in Kuwait after Iraqi police seized him in a border dispute, blinked back tears Sunday as he described a terrifying ordeal, but he said he was not harmed. Chad Hall, released Saturday after two days in Iraq, said his hopes for a quick and peaceful resolution of the dispute withered as he was led away at gunpoint, then taken to Baghdad and issued a prison uniform.

Kuwait's National Council opened Tuesday in what government officials hailed as the first step toward democracy, but the opposition criticized it as a fig leaf concealing the Sabah dynasty's absolute rule. "I think it's a good start. It's a legitimate thing when you have 50 members elected by the people . . . and it will serve to bring up a loud debate inside Kuwait," said Sheik Nasser al Sabah al Ahmed al Sabah, a leading member of the emirate's ruling family.

The man wore only dirty white boxer shorts. His black pants were used to tie his hands behind him. His pink shirt was used as a blindfold. Nothing covered the black bruises on his muscular arms or the crudely stitched gash in his forehead. But sometime early Sunday, he was taken to an underpass on the Magreb Highway, the capital's main artery, and forced to kneel.

The Kuwaiti military has dumped hundreds of people, arrested since liberation two weeks ago, on Iraq's border, and several said they had been tortured and brutally beaten by Kuwaiti troops in a secret prison. U.S. military police say three to four buses and trucks have arrived daily for at least four days, dropping Palestinians, Jordanians, North Africans and Iraqis at this desolate border crossing. Many were badly bruised, and at least two men required hospitalization, the Americans said.

In an apparent violation of an international agreement it signed in March, Kuwait forcibly repatriated at least 36 Iraqi civilians on Tuesday. The internees, including 11 women and six children, were taken from an immigration detention center in Kuwait city where about 600 people are reportedly awaiting deportation. They were loaded onto two buses bound for the border town of Abdaly, where they were to be marched across the no-man's-land into Safwan, Iraq.

In launching a new wave of brutality and temporarily opening the Kuwaiti border, Iraqi President Saddam Hussein appears to be embarking on a strategy to keep control of Kuwait by literally changing its face--ridding it of its own citizens and replacing them with Iraqis and sympathetic Palestinians, U.S. analysts say.

An American citizen was reported to have been shot and wounded by Iraqi troops in Kuwait city as he tried to evade capture, the State Department said Wednesday night. The department said it had no information about the nature or seriousness of the man's wounds. Spokesman Tom Dougherty said the U.S. Embassy in Kuwait had demanded that Iraqi officials give them access to the man, but the efforts so far had been in vain.

Kuwait's National Council opened Tuesday in what government officials hailed as the first step toward democracy, but the opposition criticized it as a fig leaf concealing the Sabah dynasty's absolute rule. "I think it's a good start. It's a legitimate thing when you have 50 members elected by the people . . . and it will serve to bring up a loud debate inside Kuwait," said Sheik Nasser al Sabah al Ahmed al Sabah, a leading member of the emirate's ruling family.

In an apparent violation of an international agreement it signed in March, Kuwait forcibly repatriated at least 36 Iraqi civilians on Tuesday. The internees, including 11 women and six children, were taken from an immigration detention center in Kuwait city where about 600 people are reportedly awaiting deportation. They were loaded onto two buses bound for the border town of Abdaly, where they were to be marched across the no-man's-land into Safwan, Iraq.

Not every enemy soldier fled north in February when coalition forces chased Saddam Hussein's army back to Iraq. Dozens of Iraqi stragglers, perhaps hundreds, have shed their uniforms and taken up residence in vacant homes here in this suburb of Kuwait city, authorities said Friday. Between 30 and 35 Iraqi soldiers posing as stateless Arabs have already been rooted out, according to Kuwaiti army intelligence officers. Many of the soldiers are believed to be survivors of the Feb.

The man wore only dirty white boxer shorts. His black pants were used to tie his hands behind him. His pink shirt was used as a blindfold. Nothing covered the black bruises on his muscular arms or the crudely stitched gash in his forehead. But sometime early Sunday, he was taken to an underpass on the Magreb Highway, the capital's main artery, and forced to kneel.

The Kuwaiti military has dumped hundreds of people, arrested since liberation two weeks ago, on Iraq's border, and several said they had been tortured and brutally beaten by Kuwaiti troops in a secret prison. U.S. military police say three to four buses and trucks have arrived daily for at least four days, dropping Palestinians, Jordanians, North Africans and Iraqis at this desolate border crossing. Many were badly bruised, and at least two men required hospitalization, the Americans said.

In the final days and hours before the massive allied ground assault began on occupied Kuwait, Youssef Douba watched helplessly as some of his best friends simply disappeared. A few showed up a short while later, dumped at their doorsteps--with bullet holes in their head. "It was getting worse in the final days. The Iraqis were taking everyone and everything," said the 21-year-old ethnic Syrian, who left his native Kuwait just two hours before the land war began.

In the final days and hours before the massive allied ground assault began on occupied Kuwait, Youssef Douba watched helplessly as some of his best friends simply disappeared. A few showed up a short while later, dumped at their doorsteps--with bullet holes in their head. "It was getting worse in the final days. The Iraqis were taking everyone and everything," said the 21-year-old ethnic Syrian, who left his native Kuwait just two hours before the land war began.

Iraq said today it has annexed Kuwait, the emirate it overran six days ago. U.S. troops began arriving to protect Iraq's neighbor, Saudi Arabia, but Arab states balked at joining the U.S. forces. Iraq said its formal takeover of Kuwait--which it described as a merger--came at the request of the provisional government it installed in the emirate last week. A statement announcing the annexation came shortly after President Bush confirmed that U.S.

In its first week, the Persian Gulf War was a spectacular showcase for the high-tech weaponry of the 21st Century--with one conspicuous exception. The nation's most advanced bomber, the B-1, stayed home. The Strategic Air Command says the $280-million-a-copy aircraft, the most expensive warplane currently in any arsenal, cannot be spared from the U.S. strategic deterrent.

In launching a new wave of brutality and temporarily opening the Kuwaiti border, Iraqi President Saddam Hussein appears to be embarking on a strategy to keep control of Kuwait by literally changing its face--ridding it of its own citizens and replacing them with Iraqis and sympathetic Palestinians, U.S. analysts say.