Kuwait City Kuwait

Saddam Hussein's secret police came for Dr. Hisham Abedan at night. His crime: He had treated a wounded Kuwaiti man in his home. For 12 days last September they tortured the devout Muslim gynecologist from Kuwait Maternity Hospital, plucking his fingernails out and burning him with cigarettes, his colleagues said Thursday. Then they took him home at midnight and called his family outside.

He may not enjoy the honor in Washington, but President Bush can now savor the pleasure of having a street named after him in Kuwait city--and not just any street. Enterprising Kuwaitis have painted over the signs to Baghdad Street, replacing the Iraqi capital's name with the President's name, misspelled as "Busch." Heading a 28-nation coalition, Bush launched Operation Desert Storm on Jan. 17 to drive Iraqi troops out of Kuwait after a seven-month occupation.

The first U.S. forces entered the capital city of Kuwait. There was fierce fighting near the Kuwait International Airport between Iraqis and U.S. Marines. Hassan Sanad, the Kuwaiti Information Ministry deputy director, said simply: "We confirm that Kuwait city is free." U.S. officials remained cautious, however. There were immediate signs of joy and a hint of the problems ahead: Central Kuwait city: Government buildings, the Royal Palace and major hotels reportedly have been burned or destroyed.

The line for lentils, sugar, cooking oil and flour begins at a small co-op in the Jabriyah neighborhood, winds down the block and trickles around the corner. The water line begins about two miles up the road, where three dozen men stand quietly waiting to fill 10-gallon jugs from a trickling pipe. Gas lines last week stretched upwards of a mile. There is no more rice. There are no vegetables, no fruit, no meat, no batteries, no milk, no cooking or heating gas.

The line for lentils, sugar, cooking oil and flour begins at a small co-op in the Jabriyah neighborhood, winds down the block and trickles around the corner. The water line begins about two miles up the road, where three dozen men stand quietly waiting to fill 10-gallon jugs from a trickling pipe. Gas lines last week stretched upwards of a mile. There is no more rice. There are no vegetables, no fruit, no meat, no batteries, no milk, no cooking or heating gas.

Kuwait's exiled leadership said it has received reports that Iraqi occupation forces in Kuwait, battered by constant bombing, have stepped up civilian executions and begun robbing families for food since air attacks began Jan. 17. In a glimpse of life for Kuwaiti civilians since the war began, officials at exile headquarters here painted a picture of Kuwait city suffering under the allied bombing onslaught.

As a cessation of hostilities concluded Kuwait's seven-month ordeal of occupation, government officials here moved swiftly Thursday to control sporadic outbreaks of urban violence in a city where basic, day-to-day government has become another casualty of war. Two guards at the Palestine Liberation Organization embassy were shot by angry Kuwaitis, and gunfire rang out from a school and near a police station in a heavily Palestinian neighborhood of the Kuwaiti capital.

He may not enjoy the honor in Washington, but President Bush can now savor the pleasure of having a street named after him in Kuwait city--and not just any street. Enterprising Kuwaitis have painted over the signs to Baghdad Street, replacing the Iraqi capital's name with the President's name, misspelled as "Busch." Heading a 28-nation coalition, Bush launched Operation Desert Storm on Jan. 17 to drive Iraqi troops out of Kuwait after a seven-month occupation.

Urban warfare historically has been among the most difficult operations for an offensive force. Despite the apparent withdrawal by most Iraqis from Kuwait city, there still could be house-to-house combat to clear pockets of resistance, U.S. military officials say. * THE PROBLEM. Even a few entrenched Iraqi troops could turn city blocks and buildings into highly defensible fortresses. * CLEARING OBSTACLES. Engineers would be asked to clear streets of bombs, barbed wire and other obstacles.

With a sense of foreboding, the hundreds of thousands of Kuwaiti civilians and Iraqi troops in Kuwait city are bracing for what could be the bloody, climactic battle of the Persian Gulf War in the streets of the ransacked capital. According to Kuwaitis and Westerners who have maintained direct contact with people inside the occupied emirate, Iraqi troops are rounding up civilians, forcing some to give blood and possibly holding others as human shields.

It was Kuwait city or bust. After seven months of Iraqi occupation, the Kuwaiti capital had been liberated--and nearly 1,000 restless journalists already bored with war and intrigued by peace prepared to slingshot themselves into Kuwait any way they could. It wasn't going to be easy.

As a cessation of hostilities concluded Kuwait's seven-month ordeal of occupation, government officials here moved swiftly Thursday to control sporadic outbreaks of urban violence in a city where basic, day-to-day government has become another casualty of war. Two guards at the Palestine Liberation Organization embassy were shot by angry Kuwaitis, and gunfire rang out from a school and near a police station in a heavily Palestinian neighborhood of the Kuwaiti capital.

Saddam Hussein's secret police came for Dr. Hisham Abedan at night. His crime: He had treated a wounded Kuwaiti man in his home. For 12 days last September they tortured the devout Muslim gynecologist from Kuwait Maternity Hospital, plucking his fingernails out and burning him with cigarettes, his colleagues said Thursday. Then they took him home at midnight and called his family outside.

Urban warfare historically has been among the most difficult operations for an offensive force. Despite the apparent withdrawal by most Iraqis from Kuwait city, there still could be house-to-house combat to clear pockets of resistance, U.S. military officials say. * THE PROBLEM. Even a few entrenched Iraqi troops could turn city blocks and buildings into highly defensible fortresses. * CLEARING OBSTACLES. Engineers would be asked to clear streets of bombs, barbed wire and other obstacles.

Coalition forces crushed resistance around Kuwait city and cut off the main body of Iraq's elite Republican Guard on Tuesday as Saddam Hussein's armies reeled and fled before a massive allied air and land offensive. "The Iraqi army is in full retreat, although there is some fighting going on," Lt. Gen. Thomas W. Kelly, chief of operations for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said in Washington. "Tomorrow, when the sun comes up, the question in my mind is whether the enemy is going to be there."

The scene Tuesday was precisely what the Pentagon had spent years trying to avoid--ever since the invasion of Grenada in 1983. As allied forces stormed into Iraq and Kuwait, routing retreating Iraqi forces, Americans saw dramatic moments of surrender and liberation televised live by American news correspondents who had violated Pentagon rules and taken to the battlefield unsupervised, carrying portable satellite "uplinks."

Coalition forces crushed resistance around Kuwait city and cut off the main body of Iraq's elite Republican Guard on Tuesday as Saddam Hussein's armies reeled and fled before a massive allied air and land offensive. "The Iraqi army is in full retreat, although there is some fighting going on," Lt. Gen. Thomas W. Kelly, chief of operations for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said in Washington. "Tomorrow, when the sun comes up, the question in my mind is whether the enemy is going to be there."

The scene Tuesday was precisely what the Pentagon had spent years trying to avoid--ever since the invasion of Grenada in 1983. As allied forces stormed into Iraq and Kuwait, routing retreating Iraqi forces, Americans saw dramatic moments of surrender and liberation televised live by American news correspondents who had violated Pentagon rules and taken to the battlefield unsupervised, carrying portable satellite "uplinks."

The first U.S. forces entered the capital city of Kuwait. There was fierce fighting near the Kuwait International Airport between Iraqis and U.S. Marines. Hassan Sanad, the Kuwaiti Information Ministry deputy director, said simply: "We confirm that Kuwait city is free." U.S. officials remained cautious, however. There were immediate signs of joy and a hint of the problems ahead: Central Kuwait city: Government buildings, the Royal Palace and major hotels reportedly have been burned or destroyed.

Kuwait's exiled leadership said it has received reports that Iraqi occupation forces in Kuwait, battered by constant bombing, have stepped up civilian executions and begun robbing families for food since air attacks began Jan. 17. In a glimpse of life for Kuwaiti civilians since the war began, officials at exile headquarters here painted a picture of Kuwait city suffering under the allied bombing onslaught.