Press Briefing 27 FEB 91

File: doc53_04.txt
Page: 04
Total Pages: 17

launced an overland att~c~ to thei~ objective Uj) 5-' tl!i5 are~, Al !d.fl~n Al. rfield,
and we were held up a little b~t by the weather, but by 8:00 o'clock in the morning,
the 101st Airborne air assai~1t launched an air assault deep into enemy territo~y to
establish a forward operating base in this location right here. Let me talk about
each one of those moves.

First of all, the Saudis over here on the east coast did a terrific job. They
went up against the very, very tou9h barrier systems; they breached the barrier very,
very effectively; they rtoved out aggressively'. ~nd continued their attacks up the
coast.

I can't say enough about the two ~arine divisions. If I used words like
brilliant, it would really be an under-description of the absolutely superb job that
they did in breaching the so-called impenetrable barrier. It was a classic,
absolutely classic military breaching of a very, very tough minefield, barbed wire,
fire trenches type barrier. They want through the first~barrier like it was water.
~hey went a-cross into the second barrier line, even though they were under artillery
fire at the time -- they continued to open up that breach. Then they brought both
divisions streaming through that breach. Absolutely superb operation, a textbook,
and ~ think it will be studied for many, many years to come as the way to do it.

I would also like to say that the French did an absolutely superb job of moving
out rapidly to take their objective Out here, and they were very, very 6uccess~ul, as
was the 101st. Again, we still had the special forces located in this area

What we found was, as soon as we breached these obstacles here and started
bringing pressure, we started qetting a large number of surrenders. I thin',: I talkcd-
to some of you about that this even~ng when I briefed yow 9n the evening of the 24t,':
We finally got a large number of surrenders. We also found that these forces right
here, were getting a large number of surrenders and were meeting with a great deal of
success.

We were worried about the weather. The weather W?5 going to get pre-ty bari the
next day, and we were worried about launching this air assault. We also started~to
I0ave a huge~number of atrocities of really the most unspeakable type committed in
downtown Kuwait City, to include reports that the desalinization plant had been
destroyed. When we heard that, we were quite concerned about what might be going on.
Based upon that, and the Situation as it was developing, we made the decision that
rather than wait the following morning to launch the remainder of these forces, that
we would go ahead and launch these forces that afternoon.

(Chart)

This was the situation you saw the afternoon of the 2~th. The ~arines contin-
ued to make great progress going through the breach in this area, and were moving
rapidly north. The S~udi task force on the east coast ~as also moving rapidly to the
north and making very, very good progress. We launched another Egyptian/Arab force
in this location, and another Saudi force in this location -- again, to penetrate the
barrier. But once again, to make the enemy continue to think that we were doing
exactly what he wanted us to do, and that's rna~e a headloi-ig assault into a very, very
tough barrier system -- a very, very tough mission for these folks here. ~ut at the
saT~ ti~e, ~~hat we did is continued to attack with the French; we launcbed an attack
on the part of the entire ~t10 Corps where the 1st Infantry Division went through,
breached an obstacle and minefield barrier here established quite a large breach
through which we passed the 1st British Armored Division. At the sam t~me, we