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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