Envoy Puts Casualties in ‘Thousands’

BAGHDAD —  President Saddam Hussein pronounced it a victory for the Iraqi people, but the day after the cessation of bomb and missile attacks by the United States and Britain, Iraq’s U.N. ambassador said Sunday that this country suffered enormous damage during the assault, with “thousands” killed or wounded.

U.N. Ambassador Nizar Hamdoun’s statement in a television interview was the first indication of the possible scale of the injuries among military personnel caused by more than 400 high-powered cruise missiles that rained down for four nights and ended late Saturday. Previously, the only casualty figures given were that about 45 civilians had been killed in Baghdad and the northern city of Kirkuk.

“There has been enormous damage, mainly to the civilian infrastructure and to human life. I am told the casualties are in thousands in terms of people who were killed or wounded,” Hamdoun told CNN, adding that a final tally had not been completed.

Hamdoun said Iraq will ask the U.N. Security Council to immediately lift the tight economic sanctions imposed after it invaded Kuwait in 1990. “We think we deserve that,” he said.

A Celebratory Theme Despite Assessment

Despite his assessment, a celebratory theme was sounded by Iraqi officials and newspapers, and by Hussein himself in a taped appearance broadcast to the entire Arab world by Qatar-based Al Jezira television.

“Victorious again!” shouted the banner headline in the newspaper Al Musawir al Arabi.

“You have lived up to all hopes and expectations of your leadership and your brother and comrade, Saddam Hussein,” said the Iraqi president, congratulating his people and troops. “So God rewarded you and delighted your hearts with the crown of victory.”

It was the president’s second television appearance in three days and may have been intended to assure followers that he had weathered the barrage of airstrikes unscathed.

In other developments Sunday:

* A U.N. official said that Secretary-General Kofi Annan wants to put the military episode in the past and move the Iraqi dispute back into the diplomatic arena with a meeting of the Security Council today.

* French President Jacques Chirac urged the beginning of efforts to lift the economic sanctions on Iraq, arguing that it is well established that they have hurt only the Iraqi people and not Hussein’s regime. He called for “fresh organizations, fresh methods” to keep Baghdad from rebuilding its weapons programs.

* U.N. humanitarian aid workers who left Iraq after the bombardment began were instructed to return to the country and resume activities. However, the future of U.N. arms inspectors remained uncertain after Iraq’s declaration during the attacks that the “commission of spies” will not be allowed back into the country.

Although peace returned to Iraq after a traumatic week, many questions remained after the attack.

“It is over for the time being, but for how long will this last?” said the Spanish envoy here, Ignacio Perez. “All interpretations are possible.”

According to Prakash Shah, Annan’s special representative in Baghdad, it remains to be seen how the fallout from the attacks will complicate Iraq’s chances of proving to the Security Council that it has eliminated its weapons of mass destruction and thus deserves an end to the sanctions that have crippled the economy for more than eight years by restricting imports and sales of Iraqi oil.

Despite statements Saturday by Iraqi Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan that the U.N. Special Commission, or UNSCOM, will never be allowed back in, Shah was not certain that Baghdad had given its final word.

But an Information Ministry official, Kudhair Ahmed Duleimi, predicted that Iraq will be firm in resisting any return of UNSCOM. Meeting with a group of American and British reporters, he noted that the growing public sympathy toward Iraq in recent days, particularly within Arab countries, had helped the country’s case.

Even if U.S. leaders wish to maintain economic sanctions against Iraq indefinitely, he said, “time is not on their side.”

Ordinary residents of Baghdad, who displayed extraordinary calm even as their night skies were turned into fireworks displays by the flashes of explosions and the dim arcs of tracer shells, were similarly composed Sunday after the military campaign was declared over.

No Great Outpourings of Joy in the Streets

For the most part, there were no great outpourings of joy. Most people simply went about their business with a sense of relief that the immediate danger had passed, although fears surfaced frequently that assaults might be repeated.

“I was happy about the news and at the same time sad,” said Jamel Edan, a grizzled 56-year-old who runs a falafel restaurant here. “I think the leaders and the Iraqi people know that what is in the mind of the American government is to bomb Iraq again.”

“Nothing has changed,” agreed Felah Hassan, a street trader.

In general, people said they felt that Iraq did not deserve this latest U.S.-British attack. Several Iraqis expressed frustration about having to endure strikes and sanctions for so long while being unable to do anything.

“There is a terrorized population without hope and without ways to react,” one Western diplomat here observed.

Rumors That Many Soldiers Were Victims

Perhaps undermining the public mood were rumors sweeping the capital that, in addition to the known civilian casualties, many soldiers were killed or injured during the four nights of attacks.

One Baghdad-based diplomatic source said he expected Iraq, for propaganda reasons, to make public the maximum number of civilian deaths but to keep a tight lid on information about deaths in its army.

“They don’t want to show, not only to the world but to themselves, how many sites were affected by the strikes because it would affect morale,” said the source, who demanded anonymity.

But in his estimation, “This was really a very heavy blow to the regime.”