‘Listless’ Iraqis Reported Leaving the Saudi Border : Optimism: Other assessments are hopeful, and confidence is growing among the allies.

Iraqi troops along the border with Saudi Arabia, described by allied commanders as “listless” and dispirited by more than a month of ceaseless bombing, have apparently begun to draw back as the likelihood of an all-out ground assault looms.

A sharp escalation of cross-border probes by allied forces against Iraqi defensive units this week has given U.S. military officials new details on enemy troop deployments, morale and military effectiveness.

And the result is new confidence among allied officers that the huge Iraqi field army has been deeply wounded, leading to optimistic new estimates on the time it will take to defeat the Iraqis and the expected casualties from a conclusive ground campaign.

“It appears as though they have given up the border,” said Army Maj. Karl Horst, a battalion operations officer. “We were expecting to fight to cross it. It makes it easy for us when we roll across. It’s one less fight we have to do.”

These and other hopeful assessments came a day after the theater commander, Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf, said the Iraqi army was on the verge of collapse and would be quickly and decisively beaten by alliance forces.

One allied official said Wednesday that the U.S.-led assault could complete an encirclement of the Iraqi army within four days after initiating ground combat, allowing the coalition then to dictate surrender terms to Baghdad.

“Four days into the attack, we own the theater,” one optimistic Saudi Arabian official said. “We have encircled them and control the situation.”

This official said the alliance would then demand that Iraqi troops abandon all their weapons and walk back to Iraq.

The Saudi official said Central Command officials in Riyadh believe that the Iraqi army has suffered 75,000 casualties from the allied bombardment, including as many as 30,000 killed. The official said 10,000 of the Iraqi soldiers who died could have been saved if they had received prompt medical care.

There have been reports as well that Iraqi troops--hungry, ill and terrified by the 24-hour-a-day bombing--are eager to surrender.

One official said that when allied aircraft mounted an effort to rescue a U.S. pilot who bailed out of his F-16 earlier this week, a large group of Iraqi troops nearby assumed that they were under attack and tried to surrender. The rescue party did not have transport helicopters to carry the Iraqis back to Saudi Arabia, so they left the frustrated would-be POWs in place, this official said.

To further weaken morale and encourage defections, U.S. and Saudi propaganda units are broadcasting into Iraq and Kuwait from five transmitters in Saudi Arabia, a Saudi official said.

The radio programs are designed by the former director of Radio Baghdad, a Saddam Hussein appointee who defected to Saudi Arabia four or five years ago, the Saudi official said. He knows Hussein and Iraqi society and slang extremely well and uses the broadcasts to needle the Iraqi leader, the official said.

The growing number of border exchanges is described by Horst and other U.S. commanders as largely aggressive reconnaissance probes by each side.

In the earlier raids this week, U.S. soldiers have penetrated more than 50 miles into southern Iraq. The bold rescue mission of the U.S. pilot took place 40 miles inside Iraq.

And although Iraqi troops have staged a few ineffectual raids of their own into Saudi Arabia, U.S. troops have taken hundreds of POWs--and captured a strategic Iraqi observation post on high ground.

Paving the way for these incursions this week, the allied artillery bombardment has gone on without let-up--at so heavy a volume that even casual conversations near the border are interrupted by the sand-rattling, thunderous din. Air strikes also have continued unabated, lighting up the ink-black skies over the desert.

One of the most intense among this week’s border clashes occurred late Tuesday night, when American and Iraqi reconnaissance patrols engaged in a four-hour “cat-and-mouse” encounter.

It occurred after the Iraqis sent out small patrols that began “bumping” into American lines.

“We started picking them up in ones and twos through our thermal sights,” said Army Lt. Col. Skip Baker, commander of the 5th Battalion, 6th Infantry.

One such Iraqi patrol feigned surrender in an effort to identify U.S. positions. At one point, the leader of the Iraqi patrol stood up and began moving forward, waving what appeared at first to be a small flag, as if seeking to draw the attention of U.S. troops. Then he quickly ducked down behind a ridge.

But as the ploy became apparent, American soldiers opened fire with machine guns, forcing the Iraqis back and hitting at least one of them.

Another such skirmish Monday led to the capture of 52 Iraqi prisoners, aided by the helicopter landing of a mobile platoon of GIs.

That encounter took place after American patrols spotted two Iraqi bunkers. At the first one, 11 Iraqis emerged with their hands up after an Apache helicopter approached and fired its 30-millimeter gun near the bunker.

At the second bunker, 41 Iraqis surrendered after another Apache helicopter fired a Hellfire missile that “took the roof” off the bunker, according to Capt. Michael N. Thome, who led the mission.

Farther east, along the Saudi-Kuwaiti border, the 2nd Marine Division also has sent units into Kuwait this week, seeking to identify gaps in the minefields that can be used by the allies when the expected ground assault commences.

Chen reported from Saudi Arabia and Broder from Washington. Portions of this report were drawn from pool reports reviewed by U.S. military censorship.