Iraq gives back stolen incubators to Kuwait

Kuwait City (Reuter) - Iraq returned 98 lorryloads of medical equipment stolen from Kuwait, including two baby incubators, which its Gulf war enemies made a symbol of Iraqi brutality. The US-made incubators are damaged beyond repair, as are eight ambulances and tons of blood-testing, dental, ophthalmic and other equipment recovered under UN ceasefire terms.

During the Gulf crisis President George Bush cited reports that Iraqis tipped babies out of hospital incubators as an example of the way Iraqi forces were treating the Kuwaitis. It became the atrocity story most quoted by Western leaders to rally world opinion against Iraq's President Saddam Hussein.

Abdul Rahim al-Zeid, an assistant under-secretary at the Kuwaiti Public Health Ministry, said that by returning the incubators the Iraqis had unwittingly provided proof that they took them. The ministry's chief ambulance officer, Abdul Reda Abbas, said: 'We think the Iraqis might have returned the incubators by mistake.'