ASCAObservations of GRO J1744−28

We report the ASCA results of the bursting X-ray pulsar \gro, which wasobserved in February 1996 and March 1997. The source flux in the 2--10 keV bandwas $2.0\times10^{-8}$ erg/sec/cm$^2$ in 1996 and $5.0\times10^{-9}$erg/sec/cm$^2$ in 1997. We detected 12 and 17 Type II bursts during the twoobservations with mean bursting intervals of about 27 min and 37 min. Eachburst is followed by an intensity dip with the depleted flux depending on theburst fluence. The energy spectra are approximated by an absorbed power lawwith additional structure around 6--7 keV\@. Constant absorption column,$(5-6)\times10^{22}$ cm$^{-2}$, independent of the observation dates andemission phases (persistent, burst and dip) is interpreted as an interstellarabsorption. The source may be actually located near the Galactic center, at adistance of 8.5 kpc. The structure in the energy spectrum at 6--7 keV is mostprobably due to iron and maybe reproduced by a disk line model with additionalbroadening mechanism.Comment: 28 pages 11 figures. ApJ accepte