DESERT STORM: DAY 8 : Military

A Saudi F-15 shot down two Iraqi fighters, reportedly foiling the first known attempt by Iraq to bomb Saudi Arabia. “We believe this is the first air battle of the war to produce a double kill by a single pilot,” a Saudi military spokesman said.

Baghdad Radio said allied planes had struck two Iraqi tankers in the Persian Gulf on Tuesday and that “large quantities” of oil had spilled into the sea. Saudi authorities confirmed that two oil slicks were moving south off the coast of Kuwait. U.S. Navy planes on Tuesday had attacked an Iraqi vessel capable of laying mines and it was reported sinking at the time. U.S. military officials in Saudi Arabia said Navy jets fired on three more Iraqi boats of unknown type that day, and one sank.

The strategic Iraqi city of Basra was under allied bombardment from land and sea, said Iran’s official news agency. It said bombs from allied warplanes and missiles fired by U.S. warships repeatedly struck the southern port city, the site of Iraq’s military headquarters for the Kuwait theater.

French warplanes made their first reported foray into Iraq, pounding positions of the elite Republican Guard. The attack was one of two raids on Iraqi military targets today, the French military said.