The Day in the Gulf

TROOP CONVOYS BOMBED: U.S. warplanes pounded Iraqi troops and armored vehicles moving along the Kuwaiti border. Allied aircraft flew more than 2,500 sorties, including the waves of B-52 bombings against Iraqi troops that the U.S. military described as “fantastically effective.”

DEATHS PROBED: Military authorities in Saudi Arabia were investigating the deaths of 11 Marines in the fighting around Khafji to determine whether any had been killed by allied or “friendly” fire.

PRISONERS OF WAR: Allied forces said they seized more than 400 Iraqi prisoners of war in two days of clashes near the Saudi town of Khafji that ended on Thursday night.

GUNSHIP SHOT DOWN: Officials confirmed that an AC-130 gunship has been shot down in southern Iraq. Search-and-rescue operations were called off, and the 14 crew members were listed as missing in action. Thirteen American aircraft have been lost in the first 16 days of combat.

MISSILES HIT BAGHDAD: Tomahawk cruise missiles fired from U.S. Navy warships struck Baghdad, Iraqi officials told Western journalists in the Iraqi capital. Two crashed in residential neighborhoods.

HELP FROM EUROPE: France granted permission to U.S. B-52 bombers based in Britain to fly over its territory on bombing missions to the gulf. Spanish defense officials acknowledged that Madrid is allowing B-52s to use a joint Spanish-U.S. air base as a staging area for raids on Iraq.

MORAL SUPPORT: President Bush took his upbeat, patriotic appeal on the road with visits to three East Coast military bases. He said he will defeat Iraqi President Saddam Hussein’s “endless appetite for evil.”