‘Mighty Mo’ Shells Iraqis : Gunman in Saudi City Attacks Bus

The U.S. battleship Missouri hammered Iraqi positions on the Kuwaiti coast with its mammoth 16-inch guns today, while U.S. miliary officials said that the allied aerial bombing had been so relentless the Iraqis were setting up their field headquarters in schools and mosques to protect themselves.

The Missouri, which last fired its big guns in combat in 1953, joined the battle shortly after midnight to fire the massive 2,000-pound shells at concrete reinforced bunkers in Kuwait. Military officials would not pinpoint the location, but said the targets were destroyed.

And Maj. Gen. Robert B. Johnston, the chief of staff for the Central Command, said that at least 25 Iraqi tanks were knocked out overnight as they were moving in enemy territory, while one Marine UH-1 Huey helicopter crashed in northeast Saudi Arabia, killing all four of the crewmen.

And in the Saudi Arabian city of Jiddah, hundreds of miles from the battlefront, a shuttle bus carrying three American soldiers was fired upon by a gunman apparently using a 9-millimeter pistol or rifle. The passengers were only slightly wounded by flying glass, but the incident raised the spectre of Americans becoming targets off the battlefield, particularly if the war takes an unpopular turn.

At a briefing today, Johnston said Iraqi airplanes were being moved to residential streets to keep them from being fired upon. But he said that kind of strategy would only work so far and protect a relatively small amount of troops from allied bombings.

“I’m not sure he can put 500,000 troops into residential neighborhoods,” said Johnston. “He cannot hide it all.”

The general also said he believed the shooting of the hotel shuttle bus in Jiddah may have been a random event, but acknowledged the U.S. troops in the region were particularly susceptible to attack.

“We are prepared for the possibility of a terrorist attack on our troops,” he said. “It is a high priority because we do present vulnerable targets. We’re comfortable we’re doing everything we possibly can to protect our troops.”

The surprise move by the Iranians to initiate some kind of peace process came as Baghdad came under heavy bombardment again early this morning, with anti-aircraft fire and surface-to-air missiles filling the sky.

The air strikes on Baghdad began after midnight and continued for five hours, sending residents fleeing for shelter.

On the war front, the allies and the Iraqis traded fire across the line today, but the ground fighting remained quiet, as it has since a probing offensive by the Iraqis was repulsed last week.

But in the air, allies pounded ground positions with more than 2,700 sorties, which included more than 250 strikes against the elite Republican Guards and six bombing runs by B-52s.