The Day in the Gulf

MISSION TO GULF: President Bush said Defense Secretary Dick Cheney and Gen. Colin L. Powell, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, will go to Saudi Arabia to provide a status report and a recommendation on a possible ground attack.

BUSH VOWS NO DRAFT: The President rejected any notion that he might reinstate the draft to supply the military with troops in the Gulf War. The draft was suspended in 1973.

IRAQ ENDS FUEL SALES: The Baghdad government suspended the sale of heating oil, gasoline and cooking fuel to civilians. The order, which comes at the peak of Iraq’s winter and after weeks of rationing, was attributed to “technical damage to oil installations” in the war.

MORE BOMBING: Allied aircraft bombed Baghdad and Saddam Hussein’s hometown of Tikrit, shaking residents from their beds and sending columns of fire and smoke into the air. Iraq said 428 civilians have been killed so far in the war.

B-52s IN BRITAIN: American B-52 bombers took up positions at Fairford air base in England, 80 miles west of London. Britain agreed to allow the B-52s to use Fairford because of a space shortage at bases in the Mideast and at the main B-52 base on Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean.

FLIGHTS FROM IRAQ: At least 10 more Iraqi planes have fled to Iran, bringing the total to 110, U.S. Maj. Gen. Robert B. Johnston told a military briefing. Iran has said it will impound the planes until the end of the war. Also, 25 more Iraqis surrendered to allied forces, raising the number of Iraqi prisoners to 800.

FIRE FROM THE SEA: The battleship Missouri’s 16-inch guns boomed again, silencing an Iraqi artillery battery in Kuwait with six 2,000-pound shells, the U.S military said.