DESERT STORM: DAY 21 : Military

U.S. F-15 fighters on combat air patrol shot down two Iraqi SU-25 ground-attack planes and may also have downed two MIG-21 jets that were believed headed for Iran. A Saudi spokesman said three other MIGs had landed safely in Iran, bringing to 120 the number of Iraqi planes seeking safety on Iranian airfields.

* Iraq said that about 150 people, including 35 children, were killed by an allied air raid on the southern city of Nassariyah. It was by far the largest death toll reported by Iraq in a single raid since the war began. Iraq previously reported civilian casualties at 428.

* Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf, commander of Operation Desert Storm, said his greatest concern in the Persian Gulf War is that the Iraqis are “capable of the most heinous acts. . . . It’s sort of the mad dog syndrome . . . In a mad dog there is no predictability.”

* The battleship Missouri was in action for the third day in a row, blasting three separate targets along the Kuwaiti coast with a total of 54 rounds from its 16-inch guns. It destroyed a radar site, some artillery and a surface-to-air missile position. It also hit a dug-in Iraqi military unit with unknown results.

* Pentagon officials said a U.S. Marine task force was moving into place in the Persian Gulf. But allied commanders say any ground war to retake Kuwait will probably wait until Iraq takes more pounding from the air.