DESERT STORM: DAY 27 : Military

Allied forces pounded Iraqi front-line positions along the Kuwaiti border today from the land, air and sea in the most extensive assault on forward positions by the multinational coalition since the beginning of the war.

More than 50 oil field fires are burning in Kuwait, either set ablaze by Iraqi forces or by errant allied bombs, Defense Department officials said. Adm. Mike McConnell said “in excess of 50 oil field fires” had been burning in Kuwait for a week or more and that most of them had been set by Iraqi forces to help conceal their troop positions from allied aircraft.

* Allied aircraft blasted an Iraqi convoy of 25 to 50 armored vehicles and trucks in central Kuwait, inflicting heavy damage, and shot down an Iraqi helicopter near Mosul in northern Iraq. U.S. pilots claimed possible hits on four Iraqi Scud missile launchers in western Iraq and also reported seeing what appeared to be a Scud blowing up on launch.

* Iraq lobbed two more Scud rockets at Israel, one hitting a prosperous urban neighborhood and injuring six people. Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir hinted that Israel might retaliate but was mindful of U.S. concerns that Israeli involvement could alienate Arab allies.

* Iraq said allied rockets demolished the headquarters of a government ministry headed by President Saddam Hussein’s cousin, Ali Hassan al-Majid, a close aide who was put in charge of Kuwait after Iraq’s Aug. 2 invasion. Six people were killed in the night attack, civil defense officials said.

* A Saudi soldier was killed and six others in a mine-clearing unit were injured when a mine exploded Monday in the border town of Khafji, said Saudi military briefer Col. Ahmed Al-Robayan.

* Eight Iraqi soldiers walked through their own minefields and surrendered to an Egyptian armored division after crossing the border from Kuwait.