The Day in the Gulf
* BAGHDAD ATTACK: Allied warplanes, in a pinpoint bombing that sent shock waves far beyond Iraq, destroyed an underground shelter in Baghdad. Iraqi officials said 500 civilians were killed in the bombing of what it called a bomb shelter, but the United States said the structure was a military command center.
* CIVILIANS BEWARE: The Bush Administration said Iraqi President Saddam Hussein “kills civilians intentionally” and suggested that he allowed Baghdad residents to use the shelter in hopes of shielding a military bunker. Defense Secretary Dick Cheney said the bombing of military targets will go on even if Hussein mixes them into civilian areas.
* SKIES CLEAR FOR ATTACKS: Allied planes conducted 2,800 sorties. About one-third of the missions were directed at targets in southern Iraq and Iraqi-occupied Kuwait, aimed at “softening up” the dug-in positions of Iraqi troops.
* DEBATE AT UNITED NATIONS: The U.N. Security Council decided to debate the Gulf War in private, starting today. Third World diplomats had sought an open discussion. One African delegate said the civilian deaths in Baghdad “will make everyone think again about the scope of the war.”
* DIPLOMATIC MANEUVERS: Iraqi Foreign Minister Tarik Aziz will fly to Moscow this weekend to meet with Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev. A Soviet spokesman said Soviet envoy Yevgeny M. Primakov’s talks this week with Saddam Hussein “give cause for hope.”
* SHRINKING THE SLICK: Saudi officials reduced their estimates of the size of two giant oil slicks in the Persian Gulf. They said it appears the spills total 3 million barrels--not the 11 million announced at first. The Exxon Valdez spill in Alaska was about 254,000 barrels.
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