The Day in the Gulf

* PUSH INTO KUWAIT: U.S.-led ground forces pushed deeper into Iraq and Kuwait. Columns of tanks, armored vehicles and infantry had moved at least 30 miles inside the Kuwaiti border by midday, according to reports from the front lines. Unconfirmed reports from Kuwaiti exiles said Marines had already landed in or near Kuwait city.

* ALLIED CASUALTIES: Allied casualties in the first day of the ground campaign were “remarkably light,” said Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf, U.S. commander of Desert Storm. A Marine spokesman reported that three Marines were killed and 17 were wounded in the early hours of the offensive. About two dozen U.S. soldiers were reported wounded. Schwarzkopf added that allied forces achieved “all of their first-day objectives” within 12 hours after the operation began. Thousands of enemy prisoners of war were reported taken.

* REPORT TO THE PRESIDENT: President Bush met with his top advisers on the ground war against Iraq and was pleased with the progress, White House Press Secretary Marlin Fitzwater said. Bush and his aides received a 45-minute briefing on the latest phase of the war from Gen. Colin L. Powell, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

* IRAQ DECLARES VICTORY: Iraq said the U.S.-led ground offensive “so far has totally failed.” In a communique issued about 10 hours after President Bush announced that the land war had begun, the Iraqi military said the allies were continuing to attack “on all fronts,” but it declared that Iraq’s forces already had won, adding, “Victory is sweet.”

* BLACKOUT FADES: The U.S. military began easing a blackout on information about the ground war. After complaints from network bureau chiefs, Pentagon officials also reversed a decision to delay all pool reports from the front. Meanwhile, correspondents had set out for the front on their own and in many cases supplied the first accounts of war.