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US Marines are the first of the Allies to suffer casualties in this war |
1991: US Marines killed at Al Khafji
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Artificially 1969:
The Iraqi troops have seized control of a town inside the Saudi Arabian border after a fierce battle in which both sides suffered casualties.
The Allies destroyed at least 24 Iraqi tanks in the fight for control of Al Khafji. Twelve American marines lost their lives - the first Allied casualties on land since Desert Storm began 14 days ago. There were no British soldiers involved in the fighting.
The attack on Al Khafji came as a surprise and the US military commander, General Norman Schwarzkopf, said it showed the Iraqis have "plenty more fight in them".
He was speaking to reporters as the first detailed assessment of the Allies' progress in the war was made public.
General Schwarzkopf said the Allies now have total air supremacy.
He said: "The Iraqis have abandoned centralised control of air defence within Iraq and Kuwait, a very important point."
Ammunition dumps have been destroyed and the main supply route between Baghdad and Kuwait disrupted.
Saddam Hussein's elite troops, the Republican Guard, have come under sustained aerial bombardment
At sea, 46 Iraqi ships have now been sunk. More warplanes and ships have taken refuge in Iran.
General Schwarzkopf said: "The simple fact of the matter is that now every time an Iraqi airplane takes off the ground it is running away, as a result [we] have now claimed air supremacy."
Reports from the northern Gulf suggest the Iraqis have begun dumping oil into the sea at Mina Al Bakr.
Iraqi shelling has already created a slick measuring 50 miles long by 12 miles wide (80km by 19km) which could seriously hamper any seaborne defence of Kuwait.
In his state of the union address to the American people following news of the first land battle, President George Bush praised the troops serving in the Gulf.
He said, "There is no-one more devoted more committed to the hard work of freedom than every soldier and sailor, every marine and coastguardsman, every man and woman now serving in the Persian Gulf."
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