Word: khafji
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...BATTLE OF KHAFJI...
...Khafji was already a ghost town when a sudden Iraqi thrust made it the site of the first large ground battle of the war. Six miles south of the Saudi border with Kuwait, the town had been abandoned two weeks earlier by residents who fled out of the range of Iraqi artillery fire. On Tuesday, Jan. 29, nine brigades of Iraq's 5th Mechanized Division -- regarded by the U.S. as one of Saddam's better units -- swept into Saudi Arabia. They entered along a stretch of border that began north of Khafji and ended at the town of Umm Hujul...
...masse when the Marines counterattacked. "They showed us they couldn't handle combined operations," says a senior Pentagon official. "They maneuvered but couldn't work effectively as a unit." Postbattle inspection disclosed that Iraqi tanks and armored personnel carriers were in terrible shape. As General Norman Schwarzkopf put it, Khafji "led us to believe that we were really going to kick this guy's tail...
...armed services have developed elaborate -- albeit imperfect -- systems to avoid friendly fire. To prevent mishaps like the one near Khafji, Marine air-support planes carry laser-guided versions of the Maverick missile that must be guided to their targets by the pilot. Though not as smart as the infrared models favored by the U.S. Air Force, which can be fired and left to track the target on their own, the laser-guided Mavericks are less likely to mistake a friend...
...battle for Khafji was a case in point. Though pool reporters were stationed with the 1st U.S. Marine Division outside the Saudi city, they were not allowed into the town until 18 hours after fighting started between Iraqi armor and coalition forces. Early accounts of the battle came mostly from reporters operating on their own. One of them, John King of the Associated Press, sneaked into the city on the first night of fighting and watched as Arab troops tried to retake the town. "The pools did not get an accurate view ((of the battle)) because they didn...