Word: khafji
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Allied forces recaptured that town, the sprawling beachside community of Khafji, within a day, but victory came only after bitter street fighting. Artillery duels along the Saudi-Kuwaiti border and firefights between U.S. Marines and groups of Iraqi troops crossing that border continued into the weekend...
There were wildly confusing stories: of as many as 60,000 Iraqi troops massing around the town of Al Wafra, 37 miles from Khafji; of a column of 800 to 1,000 tanks and armored vehicles in that area -- or maybe it was a phantom -- moving south toward the Saudi border or north, away from it, under massive allied air attack or perhaps not. Late in the week allied commanders said they saw no pattern in Iraqi movements that would presage further raids...
...Khafji was a probing attack, perhaps the precursor of more. Saddam's forces have no spy satellites and have been unable or unwilling even to send reconnaissance planes into Saudi airspace. The only way Iraqi generals can find out how many troops, artillery and tanks are massing at which spots along the border is to send troops across to engage them...
...attack Iraqi armor in such numbers that they got in one another's way. But enough U.S. and allied planes were still available to carry out a full schedule of attacks throughout Kuwait and Iraq. Militarily, said General Norman Schwarzkopf, top allied commander in the gulf area, the Khafji battles were about as significant "as a mosquito on an elephant...
...terms of effect on the future course of the war, that might be true. But as the first sizable ground battle, Khafji merits study. After the shooting ended, U.S. and British intelligence officers interrogated prisoners and pored over battle reports, trying to fill holes in what was still an incomplete picture...