100                                   U.S. MARINES: IN THE~PER5IAN GULF, 199O~I991

homes spilling out of it.  The 8th Marines also reached its objective, a wooded
area at As Sulaybiyah seven kilometers north of the Kuwait television and radio
transmitter site it had taken earlier.
    To the west of 2d Marine Division, Egyptian forces moved steadily in set-
piece fashion toward their objective, Ali Al Salem Air Base.   By 1955 they
were within 4,000 meters of it, but a skirmish held them up and prevented them
from taking the airfield until the next morning.
    To the east at about 1336, 1st Marine Division formed a line with Ripper,
Papa Bear, and Shepherd 14 kilometers south of the Sixth Ring Road.      Ahead
of them were eight Sea Cobras providing close in fire support.          Shortly
afterwards, Task Force Papa Bear wheeled right to cross the northwest part of
the Al Magwa Oilfield to point itself at Kuwait International Airport.  Reports
throughout the morning indicated little activity at the airport after the previous
night's pounding by  USS Missouri's     16-inch   rifles. Task Force Ripper
continued north towards the key intersection of the Six and Seventh Ring Roads
while Task Force Shepherd arced well to the east to screen the division with its
light armored vehicles.     The mission was not made any easier in the late
afternoon, when a powerful southeast wind rose with gusts to 36 knots.     The
wind kicked up sand and oil smoke alike into a thick brown-black obscuration
that reduced forward visibility to less than 100 meters at times.
    At 1647 1st Marine Division reported that Task Force Ripper was engaged
with a "tank division" just inside the loop of the Seventh Ring Road where it
turned north to intersect the Six Ring Road.  A call went out for more Cobras.
After a series of engagements that evening, Ripper moved north to seize the
intersection which was bordered to the north by a blacked-out residential area.
(All Kuwait City had been without power or water since 17    bruary, when the
Iraqis began destroying public utilities.)


Trucks hauling artillerymen and M198 howitzers ofihe 5th Marine Expeditionary Brigade, JMEF\s
reserve force, negotiate the halfimeter-deep mud of a sabkha (salt flat) near the 2d Marine
Division's outer breaches on the morning of 27 February 1991. Iltry are near the end of an all-
night road march from blocking positions south ofAl Wafrah. Iraqi combat engineers located their
minefield barrier just inside areas of sabkha's to further obstruct attackers, but in general,
trafficability on the battlefield was good.