Air raid sirens were sounding in Riyadh, as allied forces prepared for an Iraqi strike against Saudi Arabia's capital city. American journalists in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, were told to take shelter at about 7:20 p.m. EST in preparation for an attack by Iraqi Scud missiles.
At press time, there was no immediate sign of an Iraqi attack on Israel, as Hussein had threatened. But the Israeli army declared a state of emergency at about 7:30 p.m. and asked all Israeli citizens to open their gas mask kits in preparation for an Iraqi attack with chemical weapons.
CBS news reported that the U.S. embassy in Jordan, which lies directly between Iraq and Israel, had been evacuated as a precaution.
CBS said Iraqi radio was reporting "wave after wave" of bombing attacks over Baghdad, but these reports could not be confirmed.
Ambassadors to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization also scheduled an emergency meeting to be held in Brussels tonight.
The U.S. warplanes took off in pairs, disappearing in red dots that winked out as they gained altitude. The aircraft were heavily loaded with bombs and underwing fuel tanks for the long trip north. They also were armed with cannon and air-to-air missiles for self-defense.
"This is history in the making," said Col. Ray Davies, he chief maintenance officer at the Saudi base from which the F-15 fighter-bombers were launched.
"It's absolutely awesome. The ground shook and you felt it," Davies said.
The attack came a scant 17 hours after the United Nations deadline for Iraq to withdraw all forces from Kuwait or face possible military reprisals for its August 2 invasion.
As of this morning, the international coalition had 680,000 troops in the Gulf region, including 415,000 American troops. Iraq had 545,000 troops in the region.
The U.S. has also arrayed a total of 1350 warplanes and 108 Navy ships in the region. Two of the six American aircraft carriers in the region had entered the Persian Gulf last night, putting them within striking distance of targets in Iraq and Kuwait.
The early-morning assault was the climax to a crisis that had built over more than five months, after Iraq's President Saddam Hussein ordered a lightning invasion of neighboring Kuwait on Aug. 2.