ere were many civilian casualties. More than 1,000 sorties were flown in the first 24 hours of the Operation Desert Storm campaign. Cruise missiles were used for the first time in warfare, fired from US warships in the Gulf.
             On Thursday 17 January, Iraq launched its first Scud missile strikes on Tel Aviv and Haifa in Israel. Another Scud fired at US forces in Saudi Arabia was shot down by a US Patriot missile. Iraqi troops opened Kuwait's oil taps, spewing approximately eight million barrels of oil into the Gulf, and later set fire to about 600 oil wells.
             More forces took control of the highway running south from Basra to Kuwait, cutting off supply lines as marines and Saudi-led coalition troops pushed into the emirate itself. By 26 February, Iraq had announced it was withdrawing its forces from Allied forces bombed them from the air, killing thousands in their vehicles on what become known as the "Highway of Death".
             On 27 February 1991, jubilant Kuwaitis welcomed convoys
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