Iraqi Scud missiles fired at Israel and Saudi Arabia Saturday apparently were intercepted by U.S. Patriot air defense missiles, while a giant oil slick in the Persian Gulf blamed on Iraq widened and caught fire.
Iraqi warplanes made unexpected emergency landings in neighboring Iran but the reason for their action was unclear. Iran, vowing neutrality in the Persian Gulf war, said it would keep the planes until the conflict ends.
On the financial front, Secretary of State James Baker said Saudi Arabia had come up with $13.5 billion in support costs for military operations against Iraq in the first three months of this year.
The commitment would mean, on top of earlier contributions, that the U.S. defense costs essentially are covered for the next three months. Diplomatic sources estimate the U.S. costs for 1991 to be around $45 billion.
Pentagon spokesman Pete Williams said in Washington the latest Iraqi Scud attacks included one missile fired at Riyadh in Saudi Arabia, three fired at Tel Aviv in Israel and one at the northern Israeli port city of Haifa.
Marine Corps Maj. Gen. Martin Brandtner said at the Pentagon a U.S. Patriot air defense missile intercepted the Scud aimed at Riyadh. He said some debris hit the city, but he did not know if it caused damage or injuries.
Brandtner said U.S. officials 'have indications' all the Scuds in Israel were'engaged by Patriot missiles.' Israeli military spokesman Nachman Shai said 'it seems' all the Scuds were intercepted.
Shai said there were no immediate reports of injuries in Tel Aviv and provided no account of any damage in the city. There also was no immediate account of whether the missiles damaged areas around Haifa.
On Friday, Iraq fired six Scuds toward Israel and three toward Saudi Arabia. All were intercepted by Patriot missiles, but falling shrapnel killed one person in Israel and another in Saudi Arabia.
More than 1,000 homes were damaged and at least 63 people were wounded in Israel Friday night. A six-story building was leveled and 30 people were wounded in the Saudi capital of Riyadh.
Pentagon officials said Saturday a portion of the giant oil slick around the Sea Island complex -- an oil tanker loading terminal about 10 miles off the coast of the Kuwaiti port of Mina Al Ahmadi -- was on fire.
'We do not know what caused the fire,' Williams said. 'However, we can say that the United States had nothing to do with causing this fire. '
At the Pentagon, Rear Adm. Mike McConnell said the severity of the fire appeared to be diminishing as day wore on, but added he did not know why.
U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. Mike Scott said earlier in Riyadh that the slick had grown to 'approximately 30 miles long and 8 miles wide.'
U.S. officials have maintained the slick has minimal military significance, but Williams said, 'Iraq is intentionally creating the worst environmental disaster in the history of the Persian Gulf region.'
'It's conducting an indiscriminate environmental war on its neighbors, as well as on the plant and animal life in the region,' he said. 'Smoke from the fire is blowing east in a huge cloud across the Persian Gulf and into Iran.'
Initial surveys indicated the spill was at least 210 million gallons -- nearly 20 times larger than the nearly 11 million gallons dumped by the supertanker Exxon Valdez in Alaska's Prince William Sound in March 1989.
Iraq, which invaded Kuwait Aug. 2, said the slick was caused by allied bombing. The United States has denied the allegation.
President Bush dispatched a team of experts to Saudi Arabia to help cope with the spill.
Abdulrhaman Abdullah Al-Awadi, Kuwaiti minister of state for cabinet affairs, said the oil threatens two of Kuwait's five desalination plants, jeopardizing water for Kuwait's population and occupying Iraqi forces.
The minister said he could not understand why Saddam would jeopardize water for his troops. But added that whatever the reason, 'this is a disaster of unimaginable proportions ... of unpredictable proportions. The environment is really suffocating -- all the flora and fauna of the whole sea.'
The official Islamic Republic News Agency reported the seven Iraqi planes appeared unexpectedly over Iranian air space and landed after seeking permission. It said one plane caught fire and crashed.
There was no immediate word on whether the planes were defecting or fled to Iran after engagements with allied aircraft.
However, at the Pentagon, McConnell said 'at least' two dozen Iraqi aircraft had fled into Iran, including military and civilian transport planes.
Brandtner said U.S. officials are not sure why but offered three possible explanations: the Iraqis 'don't want to fight,' 'they are defecting,' or those fleeing are 'trying to husband their resources' for future campaigns.
McConnell said U.S. officials do not know whether there was an arrangement between Iran and Iraq for such a move. Iran and Iraq resumed diplomatic ties Sept. 10 after their 1980-88 war.
Brandtner said allied forces would try to stop such an exodus of Iraqi aircraft to Iran but would not chase Iraqi planes into Iran's air space.
Iran, which has pledged to remain neutral in the war, said the Iraqi planes would be kept in Iran until the war ends.
Baghdad radio monitored in Tehran, Iran, confirmed the landing of the Iraqi planes but provided no other details.NEWLN: (1stadd stands)
In Beirut, Lebanon, a pro-Iranian Muslim fundamentalist official said Saturday Iran had provided shelter for most of Iraq's civil aviation fleet and supplied Iraq with food and medicines.
The official, who requested anonymity, said some 200 Iraqi Airways planes have been evacuated from Iraqi airports and hidden in Iran. He said Iraq feared its civil aviation fleet would be destroyed during continued U.S.-led allied raids. The report could not be verified.
At the daily military briefing in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, military officials reported the allies continued to dominate the skies.
'Earlier today, U.S. Air Force F-15s shot down three Iraqi MiGs ... believed (to be Soviet-built) Mig23s and they've gone down over Iraq,' U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. Mike Gallagher said. He could not immediately say how many F-15s were involved in the dogfight.
Scott, meanwhile, said the 10-day-old air campaign was shifting from 'strategic interdiction to battlefield preparation.'
'We have destroyed a significant amount of Iraqi capability to produce both biological and chemical weapons,' Scott said, but added their capacity to store such weapons remains 'very large.'
In other developments:
--A crowd in Washington estimated at 75,000 by U.S. Park Police staged the country's largest demonstration so far against the war.
--A huge anti-war rally featuring several rock bands in Bonn, Germany, drew a quarter million people. Organizers said it was the largest rally of its type in a 'democratic country.'
--Two banks affiliated with Saudi Arabia and France were attacked Saturday in Lebanon, one with a rocket-propelled grenade and another with a bomb. Seven assaults have been made against foreign interests in Lebanon since Sunday.
--In Paris, a bomb seriously damaged the entrance of the leftist newspaper Liberation.
--Independent Radio News in London said the imam of the Grand Mosque in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, called on the people of Iraq to overthrow Saddam Hussein.
--Pan American World Airways said it has refused to carry any Iraqi passengers since the war broke out last week. Two years ago, a Pan Am jet was bombed over Lockerbie, Scotland, killing 259 people on the plane and 11 on the ground.