JEDDAH — The current Saudi-led airstrikes part of Operation Decisive Storm against Houthi rebels in Yemen have brought to memory stories of great courage shown by Saudi Royal Air Force pilots during the first Gulf war to liberate Kuwait from the Iraqi occupation under former Iraqi strongman Saddam Hussein. At 12:30 p.m. on Thursday, Jan. 24, 1991, an American Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) and two British ships issued warnings that three Iraqi warplanes were about to attack. The three Iraqi fighters were in Dassault Mirage F1 aircraft equipped with Exocet anti-ship missiles. The warning said the three fighter jets had entered Saudi airspace from the northeastern part of the country and were flying at low altitude along the coast in what was to be an obvious attack against coalition warships stationed in the waters of the Arabian Gulf. Capt. Ayed Al-Shamrani, a pilot of an F-15C Eagle, immediately responded to the call which was made by the 13th squadron of the Saudi Royal Air Forces from the Dhahran military base. He intersected the attacking planes and used solar-guided short-medium AIM-9 anti-aircraft missiles to down two of them in a matter of 30 seconds. The third Iraqi warplane fled the scene after hurriedly firing an Exocet missile that fell into Gulf waters without harming anyone.
