1990
Iraq Invades Kuwait
At about 2 a.m. local time, Iraqi forces
invade Kuwait, Iraq’s tiny, oil-rich neighbor. Kuwait’s defense forces were
rapidly overwhelmed, and those that were not destroyed retreated to Saudi
Arabia. The emir of Kuwait, his family, and other government leaders fled to
Saudi Arabia, and within hours Kuwait City had been captured and the Iraqis had
established a provincial government. By annexing Kuwait, Iraq gained control of
20 percent of the world’s oil reserves and, for the first time, a substantial
coastline on the Persian Gulf. The same day, the United Nations Security
Council unanimously denounced the invasion and demanded Iraq’s immediate
withdrawal from Kuwait. On August 6, the Security Council imposed a worldwide
ban on trade with Iraq.
On August 9, Operation Desert Shield, the
American defense of Saudi Arabia, began as U.S. forces raced to the Persian
Gulf. Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, meanwhile, built up his occupying army in
Kuwait to about 300,000 troops. On November 29, the U.N. Security Council
passed a resolution authorizing the use of force against Iraq if it failed to
withdraw by January 15, 1991. Hussein refused to withdraw his forces from
Kuwait, which he had established as a province of Iraq, and some 700,000 allied
troops, primarily American, gathered in the Middle East to enforce the
deadline.
At 4:30 p.m. EST on January 16, 1991,
Operation Desert Storm, the massive U.S.-led offensive against Iraq, began as
the first fighter aircraft were launched from Saudi Arabia and off U.S. and
British aircraft carriers in the Persian Gulf. All evening, aircraft from the
U.S.-led military coalition pounded targets in and around Baghdad as the world
watched the events transpire on television footage transmitted live via
satellite from Iraq. Operation Desert Storm was conducted by an international
coalition under the supreme command of U.S. General Norman Schwarzkopf and
featured forces from 32 nations, including Britain, Egypt, France, Saudi
Arabia, and Kuwait.
During the next six weeks, the allied force
engaged in an intensive air war against Iraq’s military and civil
infrastructure and encountered little effective resistance from the Iraqi air
force or air defenses. Iraqi ground forces were helpless during this stage of
the war, and Hussein’s only significant retaliatory measure was the launching
of SCUD missile attacks against Israel and Saudi Arabia. Saddam hoped that the
missile attacks would provoke Israel to enter the conflict, thus dissolving
Arab support of the war. At the request of the United States, however, Israel remained
out of the war.
On February 24, a massive coalition ground
offensive began, and Iraq’s outdated and poorly supplied armed forces were
rapidly overwhelmed. By the end of the day, the Iraqi army had effectively
folded, 10,000 of its troops were held as prisoners, and a U.S. air base had
been established deep inside Iraq. After less than four days, Kuwait was
liberated, and the majority of Iraq’s armed forces had either surrendered,
retreated to Iraq, or been destroyed.
On February 28, U.S. President George Bush
declared a cease-fire, and on April 3 the U.N. Security Council passed
Resolution 687, specifying conditions for a formal end to the conflict.
According to the resolution, Bush’s cease-fire would become official, some
sanctions would be lifted, but the ban on Iraqi oil sales would continue until
Iraq destroyed its weapons of mass destruction under U.N. supervision. On April
6, Iraq accepted the resolution, and on April 11 the Security Council declared
it in effect. During the next decade, Saddam Hussein frequently violated the
terms of the peace agreement, prompting further allied air strikes and
continuing U.N. sanctions.
In the Persian Gulf War, 148 American soldiers
were killed and 457 wounded. The other allied nations suffered about 100 deaths
combined during Operation Desert Storm. There are no official figures for the
number of Iraqi casualties, but it is believed that at least 25,000 soldiers
were killed and more than 75,000 were wounded, making it one of the most
one-sided military conflicts in history. It is estimated that 100,000 Iraqi
civilians died from wounds or from lack of adequate water, food, and medical
supplies directly attributable to the Persian Gulf War. In the ensuing years,
more than one million Iraqi civilians have died as a result of the subsequent
U.N. sanctions.