Gulf War 1990-1991: Kuwait Invaded and Operation Desert Storm

The Gulf War of 1990-1991 began when Iraq invaded and annexed its small, oil-rich neighbour Kuwait on 2 August 1990. A coalition of about 35 nations, led by the United States and authorised by the United Nations, launched a six-week air campaign from 17 January 1991 and then a ground offensive that drove Iraqi forces out of Kuwait in about 100 hours. It was the first major international crisis after the Cold War and a showcase of modern precision warfare.

Background and causes

Iraq emerged from the eight-year Iran-Iraq War in 1988 with a huge army but a shattered economy and debts of tens of billions of dollars, much of it owed to Gulf states including Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. Iraqi President Saddam Hussein argued that Iraq had defended the Arab world against Iran and that its debts should be forgiven.

In 1990 Saddam accused Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates of producing more oil than their OPEC quotas allowed, depressing prices and costing Iraq billions. He also claimed that Kuwait was slant-drilling into the Rumaila oil field that straddles the border, and revived a long-standing claim that Kuwait had been part of the Ottoman province of Basra and therefore belonged to Iraq. Talks in Jeddah at the end of July failed.

Invasion and occupation of Kuwait

In the early hours of 2 August 1990 Iraqi forces crossed the border and took Kuwait City within hours. The emir, Sheikh Jaber Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah, fled to Saudi Arabia, and his brother Sheikh Fahad Al-Ahmad was killed defending the Dasman Palace. Iraq installed a puppet government, then declared Kuwait annexed and, at the end of August, proclaimed it Iraq’s nineteenth province.

The occupation was harsh. Kuwaiti resistance fighters and civilians were arrested, tortured or killed, property was looted, and hundreds of thousands of residents, including large numbers of foreign workers, fled. Iraq also held thousands of Western and other foreign nationals, some of whom were placed at strategic sites as “human shields” before all were released by December 1990.

The international response

The UN Security Council condemned the invasion on the day it began (Resolution 660) and imposed sweeping economic sanctions on 6 August (Resolution 661). Fearing that Iraq might also move on Saudi Arabia’s oil fields, King Fahd agreed to the deployment of US forces, and Operation Desert Shield began on 7 August.

US President George H. W. Bush built a broad coalition that included Britain, France, Egypt, Syria, Saudi Arabia, the other Gulf states and many others, while Germany and Japan contributed large sums of money. The Soviet Union, close to collapse and seeking good relations with the West, supported the UN resolutions. On 29 November 1990 Resolution 678 authorised member states to use “all necessary means” to expel Iraq if it had not withdrawn by 15 January 1991. It passed by 12 votes to 2, with Cuba and Yemen against and China abstaining. The Arab world was divided: Egypt, Syria and the Gulf monarchies joined the coalition, while Jordan, Yemen and the PLO were seen as sympathetic to Iraq, a stance that later cost them dearly in aid and in the expulsion of hundreds of thousands of their workers from the Gulf. Last-minute diplomacy, including a meeting between US Secretary of State James Baker and Iraqi Foreign Minister Tariq Aziz in Geneva on 9 January, failed.

Operation Desert Storm

The air campaign

The air war began in the early hours of 17 January 1991 (local time). Cruise missiles, stealth aircraft and waves of coalition jets struck Iraqi air defences, command centres, power stations, communications and military targets in Iraq and Kuwait. Live television coverage, especially by CNN reporters in Baghdad, brought the war into homes around the world.

Iraq responded by firing Scud ballistic missiles at Israel and Saudi Arabia, hoping to draw Israel into the war and split the Arab members from the coalition. Under heavy US pressure, Israel did not retaliate, and US Patriot missile batteries were sent to defend it. On 25 February a Scud struck a US barracks in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, killing 28 American soldiers, the single deadliest Iraqi attack on coalition forces. At the end of January Iraqi troops briefly seized the Saudi town of Khafji before being driven out by Saudi, Qatari and US forces.

On 13 February a US strike destroyed the Amiriyah shelter in Baghdad, which the US believed to be a command centre; several hundred civilians sheltering inside were killed. The incident became one of the most controversial events of the campaign.

The 100-hour ground war

The ground offensive began on 24 February 1991. While US Marines and Arab forces attacked directly into Kuwait, the main blow was a wide “left hook”: US, British and French armoured forces swept west and then north through the Iraqi desert to cut off the Republican Guard, Iraq’s best troops. The French 6th Light Armoured Division guarded the far western flank, and the British 1st Armoured Division, part of a British deployment of about 53,000 personnel, struck east against Iraqi armour.

Tens of thousands of Iraqi soldiers, many exhausted, hungry and demoralised after weeks of bombing, surrendered, often to the first coalition troops they met; the total number of prisoners is commonly put at over 60,000. Where Iraqi units did fight, as at the Battle of 73 Easting on 26 February and Medina Ridge on 27 February, US armoured forces with superior tanks, night-vision equipment and satellite navigation destroyed them with very few losses of their own.

As Iraqi units fled north from Kuwait City, coalition aircraft attacked the long columns of vehicles on the road to Basra, later called the “Highway of Death”. Kuwait City was liberated on 26-27 February. President Bush declared a ceasefire, which took effect on 28 February, about 100 hours after the ground war began. Formal ceasefire terms were agreed at Safwan in southern Iraq on 3 March.

Key people

• Saddam Hussein – President of Iraq, who ordered the invasion and remained in power after defeat.
• George H. W. Bush – US President, who assembled the coalition and spoke of a “new world order”.
• General Norman Schwarzkopf – Commander of coalition forces under US Central Command.
• General Colin Powell – Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff.
• Sheikh Jaber Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah – Emir of Kuwait, who led his government in exile in Saudi Arabia.

By the numbers

Myths and facts

Myth: the war was fought mainly with “smart bombs”. Precision-guided weapons attracted enormous media attention, but they made up only a small share, under a tenth, of the munitions dropped by US aircraft. Most bombs were conventional unguided weapons.

Myth: Patriot missiles stopped almost every Scud. Early claims of near-total success were later strongly disputed. Post-war studies concluded that the number of Scud warheads actually destroyed was far lower than first announced, although the exact rate remains debated.

Aftermath and legacy

In March 1991, encouraged by Iraq’s defeat, Shia Muslims in the south and Kurds in the north rose against Saddam’s government. The uprisings were crushed with great loss of life, and about 1.5 million Kurds fled towards Turkey and Iran. The coalition responded with a safe haven in northern Iraq and later no-fly zones over the north and south.

UN Resolution 687 of April 1991 required Iraq to give up its chemical, biological and nuclear weapons programmes under international inspection, and sanctions remained in place for more than a decade, with severe effects on Iraqi civilians. The retreating Iraqi army also released large amounts of oil into the Gulf, one of the largest oil spills in history. Many coalition veterans later reported chronic unexplained symptoms, known as Gulf War illness.

The Gulf War restored Kuwait’s independence and seemed to show that the United Nations could act collectively after the Cold War. It established a long-term US military presence in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf, which became a grievance exploited by jihadist groups, including al-Qaeda. Unfinished business with Saddam Hussein, including disputes over weapons inspections, led eventually to the Iraq War of 2003.

Timeline

• 1990, 2 August: Iraq invades Kuwait; UN Resolution 660 demands withdrawal.
• 1990, 6 August: UN Resolution 661 imposes economic sanctions on Iraq.
• 1990, 7 August: Operation Desert Shield begins with US deployments to Saudi Arabia.
• 1990, 29 November: UN Resolution 678 sets a deadline of 15 January 1991.
• 1991, 17 January: Operation Desert Storm opens with a massive air campaign.
• 1991, 29 January-1 February: Battle of Khafji in Saudi Arabia.
• 1991, 24 February: The coalition ground offensive begins.
• 1991, 26-27 February: Kuwait City is liberated.
• 1991, 28 February: Ceasefire takes effect.

Why it matters

The Gulf War marked the start of the post-Cold War order, demonstrating overwhelming American military power and the importance of Gulf oil to the world economy. Its consequences, from sanctions on Iraq to the US presence in the region, shaped Middle Eastern politics for the next thirty years.