Gulf War

Gulf War (January 16, 1991–February 28, 1991) Military action by a US-led coalition of 32 states to expel Iraqi forces from Kuwait. Iraqi forces invaded Kuwait (August 2, 1990) and claimed it as an Iraqi province. On August 7, 1990, Operation Desert Shield began a mass deployment of coalition forces to protect Saudi oil reserves. Economic sanctions failed to secure a withdrawal, and the UN Security Council set a deadline of January 15, 1991, for the peaceful removal of Iraqi forces. Iraqi President Saddam Hussein ignored the ultimatum, and General Norman Schwarzkopf launched Operation Desert Storm. Within a week, extensive coalition air attacks secured control of the skies and weakened Iraq's military command. Iraqi ground forces were defenceless against the coalition's technologically advanced weaponry. Iraq launched Scud missile attacks on Saudi Arabia and Israel, in the hope of weakening Arab support for the coalition. On February 24, the war began on the ground. Iraqi troops burned Kuwaiti oil wells as they fled. Kuwait was liberated two days later, and a cease-fire declared on February 28. Saddam Hussein remained in power in Iraq. The Gulf War claimed the lives of 234 Allied troops and between 85,000 and 150,000 Iraqi soldiers. Some 33,000 Kuwaitis were killed or captured.

Gulf War, 1990–1. On 2 August 1990 Iraq invaded the tiny neighbouring state of Kuwait, giving the Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein control of about 15 per cent of the world's oil. The almost defunct Soviet Union did not block a strong American response, which employed the United Nations Security Council to denounce Iraq's action. President George Bush assembled a coalition of 29 countries against Iraq. Britain's policy was to support the USA completely, to demonstrate both her reliability as an ally and her importance as a second‐ranking power.

The coalition forces took several months to assemble in Saudi Arabia. Iraqi strategy was to prevent a coalition forming by playing on pan‐Arab sentiment, in particular over past American support for Israel. On 29 November the United Nations Security Council set a deadline of 15 January 1991 for Iraqi withdrawal from Kuwait. Early on 17 January 1991, the coalition began with a massive air bombing attack against Iraq, which responded by attacking Israel (which had taken no military action) with long‐range missiles. Critically for coalition solidarity, Israel refused to retaliate. The coalition launched its ground offensive to clear Kuwait on 24 February. This revealed that the Americans had greatly overestimated the Iraqi army, which offered only token resistance.

With the liberation of Kuwait dissident groups within Iraq, notably the Kurds of the north, rose in rebellion. Over the next year Saddam gradually reasserted his rule, and survived in power.

Gulf War (1991) An international conflict in the Gulf region of Kuwait and Iraq. Iraq, as the successor to the Ottoman empire, claimed Kuwait in 1961, but the issue was not pressed and Kuwait later supported Iraq financially, especially during the Iran-Iraq war. However, in 1990 Saddam HUSSEIN claimed Kuwait was deliberately lowering oil prices by over-producing oil, costing Iraq money, and that Kuwait had seized Iraqi territory and oil. Kuwait denied the charges, but on 2 August 1990, Iraqi troops invaded Kuwait, Saddam Hussein demanding control of its large and valuable oilfields and declaring Kuwait the 19th province of Iraq. The UN Security Council imposed economic sanctions, and the US-led coalition of 29 countries was mobilized. Intense diplomatic activity failed, and on 17 January 1991 a massive air attack was launched. Strategic targets, some placed by Hussein in densely populated areas, were immobilized by electronically guided bombs. By 24 January Allied forces had established air supremacy, ‘carpet bombing’ Iraqi forces, which could not shelter in the deserts of southern Iraq. The land war, named by Hussein as ‘the mother of all battles’, and by the UN forces under their Commander-in-Chief, General Norman Schwarzkopf, as ‘Operation Desert Sabre’ lasted from 24 to 28 February, during which time the Iraqi forces were routed by a massive Allied tank advance. The Allied offensive by air was called ‘Operation Desert Storm’. On the Allied side the war was fought with sophisticated electronic equipment and weapons systems, notably the F-117 Stealth Fighter, laser-guided bombs, and depleted uranium shells for penetrating armour. Iraq's defence system, which included chemical and biological warheads intended for delivery by Soviet SCUD ballistic missiles, had been rendered ineffective by Allied bombing. By the end of February 1991, Hussein, having set fire to over 700 Kuwaiti oil wells, accepted the UN ceasefire terms, but had openly flouted these by early 1993. Final casualties of the war numbered some 33,000 Kuwaitis killed or captured, 234 Allied dead, and between 85,000 and 100,000 Iraqi soldiers killed. UN sanctions imposed on Iraq remained in place and tension continued as Iraq refused to allow UN weapons inspections throughout the 1990s, leading to several bombing raids by the US.