Gulf War

Sides

What happened

Iraq came out of its war with Iran deep in debt and accused Kuwait of overproducing oil and drawing oil from the Rumaila field on their border. On 2 August 1990 Iraqi forces crossed into Kuwait and took Kuwait City within hours; later that month Iraq declared Kuwait its nineteenth province. The UN Security Council imposed sanctions and on 29 November authorised member states to use force if Iraq had not left Kuwait by 15 January 1991. A US-led coalition with forces from more than 30 countries, among them Saudi Arabia, Britain, France, Egypt and Syria, gathered in Saudi Arabia. From 17 January coalition aircraft bombed Iraq and the Iraqi army in Kuwait for five weeks. Iraq fired Scud missiles at Israel and Saudi Arabia and briefly took the Saudi town of Khafji. The coalition's ground offensive began on 24 February; Iraqi troops left Kuwait, setting hundreds of oil wells on fire, and the coalition declared a ceasefire on 28 February, about 100 hours after the ground war began.

Outcome: Iraqi forces left Kuwait and the coalition declared a ceasefire on 28 February 1991; Iraq accepted UN ceasefire terms, and sanctions on it stayed in place.

Key events

Leaders

• George H. W. Bush · President of the United States · US-led coalition
• Norman Schwarzkopf · Commander of US Central Command and of coalition forces · US-led coalition
• Khalid bin Sultan · Saudi commander of the joint Arab and Islamic forces · US-led coalition
• Saddam Hussein · President of Iraq · Iraq

Deaths