Iraq's Invasion

Iraqi forces invaded Kuwait early in the morning of August 2, 1990. The invasion came as a total surprise for the international community. About 30,000-armed troops, mainly infantry, with 700 tanks followed by 100,000 advanced guards occupied Kuwait within a few hours. Kuwait’s small army of 20,000 men could show little resistance and rapidly collapsed. By dawn Iraqi troops had entered Kuwait City and taken over key points such as the Royal Palace, military and police hear quarters, ministries, radio and television, hospitals, the port authority. By the 4 August 1990, Kuwait was cut off from the outside world as the Iraqis destroyed the Umm Al Aish earth satellite station. The Kuwaiti Air Force, hundreds of thousands of civilians, and the Kuwaiti ruling family were able to flee to Saudi Arabia and other neighboring countries. In 1990, the Kuwaiti population consisted of approximately 2 million people, Kuwaitis and non-Kuwaitis (Al-Hammadi et al., 1994). Having no experience with war, the population was caught unprepared by the rapid invasion. A large number of the Kuwaiti population was abroad at the time of the invasion, due to the holiday season. Less than 300,000 Kuwaitis (less than 50% of the pre-invasion population) were left in Kuwait during the occupation.

More than one million expatriates, mostly from India, Pakistan, Philippines and Sri Lanka, left the country during the months after the occupation. They had to undergo considerable distress as they were transported via Iran and Jordan. Most of the 400,000 Palestinians stayed in Kuwait after the invasion.

The international community responded quickly against Iraq's aggression.

Within hours of the invasion, Iraq's worldwide assets were frozen. Both the UN Security

Council and the Arab League condemned the invasion and demanded an immediate withdrawal from Kuwait. The UN Security Council passed resolution 660 directing Iraq to make an immediate and unconditional withdrawal from Kuwait. The UN also imposed wide-ranging import and export sanctions against Iraq. A few days later, Saudi Arabia and Turkey shut down the flow of oil through pipelines across their territories.

On 6 August 1990, Saudi Arabia accepted a US offer of 50,000 troops to help defend Saudi territory. The operation was known as Operation Desert Shield. On the 10 August 1990, the Arab League, through majority vote, agreed to a proposal to join multinational forces to confront Iraq. Iraq claimed immediately after the invasion that their main purpose was to establish an Iraqi-controlled government (The Provisional Free Kuwaiti Government) headed by Saddam Hussein's son-in-law, and after that to gradually withdraw troops. But the response of the international community was so swift and far more condemning than the Iraqi regime had thought it would be, which frustrated and infuriated Saddam Hussein. The annexation of Kuwait and declaring Kuwait as its nineteenth province, ordering the closure of foreign embassies in Kuwait, and taking Westerns as hostages were some of the actions taken by the Iraqi regime as a result of the international response.

Table 2: Course of events

Date Event

August 2, 1990 Iraq invades Kuwait.

August 5, 1990 UN imposes import and export sanctions against Iraq.

August 6, 1990 Operation Desert Shield August 8, 1990 Iraq annexes Kuwait.

November 29, 1990 UN Security Council adopts resolution 678, permitting member states to use all necessary means to secure Iraqi withdrawal.

December 1990 Iraq experiments with effectiveness of explosives on oil wells.

January 16, 1991 Allied forces start bombing Iraq's position in Kuwait and Iraq.

Iraq starts to burn oil wells.

January 19-23, 1991 Iraq releases oil from Sea Island terminal into the Gulf.

February 19, 1991 Majority of oil well fires started

February 24, 1991 Allied ground offensive, also known as Operation Desert Storm, begins.

February 28, 1991 Kuwait City liberated, ground war ends.

March 11, 1991 UN declares cease-fire.

March 16, 1991 International fire-fighting teams begin to extinguish oil fires.

November 6, 1991 The last oil well is capped

The Iraqi troops, at least 300,000 personnel including several armor troops, were stationed in Kuwait and along the boarder with Saudi Arabia. At the end of 1990, 700,000 allied troops were primarily stationed in the central and northeastern parts of Saudi Arabia. Both the Allied and the Iraqi troops constructed a vast amount of roads and fortifications, such as bunkers, trenches, ammunition storage shelters, and weapon pits. Approximately 3,500 military vehicles were operating throughout Kuwait during the occupation (Omar et al., 2000). The Iraqis also constructed a series of long trenches along the southern boarders, which were filled with oil and were to have been set on fire to deter liberation. Troop movements and the construction of fortifications and roads directly affected almost the entire surface area of Kuwait and one quarter of Saudi Arabian.

Figure 3. Map showing the areas primarily affected by the movements of troops.

After the eight years long Iraq-Iran war, the Iraqi army was generally considered to be experienced and well exercised. They had managed to stand up to the Iranian army, in spite of being at a numerically disadvantage, even though it was with the help of chemical (and most certainly also biological) weapons. Nevertheless, the development of the events during the first months of 1991 showed the reverse - that the Iraqi forces were poorly prepared for war, untrained and unmotivated in the defense of the annexation of Kuwait.

Table 3: Summary of war impacts

Type of effect Extent of damage

Damaged oil wells About 800

Oil seepage onto land 60 million barrels ∗ Oil released to sea 10.8 million barrels ♦ Oil in lakes 24 million barrels ∗ Number of oil lakes 246 ∗

Total land area contaminated by oil 953 km² ∗

Quantity of oil released into the Gulf 5.4 million barrels♦ Oil on beaches 2.7 million barrels♦

Aerial pollutants 0.32-0.95 million m³ per day ∗ Amount of oil in trenches 498,447 m³ ∗

Total number of bunkers, trenches, and weapon pits

375,000 ∗ Number of military vehicles operating during

the war

3,5000 tanks and 2,500 armored personnel carriers

∗

Number of landmines (up to 1997) 1,646,355 ∗ Buildings set on fire

∗ Omar, 1998

♦Tawfiq and Olsen, 1993