Gulf War

Gulf War
Clockwise from top: USAF F-15Es, F-16s, and an F-15C flying over burning Kuwaiti oil wells; British troops from the Staffordshire Regiment practicing casualty evacuation; camera view from a Lockheed AC-130; the Highway of Death; and M728 Combat Engineer Vehicle
Date 2 August 1990 – 17 January 1991 (Operation Desert Shield) 17 January – 28 February 1991 (Operation Desert Storm) (6 months, 3 weeks and 5 days) Location Iraq Kuwait Saudi Arabia Persian Gulf Israel Result Coalition victory Territorial changes State of Kuwait resumes self-governance over all Kuwaiti sovereign territory Establishment of a demilitarized zone and construction of a separation barrier along the Iraq–Kuwait border
Belligerents
United States  United Kingdom  France  Saudi Arabia  Egypt  Kuwait Coalition: Afghan mujahideen[1]  Argentina  Australia  Bahrain  Bangladesh  Belgium  Canada Czechoslovakia  Denmark  Germany  Greece  Honduras  Hungary  Italy  Japan  Luxembourg  Morocco  Netherlands  New Zealand  Niger  Norway  Oman  Pakistan  Philippines  Poland  Portugal  Qatar  Romania  Senegal  Sierra Leone  Singapore  South Korea  Spain  Sweden  Syria  Turkey  United Arab Emirates	Iraq
Commanders and leaders
George H. W. Bush Dan Quayle Dick Cheney Colin Powell Norman Schwarzkopf John J. Yeosock Walter E. Boomer Charles Horner Stanley Arthur Robert B. Johnston Margaret Thatcher John Major Peter de la Billière François Mitterrand Michel Roquejeoffre Sheikh Jaber Al Ahmad Sheikh Saad Al Abdullah King Fahd Prince Abdullah Prince Sultan Saleh Al-Muhaya Khalid bin Sultan[2][3] Prince Nayef Prince Badr Prince Turki Al Faisal Hosni Mubarak Youssef Sabri Abu Taleb Salah Halabi Muhammad Tantawi	Saddam Hussein Tariq Aziz Ali Hassan al-Majid Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri Iyad Futayyih Hussein Kamel al-Majid Abid Hamid Mahmud Muzahim Saab Hassan Salah Aboud Mahmoud
Strength
Over 950,000 soldiers 3,113 tanks 2,200 artillery pieces 1,800 aircraft	1,000,000+ soldiers (~600,000 in Kuwait) 5,500 tanks 700+ aircraft 3,000 artillery systems[4]
Casualties and losses
Total: 13,488 Coalition: 292 killed (147 killed by enemy action, 145 non-hostile deaths) 776 wounded[5] (467 wounded in action) 31 tanks destroyed/disabled[6][7][8][9] [10][11][12][13] 28 Bradley IFVs destroyed/damaged [14][15] 1 M113 APC destroyed 2 British Warrior APCs destroyed 1 artillery piece destroyed 75 aircraft destroyed[citation needed] Kuwait: 420 killed 12,000 captured ≈200 tanks destroyed/captured 850+ other armored vehicles destroyed/captured 57 aircraft lost 8 aircraft captured (Mirage F1s) 17 ships sunk, 6 captured[16]	Total: 175,000–300,000+ Iraqi: 20,000–50,000 killed[17][18] 75,000+ wounded[5] 80,000–175,000 captured[17][19][20] 3,300 tanks destroyed[17] 2,100 APCs destroyed[17] 2,200 artillery pieces destroyed[17] 110 aircraft destroyed[citation needed] 137 aircraft flown to Iran to escape destruction[21][22] 19 ships sunk, 6 damaged[citation needed]
Kuwaiti civilian losses: Over 1,000 killed[23] 600 missing people[24] Iraqi civilian losses: 3,664 killed[25] Other civilian losses: 75 killed in Israel and Saudi Arabia, 309 injured

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The Gulf War was an armed conflict between Iraq and a 42-country coalition led by the United States. The coalition's efforts against Iraq were carried out in two key phases: Operation Desert Shield, which marked the military buildup from August 1990 to January 1991; and Operation Desert Storm, which began with the aerial bombing campaign against Iraq on 17 January 1991 and came to a close with the American-led liberation of Kuwait on 28 February 1991.

On 2 August 1990, Iraq, governed by President Saddam Hussein, launched an invasion of neighboring Kuwait and fully occupied the country within two days. Initially, Iraq ran the occupied territory under a puppet government known as the "Republic of Kuwait" before proceeding with an outright annexation in which Kuwaiti sovereign territory was split, with the "Saddamiyat al-Mitla' District" being carved out of the country's northern portion and the "Kuwait Governorate" covering the rest. Varying speculations have been made regarding intents behind the Iraqi invasion, most notably including Iraq's inability to repay a US$14 billion debt the country had borrowed from Kuwait to finance its prior war with Iran. Kuwait's demands for repayment were coupled with its surge in petroleum production levels, which kept revenues down for Iraq and further weakened its economic prospects; throughout much of the 1980s, Kuwait's oil production was above its mandatory quota under OPEC, which kept international oil prices down. Iraq interpreted the Kuwaiti refusal to decrease oil production as an act of aggression towards the Iraqi economy, leading up to the hostilities.

The invasion of Kuwait was immediately met with international condemnation, including Resolution 660 by the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), and economic sanctions were unanimously imposed on Iraq in its Resolution 661. British prime minister Margaret Thatcher and American president George H. W. Bush deployed troops and equipment into Saudi Arabia and openly urged other countries to send their own forces. An array of countries joined the American-led coalition, forming the largest military alliance since World War II. The bulk of the coalition's military power was from the United States, with Saudi Arabia, the United Kingdom, and Egypt as the largest lead-up contributors, in that order; Saudi Arabia and the Kuwaiti government-in-exile paid out around US$32 billion of the US$60 billion cost to mobilize the coalition against Iraq.

UNSC Resolution 678, adopted on 29 November 1990, offered Iraq one final chance until 15 January 1991 to implement Resolution 660 and withdraw from Kuwait; it further empowered states after the deadline to use "all necessary means" to force Iraq out of Kuwait. Initial efforts to dislodge the Iraqis from Kuwait began with an aerial and naval bombardment on 17 January 1991, which continued for five weeks. As the Iraqi military struggled against the coalition attacks, Iraq began to fire missiles at Israel. The coalition did not include Israel, however the Iraqi leadership expected the missile barrage to provoke an independent Israeli military response, which might have prompted the coalition's Muslim-majority countries to withdraw on account of tense relations between Arab nations and Israel. The provocation was unsuccessful; Israel did not retaliate and Iraq continued to remain at odds with most Muslim-majority countries. Iraqi missile barrages against coalition targets in Saudi Arabia were also largely unsuccessful, and on 24 February 1991, the coalition launched a major ground assault into Iraqi-occupied Kuwait. The offensive was a decisive victory for the coalition, who liberated Kuwait and promptly began to advance past the Iraq–Kuwait border into Iraqi territory. A hundred hours after the beginning of the ground campaign, the coalition ceased its advance into Iraq and declared a ceasefire. Aerial and ground combat was confined to Iraq, Kuwait, and areas straddling the Iraq–Saudi Arabia border.

The conflict marked the introduction of live news broadcasts from the front lines of the battle, principally by the American network CNN. It has also earned the nickname Video Game War, after the daily broadcast of images from cameras onboard American bombers during Operation Desert Storm. The Gulf War has gained notoriety for including three of the largest tank battles in American military history.