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Persian Gulf War Begins
Saddam Hussein started off by appearing to want a peace treaty, but soon after accused Kuwait of taking crude oil from the Ar-Rumaylah oil fields on their common border. After his speech, Iraq began to build troops on Kuwait's border, and President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt tried to get Iraq and Kuwait to negotiate in order to avoid outside intervention. This failed and Hussein launched his military on an attack on Kuwait. -
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Persian Gulf War Timeline
The long war between Iran and Iraq ended in a UN led ceasefire in 1988, but by 1990 the two states had yet to negotiate a permanent peace treaty. Iraq dictator Saddam Hussein started vicious attacks on oil tankers in the Persian Gulf using ballistic missiles and chemical weapons. The war ended with both sides agreeing to a ceasefire. President Bush issued an ultimatum on 2003, demanding that Hussein to leave Iraq and step down. Hussein refused, and the second Persian Gulf War began 3 days after. -
UN Gets Involved
The United Nations Security Council called for Iraq to take their troops out of Kuwait. A few days after, Saudi Arabian King Fhad called on NATO and met with U.S. Secretary of Defense Richard Cheney to request help from the U.S. military. When the UN was unsuccessful in their demands for Iraq to back down, they declared a trade ban on Iraq, called Resolution 661. -
Operation Desert Shield
The first U.S. Air Force fighter planes arrived in Saudi Arabia as part of a military operation called Operation Desert Shield, the same day Iraqi government annexed Kuwait. Troops sent by NATO allies, Egypt, and other nations arrived with the planes. Hussein declared a holy war and allied himself with Palestine by offering to evacuate Kuwait yet all these efforts failed and he quickly concluded peace with Iran to make his army bigger. -
All Out War
The U.N. Security Council authorized full scale attacks against Iraq if it did not withdraw troops from Kuwait by January 15. By January, forces built up against Iraq numbered about 750,000 strong, including 540,000 U.S. personnel. Other smaller forces include Britain, France, Germany, the Soviet Union, Japan, Egypt and Saudi Arabia. Iraq, had support from Jordan , Algeria, the Sudan, Yemen, Tunisia and the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO). -
Operation Desert Storm
Early in the morning, a massive U.S.-led air attack hit Iraq’s air defense, communications networks, weapons plants, and oil refineries. The attack, which is called Operation Desert Storm, succeeded using modern military technology, such as stealth bombers, cruise missiles, bombs with laser-guidance systems and infrared equipment. Iraq's air force was either destroyed or surrendered under the attack. -
Iraq Fights Back
Several days after Operation Desert Storm was launched, Iraq began to launch missiles on Israel. Saddam Hussein had the oil wells in Kuwait destroyed. When he blew up the oil wells, millions of gallons of oil was released into the Persian Gulf. In an attempt to avoid more fighting, US President George Bush gave Iraq 24 hours to surrender. When Iraq refused, it led to a ground war on February 24 called Operation Desert Sabre. -
Operation Desert Sabre
Operation Desert Sabre was launched which sent an allied ground offensive heading from Saudi Arabia into Kuwait and Iraq. Over the next four days, forces surrounded and defeated the Iraqis and freed Kuwait. Then U.S. forces stormed into Iraq about 120 miles west of Kuwait, and attacked Iraq’s armored forced from behind. The Iraqi Republican Guard prepared a defense south of Al-Basrah in Iraq. -
Persian Gulf War Ends
President George Bush announced a cease-fire after the Iraqi forces were eliminated. Iraq's government had finally accepted the United Nations resolution, ending the Persian Gulf War. According to the peace terms that Hussein accepted, Iraq would recognize Kuwait’s independence and destroy all its nuclear, biological and chemical weapons. About 8,000 to 10,000 Iraqi soldiers were killed, with only 300 coalition troops killed. -
Peace Negotiations
After the war, a plan to negotiate a ceasefire was put into place, and a meeting was held in Safwan Iraq. Saddam Hussein thought that the whole thing was just a small misunderstanding and that the "accidental" war could just be ended with a few words. American general H. Norman Schwarzkopf, on the other hand, was gloomy, as he had seen first hand the destruction in Kuwait. In two hours, the Iraqi delegates had accepted all terms and demands for a permanent ceasefire in the region. -
Aftermath
Even though it was a victory for the allies, Kuwait and Iraq went through severe damage. It was intended to be a war fought with minimal cost and damages, but its effects lasted for years forward. In the next few years U.S. and British air forces still patrolled the skies to reinforce the no-fly zone over Iraq. The United States led by President George W. Bush, the former president’s son, supported a U.N. resolution requesting the return of weapons inspectors to Iraq. -
Farther On
With the tensions still high as Iraq continued to not comply with weapons inspections, the U.S. and Britain began to re-gather more forces on Iraq’s border. Bush gave an ultimatum on March 17, 2003, threatening that if Saddam Hussein did step down from power and leave Iraq in 48 hours, then they would declare war. Hussein refused, and this led to the second Persian Gulf War also known as the Iraq War.
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