Gulf War

:See also: Iraq War and Gulf War (disambiguation)

Ground campaign

On February 22, 1991, Iraq agreed to a Soviet-proposed cease-fire agreement. The agreement called for Iraq to withdraw troops to pre-invasion positions within three weeks following a total cease-fire, and called for monitoring of the cease-fire and withdrawal to be overseen by the UN Security Council. The US rejected the proposal but said that retreating Iraqi forces would not be attacked, and gave twenty-four hours for Iraq to begin withdrawing forces.

Related Topics:
February 22 - 1991 - Soviet - Cease-fire

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On February 24, the U.S. began Operation Desert Sabre, the ground portion of its campaign. Soon after, U.S. Marines and their Arab allies penetrated deep into Kuwait, collecting thousands of deserting Iraqi troops, weakened and demoralized by the extensive air campaign. A few days into the campaign, Kuwait City was recaptured by units of the Kuwaiti Army.

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At the same time, the U.S. VII Corps launched a massive armored attack into Iraq, just to the west of Kuwait, taking the Iraqis completely by surprise. The left flank of this movement was protecting by the French 6th Light Armored Division (which included units of the Foreign Legion), and their right flank by the British 1st Armored Division. Once the allies had penetrated deep into Iraqi territory, they turned eastward, launching a massive flank attack against the Republican Guard. Tank battles flared as the Republican Guard attempted to retreat, which the Allies won with minimal losses.

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The U.S. anticipated that Iraq might use chemical weapons; General Colin Powell later suggested that a U.S. response to such an act might have been to destroy dams on the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, flooding Baghdad, though this was never fully developed as a plan.

Related Topics:
Colin Powell - Tigris and Euphrates

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The United States originally hoped that Saddam would be overthrown in an internal coup, and used CIA assets in Iraq to organize a revolt. When a popular rebellion against Saddam began in southern Iraq, the United States did not support it due to the fact that the coalition refused to aid in an invasion. As a result, not only was the rebellion brutally subdued, but the main CIA operative who was tasked with organizing the revolt was disavowed and accused of "disobeying orders to not organize a revolt".

Related Topics:
Coup - CIA

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In their cowritten 1998 book, A World Transformed George Bush and Brent Scowcroft concluded that overthrowing Saddam Husseins government would have fractured the alliance and would have had many unnecessary political and human costs associated with it.

Related Topics:
Brent Scowcroft - Saddam Hussein

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Iraq did not use chemical weapons and the allied advance was much swifter than US generals expected. On February 26, Iraqi troops began retreating out of Kuwait, setting fire to Kuwaiti oil fields as they left. A long convoy of retreating Iraqi troops formed along the main Iraq-Kuwait highway. This convoy was bombed so extensively by the Allies that it came to be known as the Highway of Death. One hundred hours after the ground campaign started, President Bush declared a ceasefire and on February 27 declared that Kuwait had been liberated.

Related Topics:
February 26 - Setting fire - Highway of Death - February 27

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A peace conference was held in Iraqi territory occupied by the coalition. At the conference, Iraq won the approval of the use of armed helicopters on their side of the temporary border, ostensibly for government transit due to the damage done to civilian transportation. Soon after, these helicopters — and much of the Iraqi armed forces — were refocused toward fighting against a Shiite uprising in the south. In the North, Kurdish leaders took heart in American statements that they would support an uprising and began fighting, in the hopes of triggering a coup. However, when no American support was forthcoming, Iraqi generals remained loyal and brutally crushed the Kurdish troops. Millions of Kurds fled across the mountains to Kurdish areas of Turkey and Iran. These incidents would later result in no-fly zones being established in both the North and the South of Iraq. In Kuwait, the Emir was restored and suspected Iraqi collaborators were repressed. Eventually, over 400,000 people were expelled from the country, including a large number of Palestinians (due to their support of and collaboration with Saddam Hussein).

Related Topics:
Shiite - Kurdish - Turkey - Iran - No-fly zone

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Both sides had roughly equal numbers of troops- approximately 540,000 Allied troops to approximately 545,000 Iraqi troops. A further 100,000 Turkish troops were deployed along the common border of Turkey and Iraq. This caused significant force dilution of the Iraqi military by forcing it to deploy its forces along all its borders (except ironically its bitter enemy Iran). This allowed the main thrust by the Americans to not only possess a significant technological advantage but also an equality in force numbers.

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The main surprise of the ground campaign was relatively low Allied casualties. This was due to some tactical errors on the part of the Iraqis such as deploying tanks behind sand berms which offered no protection against the kinetic energy rounds of the M1 Abrams tanks and also gave away the position of the Iraqi tanks from a great distance. The Iraqi forces also failed to utilize urban warfare in Kuwait City, which could have inflicted significant casualities on the attacking forces. Urban combat would have reduced the greatest advantage of the Allies, long range killing. In the desert M1 Abrams tanks scored kills out to 4 kilometers. Rarely in urban combat does fighting range exceed 1 km, a range at which theoretically the M1 Abrams tank was vulnerable to the 125mm gun of the T-72 tanks that the Iraqis possessed.

Related Topics:
Kinetic energy rounds - M1 Abrams tanks - Kuwait City - T-72 tanks

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On March 10 1991, Operation Desert Farewell began to move 540,000 American troops out of the Persian Gulf.

Related Topics:
March 10 - 1991 - Operation Desert Farewell - Persian Gulf

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