In the early 1980s, Iraq invaded Iran and fought an eight-year war. Shortly after the end of the Iran-Iraq War, Iraq turned its guns to attack Kuwait and soon occupied the capital and territory of Kuwait, which became a major international event that attracted worldwide attention in the early 1990s.
In the early morning of August 2, 1990, Iraq's 100,000 troops, accompanied by dozens of helicopters, rolled with the rumble of 350 heavy trucks and tanks, and lightning crossed the border into Kuwait and directly attacked Kuwait City. The first fierce battle of the 90s began here.
Photograph of the 1990 war of aggression in Iraq
During the 8-year war between Iran and Iraq, the People of Kowiko were always terrified, lest the flames of war burn on their heads. When the war between Iran and Iraq subsided, the Kuwaitis were sleeping sweetly, but they did not expect that the war was really burning, so people could not help but be shocked and stunned.
With only 20,000 soldiers across Kuwait, Kuwait could not resist the invasion of 100,000 heavy troops. But even so, the battle for Kuwait City was fierce. Kuwaiti planes took off to meet the battle, and numerous Iraqi helicopter gunships flew low-altitude fire. The airport fell first, several places in the harbor ignited a raging fire, and dozens of tanks quickly occupied the coastal corniche. The sound of planes and tanks was deafening; light machine guns and mortars were mixed with fire, and the flames soared into the sky. Within hours, the Iraqi army surrounded The Dasman Palace, where Kuwaiti Head of State Al-Jaber is located, and bombs exploded inside the palace. Subsequently, the main streets of Kuwait City and the buildings of the Ministry of Defence, the Ministry of Information, television and other government departments were seized. At 11 a.m., the palace fell and Kuwait City fell completely into Iraqi hands.
On the same day, the oil fields of Kuwait, the world's famous oil-producing country, were all occupied by iraqi troops, and oil exports were completely stopped. World oil prices have soared to their highest point in more than four years.
Since Kuwait is a city-state, and the whole country is a desert and a flat river, there is no danger to defend, and the fall of the capital means the loss of the country. Although the State of Kuwait was small and had a small population, it was not timid in the face of the invaders, but resisted tenaciously. On the night of 2 August, more than 600 Kuwaitis were killed in battle. There are also 6 members of the royal family who have dedicated themselves to the country.
In the battle to defend The Dasman Palace, Prince Fahd, the younger brother of the head of state, Jaber Emir, commanded the soldiers to resist stubbornly, and due to the suddenness of the incident, he was in a hurry, and he only carried a small self-defense pistol. After 5 rounds of bullets, he was outnumbered, preferring to die, and finally collapsed next to the stairs of the palace. He was also sacrificed with his two sons. Prince Fahd, 45, was Jaber, the eighth younger brother of the Emir, who spent his life fighting for arab and Kuwaiti national interests.
Diagram
After the iraqi army captured Kuwait City, the next day, it occupied the area adjacent to Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. The overall fighting has largely stopped. On that day, Iraq announced to the world that the Iraqi army had been "invited" to help overthrow the Government of Al-Jaber, while a Kuwaiti radio station that claimed to speak on behalf of the new Government reported that the Kuwaiti "Provisional Government" had declared that the ruling Sabah family had been "overthrown". On the third day, 4 August, Radio Iraq announced the formation of a cabinet of nine military personnel of the "Provisional Government of Free Kuwait" and proceeded to form the "Kuwaiti People's Army", and then announced: "Iraq has prepared a plan to begin its withdrawal on the 5th, provided that the security of Iraq and Kuwait is not threatened in any way." "A timetable for the withdrawal of troops has been drawn up and agreed to by the 'Provisional Government of Free Kuwait'. ”
Kuwaiti Minister of State for Cabinet Affairs, Al-Ahwadi, who was abroad, immediately stated that the members of the so-called "Provisional Government of Free Kuwait" were all Iraqis and that the Kuwaiti people could not accept such a government. A number of Kuwaitis in Cairo also held demonstrations to protest the occupation of Kuwait by Iraqi forces. Iraq ignored this, however, by stealing gold from the National Bank of Kuwait, stealing museum artifacts, looting treasures from shops, and even more than 600 imported cars that had just disembarked at the port were returned to Basra intact. Soon after, Iraq declared Kuwait a province of Iraq and formally annexed Kuwait.
Iraqi President Saddam Hussein addressed the army announcing the annexation of Kuwait.
Kuwait's head of state, Al-Jaber, flew to Bahrain after iraq's occupation and then to Dammam in Saudi Arabia. Speaking to the press, he said: "We are saddened that the invaders were not our enemies, but Arab brothers and close neighbours. ”
After Iraq's invasion of Kuwait, there was a great uproar in international public opinion. The United States, Britain, France and many other countries have condemned this invasion. The Soviet Foreign Ministry announced on August 2 that, in view of the current situation, the Soviet Union decided to temporarily stop the supply of weapons and military technical equipment to Iraq.
In Rome, the 12 member states of the European Community decided on the 4th to impose a comprehensive embargo on Iraq and stop importing oil from Iraq and Kuwait. Prior to this, Japan, Italy, the United Kingdom, France and the United States had announced the freezing of Kuwaiti assets in those countries in order to prevent Iraq from receiving them.
In addition to dispatching Iraq, the United States, on the pretext of protecting Saudi Arabia from Iraq's aggression and safeguarding U.S. oil interests in the Gulf, launched a large-scale increase in troops to the Middle East and began the "Desert Shield" operation. In addition, it calls on the UN Security Council to adopt a resolution imposing comprehensive sanctions measures on Iraq, including diplomatic, military and economic. The UN Security Council then adopted a resolution on economic sanctions against Iraq. Saudi Arabia and Turkey then shut down Iraq's pipelines to the Red Sea and the Mediterranean, meaning they cut off Iraq's economic lifeline.
In the face of the aggressive "desert shield" operation of the United States, Iraq has not shown weakness. On August 15, Iraqi President Saddam Hussein announced reconciliation with Iran, unconditionally withdrawing troops from Iran and exchanging prisoners of war, thus freeing more than 30 divisions of the Iraqi army. Since the 17th, Iraq has been dispatching troops from the northern region day and night to reinforce the southern border area bordering Saudi Arabia to deal with possible offensives launched by the US military. On the 21st, some Saudi sources said that Iraq was installing 800 Scud missiles in Kuwait that could carry chemical warheads, with a range of 370 kilometers and could reach the Saudi capital Riyadh. On the 22nd, some Western military officials said that Iraq had established a "Silkworm" missile base on a cape in Kuwait that extended eastward into the waters of the Gulf, and its missiles would pose a huge threat to Western warships trying to blockade Iraq in the northern waters of the Gulf. Many of Iraq's ground forces have dug fortifications between 5 and 11 miles of the Saudi border, ready to hold on.
Saddam Hussein said it is impossible for the United States to defeat Iraq, and if the Gulf War breaks out, Iraq will attack Israel first with missiles and will use chemical and biological weapons in the war. At the same time, Saddam Hussein also launched a diplomatic offensive to demand peace talks and a political solution to the Gulf crisis, but he never abandoned Kuwait. Information Minister Sim said at a press conference on November 4 that the world should now know that Kuwait is iraq's 19th province. We will never withdraw our troops from Kuwait, never, Iraq will not bow to the blockade of Bush, Thatcher or anyone else, Iraq will only fall to its knees before Allah, and in any case we will defend our 19th province and would rather fight a dangerous war.
At this point, the curtain of the Gulf War was opened...