Iraq Invades Kuwait
On 2 August 1990, Iraqi forces crossed the border and overran Kuwait, a small, oil-rich neighbor, in a matter of hours. Saddam Hussein's government then declared the country annexed, later calling it an Iraqi province. The invasion was one of the first major crises of the post-Cold War era. It prompted a broad international response, led to the Gulf War of 1991, and reshaped the politics of the Middle East for decades.
The roots of the crisis lay in debt, oil, and old territorial claims. Iraq had emerged from its eight-year war with Iran (1980-1988) economically drained, owing large sums to foreign lenders, including Gulf states such as Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. Baghdad pressed for debt forgiveness and accused Kuwait of exceeding OPEC production quotas, which kept oil prices low and hurt Iraqi revenues. It also claimed Kuwait was stealing oil from the shared Rumaila field through slant drilling. Beyond these grievances, Iraqi governments had long asserted that Kuwait was historically part of Iraq, a claim rooted in the Ottoman era and rejected by Kuwait and most other states.
After failed negotiations in late July, Iraq's army, which had massed troops near the frontier, attacked. Kuwaiti forces were quickly overwhelmed, and the ruling Al Sabah family fled to Saudi Arabia. The occupation that followed involved looting, arrests, and widespread abuses against Kuwaitis and foreign residents. Many foreigners were prevented from leaving Iraq and Kuwait, and some were held at strategic sites, which Baghdad's critics called the use of "human shields."
The international reaction was unusually united. The UN Security Council condemned the invasion within hours and soon imposed comprehensive economic sanctions. Saudi Arabia, fearing it might be next, accepted foreign troops on its soil. The United States assembled a coalition that eventually included dozens of countries, among them several Arab states. In November the Security Council authorized the use of force if Iraq did not withdraw by 15 January 1991. Iraq did not, and a coalition air campaign began the following day, followed by a ground offensive in late February that liberated Kuwait within about four days.
The consequences were far-reaching. Kuwait's sovereignty was restored, but the country suffered heavy damage, including hundreds of burning oil wells set alight by retreating Iraqi troops. Saddam Hussein remained in power and faced uprisings among Shia and Kurdish populations, which his forces suppressed brutally. Iraq lived under sanctions, weapons inspections, and no-fly zones through the 1990s. The long US military presence in the Gulf also became a source of political resentment in the region. Historians continue to debate how these developments fed into later conflicts, including the 2003 invasion of Iraq.