PERSIAN GULF WAR,

also called Gulf War (1990-91), international conflict that was triggered by Iraq's invasion of Kuwait on Aug. 2, 1990. Iraq's leader, Saddam Hussein, ordered the invasion and occupation of Kuwait with the apparent aim of acquiring that nation's large oil reserves. On August 3 the United Nations Security Council called for Iraq to withdraw from Kuwait, and on August 6 the council imposed a worldwide ban on trade with Iraq. Iraq's invasion and the potential threat it then posed to Saudi Arabia prompted the United States and its western European NATO allies to rush troops to Saudi Arabia to deter a possible attack. Egypt and several other Arab nations joined the anti-Iraq coalition and contributed forces to the military buildup, known as Operation Desert Shield. Hussein meanwhile built up his occupying army in Kuwait to about 300,000 troops. On November 29 the UN Security Council authorized the use of force against Iraq unless it withdrew from Kuwait by Jan. 15, 1991. By January 1991 the Allied coalition against Hussein had reached a strength of 700,000 troops, including 540,000 U.S. personnel and smaller numbers of British, French, Egyptians, Saudis, Syrians, and several other national contingents. Hussein steadfastly refused to withdraw his forces from Kuwait, however, which he maintained would remain a province of Iraq (the latter had formally annexed Kuwait on Aug. 8, 1990). The Persian Gulf War began on Jan. 16-17, 1991, with a massive U.S.-led air offensive against Iraq that continued throughout the war. Over the next few weeks, this sustained aerial bombardment, which had been named Operation Desert Storm, destroyed Iraq's air defenses before attacking its communications networks, government buildings, weapons plants, oil refineries, and bridges and roads. By mid-February the Allies had shifted their air attacks to Iraq's forward ground forces in Kuwait and southern Iraq, destroying their fortifications and tanks. Operation Desert Sabre, a massive Allied ground offensive, was launched northward from northeastern Saudi Arabia into Kuwait and southern Iraq on February 24, and within three days Arab and U.S. forces had retaken Kuwait City in the face of crumbling Iraqi resistance. Meanwhile, the main U.S. armoured thrust drove into Iraq some 120 miles (200 km) west of Kuwait and attacked Iraq's armoured reserves from the rear. By February 27 these forces had destroyed most of Iraq's elite Republican Guard units after the latter had tried to make a stand south of Basra in southeastern Iraq. By the time that U.S. President George Bush declared a cease-fire for February 28, Iraqi resistance had completely collapsed. In the aftermath of its defeat, Iraq was swept by popular uprisings against the government of Saddam Hussein, who managed to suppress them with some difficulty. Kuwait's independence was restored, but the UN-sanctioned trade embargo on Iraq remained in force after war's end while a UN special commission oversaw the destruction of Iraq's medium-range missiles and its chemical- and nuclear-weapons research facilities. There are no official figures for the Iraqi military operation. Estimates of the number of Iraqi troops in the Kuwait theatre range from 180,000 to 630,000, and estimates of Iraqi military deaths range from 8,000 to 100,000. The Allies, by contrast, lost about 300 troops in the conflict.