Saudi Arabia Table of Contents
Giant oil spill resulting from the Persian Gulf War,1991
Courtesy Aramco World
At the conclusion of its bloody eight-year war with Iran,Iraq was able to maintain a huge, battle-tested army and vaststockpiles of modern weapons. To intimidate Kuwait over the issueof access to the gulf and Kuwait's unwillingness to limit its oilproduction, President Saddam Husayn massed Iraqi troops onKuwait's border. On August 2, 1990, to the surprise of the world,Iraq invaded and occupied Kuwait, and Husayn announced Kuwait'sannexation as Iraq's nineteenth province. Iraqi combat forcescontinued to move southward to the Saudi border, and enormousamounts of supplies were transported to the frontline troops.Intelligence sources indicated that Husayn planned to seize thenearby Saudi oil fields and processing installations. The SaudiArabian National Guard was mobilized and deployed along theborder, with army units to follow. Convinced that an Iraqi attackon Saudi territory was imminent and recognizing that availableSaudi forces were no match for the divisions Husayn had movedinto Kuwait, King Fahd authorized the deployment of United Statesforces to defend his northern border against Iraqi aggression.
In the ensuing months, an allied force of more than 600,000ground, sea, and air force personnel was assembled to defendSaudi Arabia and to drive the Iraqis out of Kuwait. Command ofthe allied forces was divided, with the head of the United StatesCentral Command, General H. Norman Schwarzkopf, in charge ofUnited States, British, and French units and his Saudicounterpart, Lieutenant General Khalid ibn Sultan Al Saud, son ofthe minister of defense and aviation and nephew of the king, incharge of units from twenty-four non-Western countries, includingtroops from Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Syria, Kuwait, and other statesof the Persian Gulf. Saudi ground forces deployed for the alliedundertaking (called Operation Desert Shield and renamed OperationDesert Storm when the war began in January 1991), consisted ofone armored brigade, three mechanized brigades, and two nationalguard mechanized brigades.
Saudi military resources were strained by the need to managethe allied military buildup and to ensure that the nationscontributing forces to the coalition were supplied with fuel,housing, power, and food. The Saudi air force flew 3,000 sorties,losing only one Tornado and two F-5E fighter aircraft to Iraqifire. In one of the few engagements by any of the allied powerswith the Iraqi air force, two Iraqi Mirage F-1 aircraft trying toattack allied shipping were shot down by a Saudi pilot. Saudifighter units were frustrated by the absence of Iraqi airtargets; Iraqi aircraft either were destroyed on the ground orshifted away from the fighting.
In their only ground attack on Saudi territory, the Iraqiscaptured the evacuated border town of Ras al Khafji on January30, 1991. After two days of heavy fighting, three Saudimechanized battalions, one tank battalion, and two national guardbattalions, joined by a battalion from Qatar and supported byUnited States Marines and attack helicopters, succeeded indriving the Iraqis out of the town on February 2. Eleven Iraqitanks and fifty-one other armored vehicles were destroyed. TheSaudis reported casualties of eighteen dead, thirty-two wounded,and eleven missing in what was described as the greatest landbattle in which the country's forces had ever been engaged. Someallied observers said that the national guard units acted moredecisively and were more aggressive in using firepower againstentrenched Iraqi troops than the regular Saudi forces.
When the massive ground assault against the Iraqi positionsbegan on February 24, 1991, the Saudi troops formed part of twoArab armies. The first, Joint Forces Command North, which alsoincluded Egyptian, Syrian, and Kuwaiti troops, was deployed onKuwait's western border. Joint Forces Command East was deployedalong the gulf, immediately south of Kuwait, and consisted ofabout five brigades from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, theUnited Arab Emirates, Morocco, and Senegal. The Saudi nationalguard formed part of a mobile reserve.
The main attack was led by United States, British, and Frenchforces in the west, directly facing Iraqi territory, and wasaimed at cutting links between the Iraqi forces in Kuwait andtheir sources of supply in Iraq. The ground assault on Kuwait bythe Arab forces of Joint Forces Command North was led by twoEgyptian divisions on the left and on the right, and the ad hocKhalid Division, consisting of Saudi and Kuwaiti troops,including the Saudi Twentieth Mechanized Brigade and the FourthArmored Brigade. As the Khalid Division advanced eastward towardKuwait City, passages through Iraqi minefields were cleared byallied bombing and engineer operations. On the third day, afterlight fighting and the surrender of thousands of Iraqi soldiers,Kuwait City was liberated. In the four days of fighting beforethe Iraqi army defending Kuwait was destroyed, Saudi casualtieswere minimal. The Saudi navy was also involved, receiving creditfor sinking an Iraqi minelayer with a Harpoon antiship missile.
Data as of December 1992
Saudi Arabia Table of Contents