On February 13, 1991, U.S. planes dropped two laser-guided bombs on the Amiriyah air-raid shelter in Baghdad, Iraq, killing over 400 civilians. The incident occurred during the Gulf War. The U.S. military defended the operation, stating that the Amiriyah shelter had activities emanating from it that fit the profile of a military command center.
(Taken from Gulf War – Wars of the 20th Century – Volume 4)
Background On August 2, 1990, Iraqi forces invaded Kuwait (previous article), overthrew the ruling monarchy and seizing control of the oil-rich country. A “Provisional Government of Free Kuwait” was established, and two days later, August 4, the Iraqi government, led by Saddam Hussein, declared Kuwait a republic. On August 8, Saddam changed his mind and annexed Kuwait as a “governorate”, declaring it Iraq’s 19th province.
Jaber III, Kuwait’s deposed emir who had fled to neighboring Saudi Arabia in the midst of the invasion, appealed to the international community. On August 3, 1990, the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) issued Resolution 660, the first of many resolutions against Iraq, which condemned the invasion and demanded that Saddam withdraw his forces from Kuwait. Three days later, August 6, the UNSC released Resolution 661 that imposed economic sanctions against Iraq, which was carried out through a naval blockade authorized under UNSC Resolution 665. Continued Iraqi defiance subsequently would compel the UNSC to issue Resolution 678 on November 29, 1990 that set the deadline for Iraq to withdraw from Kuwait on or before January 15, 1991 as well as authorized UN member states to enforce the withdrawal if necessary, even through the use of force. The Arab League, the main regional organization, also condemned the invasion, although Jordan, Sudan, Yemen, and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) continued to support Iraq.
Iraq’s annexation of Kuwait upset the political, military, and economic dynamics in the Persian Gulf region, and by possessing the world’s fourth largest armed forces, Iraq now posed a direct threat to Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states. The United States announced that intelligence information detected a build-up of Iraqi forces in Kuwait’s southern border with Saudi Arabia. Saddam, however, declared that Iraq had no intention of invading Saudi Arabia, a position he would maintain in response to allegations of his territorial ambitions.
Meeting with U.S. Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney who arrived in Saudi Arabia shortly after Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait, Saudi King Fahd requested U.S. military protection. U.S. President George H.W. Bush accepted the invitation, as doing so would not only defend an important regional ally, but prevent Saddam from gaining control of the oil fields of Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest petroleum producer. With its conquest of Kuwait, Iraq now held 20% of the world’s oil supply, but annexing Saudi Arabia would allow Saddam to control 50% of the global oil reserves. By September 18, 1990, the U.S. government announced that the Iraqi Army was massed in southern Kuwait, containing a force of 360,000 troops and 2,800 tanks.
U.S. military deployment to Saudi Arabia, codenamed Operation Desert Shield, was swift; on August 8, just six days after Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait, American air and naval forces, led by two aircraft carriers and two battleships, had arrived in the Persian Gulf. Over the next few months, Iraq offered the United States a number of proposals to resolve the crisis, including that Iraqi forces would be withdrawn from Kuwait on the condition that Israel also withdrew its troops from occupied regions in Palestine (West Bank, Gaza Strip), Syria (Golan Heights, and southern Lebanon. The United States refused to negotiate, however, stating that Iraq must withdraw its troops as per the UNSC resolutions before any talk of resolving other Middle Eastern issues would be discussed. On January 9, 1991, as the UN-imposed deadline of January 15, 1991 approached, U.S. Secretary of State James Baker and Iraq’s Foreign Minister Tariq Aziz held last-minute talks in Geneva Switzerland (called the Geneva Peace Conference). But the two sides refused to tone down their hard-line positions, leading to the breakdown of talks and the imminent outbreak of war.
Because Mecca and Medina, Islam’s holiest sites, were located in Saudi Arabia, King Fahd received strong local and international criticism from other Muslim states for allowing U.S. troops into his country. At the urging of King Fahd, the United States organized a multinational coalition consisting of armed and civilian contingents from 34 countries which, apart from Saudi Arabia and Kuwait’s (exiled forces), also included other Arab and Muslim countries (Egypt, Syria, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain, Oman, Turkey, Morocco, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Bangladesh). A force of about 960,000 troops was assembled, with U.S. soldiers accounting for 700,000 or about 70% of the total; Britain and France also sent sizable contingents, some 53,000 and 18,000 respectively, as well as large amounts of military equipment and supplies.
In talks with Saudi officials, the United States stated that the Saudi government must pay for the greater portion of the cost for the coalition force, as the latter was tasked specifically to protect Saudi Arabia. In the coming war, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and other Gulf states contributed about $36 billion of the $61 billion coalition total war cost; as well, Germany and Japan contributed a combined $16 billion, although these two countries, prohibited by their constitutions from sending armies abroad, were not a combat part of the coalition force.
President Bush overcame the last major obstacle to implementing UNSC Resolution 678 – the U.S. Congress. The U.S. Senate and House of Representatives were held by a majority from the opposition Democratic Party, which was opposed to the Bush administration’s war option and instead believed that the UNSC’s economic sanctions against Iraq, yet barely two months in force, must be given time to work. On January 12, 1991, a congressional joint resolution that authorized war, as per President Bush’s request, was passed by the House of Representatives by a vote of 250-183 and Senate by a vote of 52-47.
One major factor for U.S. Congress’ approval for war were news reports of widespread atrocities and human rights violations being committed by Iraq’s occupation forces against Kuwaiti civilians, particularly against members of the clandestine Kuwaiti resistance movement that had arisen as a result of the occupation. Some of the more outrage-provoking accounts, including allegations that Iraqi soldiers pulled hundreds of new-born infants from incubators and then left to die on the hospital floors, have since been determined to be untrue.
Iraq’s programs for developing nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons were also cause for grave concern to Western countries, particularly since during the Iran-Iraq War (that ended just three years earlier, in August 1988), Saddam did not hesitate to use chemical weapons, dropping bombs and firing artillery containing projectiles laced with nerve agents, cyanide, and sarin against Iranian military and civilian targets, and even against his own people, i.e. Iraq Kurds who had risen up in rebellion and sided with Iran in the war.