Iraq invaded Kuwait
On this day · 2 August 1990
Before dawn, Iraqi tanks rolled south into Kuwait, seizing the emirate in hours and igniting the Gulf War.
In the early hours of August 2, 1990, Iraqi forces under Saddam Hussein crossed the border and invaded neighboring Kuwait. Spearheaded by elite Republican Guard divisions, the assault overran the small emirate within two days; Kuwait’s ruling family fled to Saudi Arabia.
Saddam’s motives were tangled: a crushing debt left by the Iran-Iraq War, a dispute over the shared Rumaila oil field, and ambitions to dominate the Persian Gulf. By annexing Kuwait, Iraq suddenly controlled a vast share of the world’s oil reserves.
The response was swift. That same day the United Nations Security Council passed Resolution 660, condemning the invasion and demanding immediate withdrawal. When Saddam refused, a U.S.-led coalition assembled under further UN resolutions and, in early 1991, drove Iraqi forces out in the war known as Operation Desert Storm.
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