Saddam Withdraws: Gulf War Ends in Kuwait
Saddam Hussein ordered Iraqi forces to withdraw from Kuwait on February 26, 1991, after six weeks of aerial bombardment and a 100-hour ground offensive had destroyed his army's capacity to fight. The retreating columns became sitting targets on Highway 80 from Kuwait City to Basra, where coalition aircraft strafed thousands of vehicles in what journalists called the 'Highway of Death.' The images of destroyed and burning vehicles prompted President George H.W. Bush to declare a ceasefire. Coalition forces had liberated Kuwait, but Bush chose not to march on Baghdad, a decision later criticized when Saddam remained in power and brutally suppressed Kurdish and Shia uprisings that the US had encouraged. The Gulf War demonstrated the overwhelming superiority of American precision-guided weapons and air power, establishing a model of rapid, technology-driven warfare that would define US military doctrine for the next two decades.
February 26, 1991
35 years ago
Key Figures & Places
What Else Happened on February 26
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