The Gulf War took place primarily in Kuwait, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia, with the Persian Gulf serving as the naval theater. Combat operations spanned from January 17 to February 28, 1991, though the broader military buildup in the region began five months earlier. While Kuwait and southern Iraq saw the heaviest fighting, the war’s geographic footprint stretched across a surprisingly wide area, from deep inside Iraqi territory to missile strikes on cities in Israel more than 600 miles from the front lines.
Kuwait: The Central Battleground
Iraq invaded and occupied Kuwait on August 2, 1990, and the entire country became the primary objective of the coalition campaign to reverse that invasion. Kuwait is small enough that a fighter jet could cross its full length or width in seven or eight minutes, but Iraqi forces packed the territory densely. Five Iraqi divisions occupied southern and southwestern Kuwait, with two armored divisions held in reserve farther north and four more divisions positioned along the coast between Saudi Arabia and the town of al-Jahra, roughly 32 kilometers northwest of Kuwait City.
The ground assault into Kuwait began at 4:00 a.m. on February 24, 1991, when U.S. Marines attacked across the first Iraqi defensive berm at a point called “the Elbow,” where the Kuwait-Saudi border turns from running east-west to north-south. After six weeks of air strikes, the ground campaign lasted only 100 hours before Kuwait was liberated. One of the war’s most infamous sites is the stretch of Highway 80 connecting Kuwait City to Basra, Iraq. Retreating Iraqi forces clogged this road and were hit by devastating allied air attacks, earning it the name “the Highway of Death.”
The environmental damage in Kuwait was staggering. Retreating Iraqi troops set fire to oil infrastructure across the country. Over 600 wells in eight oil fields were actively burning, and more than 150 additional wells were damaged. Between six and eight million barrels of oil were also dumped into the Persian Gulf.
Saudi Arabia: The Staging Ground
Saudi Arabia served as the primary base for the entire coalition operation. The country shares borders with both Iraq and Kuwait, and its eastern oil infrastructure made it strategically vital to defend. The initial phase of the conflict, Operation Desert Shield (August 1990 through January 1991), was essentially a massive deployment of forces into Saudi territory to deter further Iraqi aggression and prepare for an offensive.
Several Saudi locations became critical military hubs. Al Jubail, a port city on the Persian Gulf coast, hosted a 500-bed fleet hospital and served as a major logistics center. Ras al Mishab, farther north, functioned as a forward staging base roughly 200 miles from Bahrain. Al-Kabrit, just 30 miles from the Kuwaiti border, became a logistics and construction support base for the Marine assault into Kuwait. Coalition engineers built a nearly 100-mile east-west road corridor connecting Ras al Mishab through Al-Kabrit to Al Qaraah to move troops and supplies toward the front. At least four airfields across the country hosted Marine aviation units.
Saudi Arabia was also a target. Iraq launched 37 ballistic missiles at the country during the war. Dhahran, home to the largest allied air base in the region, was hit first on January 18, 1991. Riyadh, the capital, was struck repeatedly. Other targets included the massive oil complex at Ibqaiq southwest of Dhahran, the port of Jubail, King Khalid Military City, and the town of Hafr al-Batin in the northeast near the Kuwaiti border.
Iraq: Air Campaign Deep Inside the Country
While the ground war focused on Kuwait and the strip of southern Iraq below 31 degrees north latitude (known as the Kuwait Theater of Operations), coalition air strikes reached far deeper into Iraqi territory. On the first night of the war, January 17, 1991, Marine aircraft hit targets inside Iraq including Scud missile shelters near the city of an-Nasiriyah and surface-to-air missile sites near Shaibah. Baghdad itself was a major target, with strikes on military and government infrastructure including the Baghdad Nuclear Research Facility.
Sites in western Iraq, hundreds of kilometers from the nearest coalition base, were also hit. Chemical weapons facilities at Muhammadiyat and Al Muthanna, both in remote areas west of Baghdad and over 400 kilometers north of the Saudi border, were struck during the air campaign. Coalition aircraft flew a total of roughly 18,000 Marine sorties alone during the war, spread across this vast geographic area.
The Persian Gulf: Naval Operations
The Persian Gulf itself was a significant theater. U.S. aircraft carrier battle groups operated in Gulf waters, launching air strikes and enforcing a naval blockade against Iraq. The narrow, shallow waters of the upper Gulf presented challenges including Iraqi-laid minefields. The coastal town of al-Khafji, a Saudi city about 9.6 kilometers south of the Kuwaiti border, became the site of one of the war’s notable engagements when Iraqi artillery began shelling it on January 17, and Iraqi ground forces briefly occupied it in late January before being driven out.
Israel: An Unwilling Target
One of the war’s most politically charged geographic dimensions was Iraq’s missile campaign against Israel, a country that was not part of the conflict. Iraq launched 39 ballistic missiles at Israel and the occupied West Bank. A majority were aimed at Tel Aviv, Israel’s largest city. Iraq also claimed to target the port of Haifa and Israel’s nuclear facility at Dimona in the Negev desert. These attacks were intended to provoke Israel into retaliating, which Iraq hoped would fracture the coalition by making it politically impossible for Arab nations to fight alongside Israel. Israel did not retaliate.
The Scale of the Coalition
The geographic spread of the war reflected the enormous coalition assembled to fight it. Forty-two countries contributed forces. The United States deployed 697,000 personnel at peak strength. Saudi Arabia contributed 100,000 troops, the United Kingdom 45,400, Egypt 33,600, France 14,600, and Syria 14,500. Smaller contingents came from countries as varied as Senegal, Bangladesh, Argentina, Niger, and Czechoslovakia. Combined coalition strength, including U.S. forces, exceeded 950,000 personnel at its peak, nearly all of them operating within or from the territory of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and the Persian Gulf.