The Invasion of Kuwait, also known as the Iraq-Kuwait War, was a major conflict between the Republic of Iraq and the State of Kuwait, which resulted in the seven-month long Iraqi occupation of Kuwait, and subsequently led to direct military intervention by United States-led forces in the Gulf War.
In 1990, Iraq accused Kuwait of stealing Iraqi petroleum through slant drilling, although some Iraqi sources indicated Saddam Hussein’s decision to attack Kuwait was made only a few months before the actual invasion. Some feel there were several reasons for the Iraqi move, including Iraq's inability to pay more than $80 billion that had been borrowed to finance the Iran-Iraq war and Kuwaiti overproduction of petroleum which kept revenues down for Iraq. The invasion started on 2 August 1990, and within two days of intense combat, most of the Kuwaiti Armed Forces were either overrun by the Iraqi Republican Guard or escaped to neighboring Saudi Arabia and Bahrain. The state of Kuwait was annexed, and Hussein announced in a few days that it was the 19th province of Iraq.
Read more about Invasion Of Kuwait: Causes of The Conflict, Iraqi-American Relations, The Invasion, Aftermath
Famous quotes containing the words invasion of and/or invasion:
“In our governments the real power lies in the majority of the community, and the invasion of private rights is chiefly to be apprehended, not from the acts of government contrary to the sense of the constituents, but from the acts in which government is the mere instrument of the majority.”
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