The First Gulf War

01

Amiriyah shelter bombing

A US GBU-27 penetrator cooked 408 civilians alive inside a reinforced bunker on February 13, 1991. Charred handprints remain on the walls today. The US still insists it was a military target.

02

Ali Hassan al-Majid

"Chemical Ali" ordered nerve-agent strikes on Kurdish villages, killing up to 100,000 people, then calmly signed the paperwork annexing Kuwait. He was hanged in 2010, convicted four times over.

03

Highway of Death

US aircraft trapped retreating Iraqi columns on Highway 80, then strafed them for hours. The 60-mile stretch of incinerated vehicles and bodies became so grotesque it helped end the war in 100 hours.

04

Nayirah testimony

A 15-year-old girl wept to Congress about Iraqi soldiers dumping Kuwaiti babies from incubators. She was the Kuwaiti ambassador's daughter, coached by PR firm Hill & Knowlton for $10.8 million.

05

Al-Firdos bunker

Two GBU-27 bombs hit what the CIA marked as a command bunker on February 13, 1991; it was a registered civilian shelter packed with families. At least 408 died — same toll, different article, same war.

06

Kuwaiti oil fires

Retreating Iraqi forces torched 730 Kuwaiti oil wells in early 1991; the fires burned for eight months, turning noon into black night across hundreds of miles. Red Adair's crews took until November to kill the last flame.

07

Depleted uranium

The US Army fired roughly 300 tons of depleted uranium rounds into Iraq and Kuwait, then left the radioactive debris in the sand. Birth defect rates in Basra spiked in the years that followed.

08

Peter Arnett

Peter Arnett broadcast live from Baghdad's Al-Rashid Hotel as US cruise missiles detonated outside his window — the first real-time war broadcast in history. The Pentagon called it treason; his ratings were enormous.

09

Iraqi invasion of Kuwait

Iraq invaded Kuwait at 2 a.m. on August 2, 1990, partly because Kuwait was drilling at a slant into the Rumaila oil field beneath their shared border — stealing, Baghdad claimed, $2.4 billion in Iraqi oil.

10

Battle of 73 Easting

At a featureless map-grid called 73 Easting, nine M1A1 Abrams tanks destroyed 28 Iraqi Republican Guard tanks in exactly 23 minutes on February 26, 1991. It was the largest US tank battle since World War II.