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During the 1991 Gulf War, American and other allied forces defeated the Iraqi occupation of Kuwait in a matter of weeks in an operation widely considered one of the most one-sided victories in the history of modern warfare. The sea of charred, mangled vehicles scattered along Highway 80, leading out of Kuwait, remains not only one of the most famous images of that conflict, but also one of the most controversial. While the US military insisted that the "Highway of Death" was the result of a necessary and justified operation, others call it the smoldering aftermath of a horrific war crime. On August 2, 1990, due to huge debts after an 8-year war with Iran and a desire to reunite Iraq's so-called "19th province" with its homeland, Saddam Hussein's
450,000-strong army invaded neighboring Kuwait and quickly overran its defenses. With the support of the US Congress and the UN Security Council, US President George H.W. Bush responded by sending 750,000 US troops to establish operational bases in friendly Saudi Arabia, from where the January 17, using complete air superiority, Operation Desert Storm began by crushing Iraqi positions and ground personnel. But, despite extremely heavy losses, Saddam Hussein refused to retreat. Instead, exploiting Kuwait's sizeable Palestinian community, the dictator stoked ethnic tensions and sought to build support for his occupation by launching waves of medium- range ballistic missiles at Israel and Saudi Arabia. Furthermore,
while the US Army and its allies were advancing, Hussein attempted to hinder their advance by ordering his troops to set fire to 700 of Kuwait's oil wells. In late February, with the Iraqis in a desperate situation, the final phase of Operation Desert Storm began-a combined air-ground offensive codenamed Desert Sabre. It all started with an American sortie into southern Iraq, designed to distract Iraqi divisions from the main assault. The US Navy and the 5th Marine Expeditionary Brigade then conducted a seaborne landing on the coast to further confuse the enemy. At 4:00 a.m. on February 24, after previous infiltration operations, the 1st and 2nd U.S. Marine Divisions, reinforced by Saudi ground units, began attacking Iraqi fortifications
inside Kuwait. At the same time, in cooperation with French and British forces, an offensive was launched against northern Kuwait. The offensive was so effective that the very next day, after repelling numerous counterattacks, nearly 200 enemy tanks were destroyed or captured, leading to Saddam Hussein's resignation being announced over the radio at 2:00 a.m. on February 26. As a result, all defensive positions were abandoned, and columns of retreating Iraqis moved onto the main six-lane highway leading out of Kuwait, beginning one of the most chaotic escapes in modern times. As dense columns of Iraqi soldiers, Kuwaiti hostages, civilians, and prisoners set off back to Basra along Highway 80 in the early morning of
February 26-the same route they had taken to invade the country- it became clear that they were walking into a death trap. The day before, US Air Force and Navy planes had gone into action, bombing any transport they saw fleeing along the road. This was followed by another, more targeted attack by American A-6 Intruder aircraft, which dropped hundreds of Mark 20 Rockeye cluster bombs on the front and rear of the expanding column, which now, blocked by debris on both sides, came to a complete halt. As the clock struck midnight, signaling the beginning of February 26, the Americans stepped up their
pressure, unleashing a 10- hour barrage of artillery and air fire on Highway 80, turning it into an inferno of twisted metal, charred bodies, and burned-out cars, buses, and trucks. Pilots from the aircraft carrier USS Ranger, dropping cluster bombs and whatever other explosives they could find, caused quite a bit of destruction, returning again and again to fire on the doomed convoy. As waves of U.S. Air Force F/A-18 and F-16A bombers dropped 500- pound bombs with devastating regularity, American air traffic controllers, fearing mid-air collisions, decided to divide the strike zone into two to reduce the risk of accidents. At noon on February 26, the 1st Brigade of the 2nd Armored Division of the US Army moved to the 25-foot Mutla Ridge, which
overlooked Highway 80 on the left. After clearing the minefield, the Americans destroyed enemy T-55 tanks, captured enemy bunker complexes, took prisoners, and then deployed artillery positions. Then, in conjunction with US airstrikes, they opened fire on a long line of stationary vehicles, many of which had already been reduced to burning carcasses. As a result of their devastating firepower, combined with a deadly traffic jam, most of the destruction was concentrated on a small stretch of highway near the Al-Mutla police station, where a quarter-mile pile of wrecked equipment formed. Meanwhile, on the ground, hundreds of panic-stricken Iraqis and civilians caught in the epicenter of the inferno fled into the desert, hid in cemeteries, or sought refuge in
abandoned houses, while new victims unsuspectingly joined the tail of the deadly traffic jam. In the weeks and months following the episode on Death Highway, opinion remained divided on whether it was a justified use of deadly force, with many accusing the US military of covering up war crimes. Their crude, excessive response is supported by eyewitness accounts from both coalition forces and Iraqis on the ground. Tankman Charles Sheehan-Miles, who was ordered to shoot anyone armed or running, admitted to shooting at least one person in civilian clothes; while other soldiers, alarmed that the enemy was not firing back, described it as " barrel shooting" as well as massacre and murder. In 1993, one Iraqi survivor painted a vivid picture of the massacre,
telling an interviewer about hundreds of destroyed vehicles and screaming soldiers. It was at night, when bombs fell, illuminating charred cars, bodies on the side of the road, and soldiers sprawled on the ground, hit by cluster bombs as they tried to escape from their cars. Those who condemned the US for its actions also point to the fact that it deliberately ignored Saddam Hussein's surprise 2am announcement of an orderly withdrawal of troops, which was in line with UN resolutions. They claim that American generals, in an attempt to completely humiliate Saddam Hussein and further [__] his already defeated army so that it no longer posed a threat, decided to continue the massacre on Highway 80. This was further confirmed by an official statement
they made a few hours after the bombing began at 7:00 a.m. on February 26, in which an American official stated that they still had no real evidence of an Iraqi retreat. This was despite clear signs that the Iraqis had begun withdrawing troops from Kuwait City more than 36 hours before its capture. Instead, the US military said that the bombing of the highway was justified because they interpreted Hussein's order not as a voluntary withdrawal of troops, but as a retreat under fire. They also stressed that they were not sure whether the fleeing Iraqi soldiers were heading west to reinforce the elite Republican Guard or north to escape.
Defenders of the US military position also downplay the level of destruction, claiming that the total number of Iraqi deaths on the " Highway of Death" was around 200-300 people due to the fact that most of the vehicles were abandoned before they were blown up. On the other hand, Joyce Chediak, a Lebanese- American journalist, claimed that up to 10,000 people died. Further analysis, however, provided a more realistic estimate- around 800-1,000 deaths. After the post-apocalyptic footage of "Death Highway" was shown around the world, it was publicly cited as one of the main reasons why President George W. Bush
decided on February 28 to end the Gulf War and begin peace talks. Today, it is a stark reminder of the horrors of war, as well as the accuracy and lethality of modern weapons systems.
