Battle of Khafji 1991
Recorded location from Wikidata; battle sites are often approximate.
Key facts
| Date | 29 January 1991 – 1 February 1991 | Wikidata |
|---|---|---|
| Year | 1991 | Wikidata P580 (start time) |
| Era | Post-1945 (1946 onwards) | derived from year |
| Location | Saudi Arabia | Natural Earth (modern borders) |
| Continent | Asia | Natural Earth |
| War / conflict | Gulf War | Wikidata P361 |
| Participants | United States | Wikidata P710 |
| Coordinates | 28.4250, 48.5000 | Wikidata P625 |
About the battle
The Battle of Khafji was the first major ground engagement of the Gulf War. It took place in and around the Saudi Arabian city of Khafji, from 29 January to 1 February 1991.
Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, who had already tried and failed to draw Coalition forces into costly ground engagements by shelling Saudi Arabian positions and oil storage tanks and firing Scud surface-to-surface missiles at Israel, ordered the invasion of Saudi Arabia from southern Kuwait. The 1st and 5th Mechanized Divisions and 3rd Armored Division were ordered to conduct a multi-pronged invasion toward Khafji, engaging Saudi Arabian, Kuwaiti, and U.S. forces along the coastline, with a supporting Iraqi commando force ordered to infiltrate further south by sea and harass the Coalition's rear.
These three divisions, which had suffered significant losses from attacks by Coalition aircraft in the preceding days, attacked on 29 January. Most of their attacks were repulsed by U.S. Marine Corps and U.S. Army forces but one of the Iraqi columns occupied Khafji on the night of 29–30 January. From 30 January to 1 February, two Saudi Arabian National Guard battalions and two Qatari tank companies attempted to retake control of the city, aided by Coalition aircraft and U.S. artillery.
Text adapted from the Wikipedia article Battle of Khafji (revision 1370445110), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: excerpted from the article lead section; shortened by selecting paragraphs and trimming at a sentence boundary; formatting and citations removed. No text added.
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All 12 battles of the Gulf War →
Browse more: battles in Saudi Arabia · Asia · Post-1945 battles