Operation desert sabre
Operation Desert Sabre was the last offensive of the Persian Gulf War. In this phase, the Coalition marched into Kuwait to take control of the country. On February 24, the Coalition began a ground assault that was meant to penetrate deep into Kuwait and liberate Kuwait City. This would destroy Hussein's strategic reserve, the Republican Guard and the Iraqi heavy divisions. In the east, coalition troops under Saudi command attacked north into Kuwait. They eventually encircled Kuwait City and Iraqi forced were ejected or defeated. The regaining of Kuwait City forced enemy troops to retreat.
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Iraqi tank after the battle of Medina Ridge
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In only 100 hours of constant fighting, the U.N. Coalition gained impressive results against the Iraqi military. An estimated 1,300 tanks, 1,200 infantry fighting vehicles, 285 artillery pieces, and 100 air defense systems were destroyed. Coalition troops also captured nearly 22,000 men. Allied forces only lost 7 M1A1 Abrams tanks, 15 Bradley tanks, 2 armored personnel carriers, and 1 Apache helicopter. Only 22 allied men died in the process. At one of the most famous battles of Desert Sabre, The Battle of Medina Ridge, 300 Iraqi tanks were destroyed. This was an attempted ambush on Coalition soldiers. On February 27, most of the Iraqi soldiers were retreating or captured and the Republican Guard were defeated.
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the "Highway of Death"
The Iraqi soldiers who had occupied Kuwait City were forced to retreat back to their home country. However, they also possessed all of their weapons they had used to wage war. Therefore, the United States saw it necessary to stop these troops with force. Pilots were ordered to bomb the transports to stop the men, and then bomb even more to ensure that they could not take weapons of mass destruction with them. This relentless attack continued for two days straight across 3 miles of the highway. When the bombing was finally over, thousands of vehicles were destroyed and hundreds dead. Although this may seem unethical, pilots claim that this retreat was not ordinary.
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Apparently, Iraqi soldiers were firing anti-aircraft missiles and guns at the planes. There is still debate today whether this attack should have occurred. If planes were dropping bombs over any soldier's heads, then they would probably attempt to stop it as best as they could. The only thing that saved many of the troops was a cease-fire order by President Bush on February 28.
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