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From March 1st to March 4th, 1991, the United States Air Force undertook a series of airstrikes aimed at weakening Iraq and Yemen’s ability to wage war against the Saudi-led coalition. Over 75 Tomahawk Cruise Missiles were launched at various airfields and military bases in both Iraq and Yemen. Over 30 Iraqi soldiers and 14 Yemeni soldiers were killed in the strike.

The airstrikes were popular in the US, with polls showing that over 65% of the population approved of it. The airstrikes were also a boon to Saudi Arabia and its allies, who now had to face a much weaker Iraq and Yemen. Iraqi troops had to pull back and reorganize. But while this action was seen positively among the American public and the governments of the anti-Iraq coalition, in certain countries, it wasn’t.

Sympathy for Saddam in certain countries turned into all out support. In Algeria, Sudan, Palestine, and other countries, Islamist parties held rallies in support of Saddam Hussein. Libyan leader Gaddafi made a speech on March 5th in which he said that Saddam had the “full support of the Libyan people” (Gaddafi was aware of how foolish it would be to actually declare war on Saudi Arabia and its allies, but he did give enough diplomatic support in order for Libya not to be seen as truly neutral). This wouldn’t be much of an issue seeing as how none of those countries was going to align itself with Iraq in the war, but sympathy with Saddam was not limited to neutral countries. In Pakistan, numerous protests broke out against the government and in support for Saddam. This support for Saddam wasn’t limited to civilians, as even in the military there was enough anti-American sentiment for many to question the government’s alliance with Saudi Arabia against Iraq. On March 7th, Pakistani general Mirza Aslam Beg resigned from the position of Chief of Army Staff, claiming that he could not in good conscience fight against other Muslims. His vocal support for Iraq led to Pakistanis going to Iraq specifically to fight for Saddam.

In countries such as Syria, Jordan, and Egypt, there was doubt about fighting Iraq following the airstrikes. It was soon becoming clear that this war would not end quickly, and as such, many felt that it was not worth it to fight another Arab country just to preserve an American-backed kingdom which they did not feel any attachment towards. Much like Pakistan, there were people in those three countries which went to Iraq to fight for Saddam. Unlike Pakistan, those countries had the power to crack down on such activities, scaring any pro-Saddam people living in those countries into submission (of course, some continued such activities - they went to another country, and then went to Iraq, or they somehow found a way to get into Iraq directly from their original country).

Iraq sensed that, after the airstrikes, they had a lot more sympathy in the Muslim world than they did previously. Many in the Iraqi government began to believe that if they got enough sympathy in the countries they were fighting that eventually they would have to withdraw in order to withstand public pressure. Saddam sought to speed up this process by attacking Israel.

Whether or not Israel were to join the war Saddam had something to gain by attacking Israel. If Israel were to enter the war, Saddam thought, public sentiments in the countries of the anti-Saddam coalition would become more and more pro-Saddam as they began to realize that they weren’t fighting for their own national interest, but for a foreign country, supported by America and Israel. If Israel did not enter the war, Saddam could still play up the attacks against Israel into generating support for him, even if support would not be at the levels in the hypothetical situation Israel does enter the war. Not only that, but whether or not Israel enters, an attack on Israel would give Saddam allies among Palestinian groups, which would be helpful in the years following the end of the current war.

On March 15th, 1991, over 100 Scud missiles were launched at Israel from Iraq. Most of the missiles were fired at West Jerusalem, deliberately so, because it would mark a propaganda tool for Iraq that they were liberating Jerusalem from Israel. A total of 102 Israelis died in the attack.



While they were some in Israel who caught on to Iraq’s plan, and as such did not want Israel to retaliate, further Scud attacks on March 17th had led to most of Israel clamoring for some sort of retaliation. A day after the second set of missile attacks, Israeli jets entered Iraqi airspace and attacked any camouflaged vehicles thought to be holding Scuds (thus starting the tactic of “Scud hunting”, which would be used throughout the war) along with attacking Iraqi positions around the Syrian border. Israel had retaliated.

Israel’s retaliation had sent shockwaves throughout members of the Saudi-led coalition. This was made worse when you consider the fact that Israel had used Syrian airspace to attack Iraq, and that Syria hadn’t even noticed. Hafez al-Assad was outraged at this, and made numerous threats saying that he would have Syria leave the coalition if they did not receive any assurance that no aid would be sent to Israel if Israel were to strike at Iraq again. He did not want Israel to be seen as an ally against Iraq, not only because of his own views on Zionism, but because he was aware of what the Syrian people would think of Assad allied with Israel. Sadat had been killed for even making peace with Israel (a peace which led to Egypt retaking the Sinai peninsula), Assad probably wouldn’t fare much better if he were to ally with Israel against an Arab nation. In order to prevent Israel using Syrian airspace, the Syrian military began to placed troops around the Israeli border. Much of the resources used against Israel by Syria could have been used against Iraq. News of Israel using Syrian airspace had been suppressed in Syria, with Syrian news claiming that Israel had instead used Jordanian airspace. This was noticed by Iraq, which sought to weaken Assad’s power in Syria.

For one, Iraq sought to weaken Syria in Lebanon, which had been under Syrian occupation since the 1980s. Iraq began to fund and arm various Maronite Lebanese groups (Maronite Christians, of course, being the most staunch anti-Syria group in Lebanon). This created a conundrum for Iraq as it simultaneously funded both Palestinian and Maronite groups. The Lebanese Civil War was originally between Palestinians and Maronites, and while the PLO had been expelled from Lebanon the enmity still remained. The smaller Palestinian groups, Iraq could control and tell not to be involved in Lebanon. The larger ones, such as the PLO, Iraq could not. This meant that relations between Iraq and the PLO were just ok, not great. Lebanon would end up playing a role in the Arab War, and in its aftermath.

For over a month a stalemate occurred in the Arab War. This did not mean that fighting stopped completely, but that neither side was prepared to launch any sort of offensive to either take back land, or to occupy more land. In that sense, most of the fighting occurring in April and early May was going on was in Yemen, which was surrounded on all sides and as such was losing. It took some time for Iraq to recover from the airstrikes in March. When it did, the Iraqi military had set its sights on three cities: Dammam, Buraydah, and Hail. Those three cities were some of the largest cities in Saudi Arabia which were near the Socialist Arab Republic. If Iraq could capture them, it would be a blow to Saudi morale, deny their enemies a base, and open up the road to Riyadh. It would not be easy, the capture of those cities would be essential to the Iraqi war effort, and as such it would have to be done. Operation Decisive Storm began on May 15th, 1991.