Gulf War

Iraq invades Kuwait, August 2, 1990; coalition war, January to February 1991 A force of 100,000 Iraqi troops overran Kuwait in a matter of hours, and forces from 34 countries, led by the United States, assembled to push them out. The air war began in January 1991, and the ground campaign that started on February 24 lasted just four days. The coalition stopped once Kuwait was freed, leaving Saddam Hussein in power in Baghdad, and US troops stayed based in Saudi Arabia, a presence Osama bin Laden attacked in his 1996 declaration of war against the United States.