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. By 1 February, the city had been recaptured at the cost of 43 Coalition servicemen dead and 52 wounded. Iraqi Army fatalities numbered between 60 and 300, while an estimated 400 were captured as prisoners of war.
Background On 2 August 1990, the Iraqi Army invaded and occupied the neighboring state of Kuwait.Lewis, p. 481. The invasion, which followed the inconclusive Iran–Iraq War and three decades of political conflict with Kuwait, offered Saddam Hussein the opportunity to distract political dissent at home and add Kuwait's oil resources to Iraq's own.Halliday, p. 226. At the time, Iraq's own reserves were second only to Saudi Arabia's.
In response, the United Nations began to pass a series of resolutions demanding the withdrawal of Iraqi forces from Kuwait.Perrett, p. 199. Afraid that Saudi Arabia would be invaded next, the Saudi Arabian government requested immediate military aid.Perrett, pp. 199–200. As a result, the United States began marshalling forces from a variety of nations, styled the Coalition, on the Arabian peninsula.Halliday, p. 223. Initially, Saddam Hussein attempted to deter Coalition military action by threatening Kuwait's and Iraq's petroleum production and export. In December 1990, Iraq experimented with the use of explosives to destroy wellheads in the area of the Ahmadi loading complex, developing their capability to destroy Kuwait's petroleum infrastructure on a large scale. On 16 January, Iraqi artillery destroyed an oil storage tank in Khafji, Saudi Arabia, and on 19 January the pumps at the Ahmadi loading complex were opened, pouring crude oil into the Persian Gulf. The oil flowed into the sea at a rate of a day, becoming one of the worst ecological disasters to that date.Freedman & Karsh, p. 29.
Despite these Iraqi threats, the Coalition launched a 38-day aerial campaign on 17 January 1991. Flying an estimated 2,000 sorties a day,Freedman & Karsh, pp. 24–25. Coalition aircraft rapidly crippled the Iraqi air defense systems and effectively destroyed the Iraqi Air Force,Biddle, pp. 144–145. whose daily sortie rate plummeted from a prewar level of an estimated 200 per day to almost none by 17 January.Freedman & Karsh, p. 27. On the third day of the campaign, many Iraqi pilots fled across the Iranian border in their aircraft rather than be destroyed.Freedman & Karsh, pp. 27–28. The air campaign also targeted command-and-control sites, bridges, railroads, and petroleum storage facilities.Lewis, pp. 493–495.
Saddam Hussein, who is believed to have said, "The air force has never decided a war," nevertheless worried that the air campaign would erode Iraq's national morale. The Iraqi leader also believed that the United States would not be willing to lose many troops in action, and therefore sought to draw Coalition ground troops into a decisive battle.Freedman & Karsh, p. 28. In an attempt to provoke a ground battle, he directed Iraqi forces to launch Scud missiles against Israel, while continuing to threaten the destruction of oilfields in Kuwait.Freedman & Karsh, pp. 29–30. These efforts were unsuccessful in provoking a large ground battle,Freedman & Karsh, p. 30. so Saddam Hussein decided to launch a limited offensive into Saudi Arabia with the aim of inflicting heavy losses on the Coalition armies.Titus, p. 4.
As the air campaign continued, the Coalition's expectations of an Iraqi offensive decreased. As a result, the United States redeployed the XVIII Airborne Corps and the VII Corps to the west. The Coalition's leadership believed that should an Iraqi force go on the offensive, it would be launched from the al-Wafra oil fields, in Southern Kuwait.Titus, p. 5.
Order of battle
The Iraqi Army had between 350,000 and 500,000 soldiers in theater,Freedman & Karsh, p. 13; post-war estimates put Iraqi personnel at around 350,000, while prior to the war the Coalition estimated a strength of around 540,000 soldiers. organized into 51 divisions, including eight Republican Guard divisions.Press, p. 13. Republican Guard units normally received the newest equipment; for example, most of the estimated 1,000 T-72 tanks in the Iraqi Army on the eve of the war were in Republican Guard divisions.Zaloga (1993), p. 38. The Iraqi Army in the Kuwaiti Theater of Operations (KTO) also included nine heavy divisions, composed mostly of professional soldiers, but with weapons of a generally lesser grade than those issued to the Republican Guard.Press, pp. 13–14.
Most non-Republican Guard armored units had older tank designs, mainly the T-55 or its Chinese equivalents, the Type 59 and Type 69.Zaloga (2004), p. 42. The remaining 34 divisions were composed of poorly trained conscripts. These divisions were deployed to channel the Coalition's forces through a number of break points along the front, allowing the Iraqi Army's heavy divisions and the Republican Guard units to isolate them and counterattack.Press, p. 14. However, the Iraqis left their western flank open, failing to account for tactics made possible by the Global Positioning System and other new technologies.Press, pp. 14–15.
In Saudi Arabia, the Coalition originally deployed over 200,000 soldiers, 750 aircraft and 1,200 tanks.Williams, pp. 5–6. This quickly grew to 3,600 tanks and over 600,000 personnel,Perrett, p. 200. of whom over 500,000 were from the United States.CNN, Gulf War Facts.
Iraqi forces Earmarked for the offensive into Saudi Arabia was the Iraqi Third Corps,Williams, p. 3. the 1st Mechanized Division from Fourth Corps and a number of commando units.Mahnken & Watts, p. 155. Third Corps, commanded by Major General Salah Aboud Mahmoud (who would also command the overall offensive), had the 3rd Armored Division and 5th Mechanized Division, as well as a number of infantry divisions. Fourth Corps' commander was Major General Ayad Khalil Zaki. The 3rd Armored Division had a number of T-72 tanks, the only non-Republican Guard force to have them, while the other armored battalions had T-62s and T-55s, a few of which had an Iraqi appliqué armor similar to the Soviet bulging armor also known as "brow" laminate armor or BDD.
During the battle of Khafji, these upgraded T-55s survived impacts from MILAN anti-tank missiles.Zaloga (2004), p. 36. These divisions also had armored personnel vehicles such as the BMP-1, scout vehicles such as the BRDM-2, and several types of artillery. Also deployed along this portion of the front, though not chosen to participate in the invasion, were five infantry divisions that were under orders to remain in their defensive positions along the border.Westermeyer, p. 5.
U.S. Marine Corps reconnaissance estimated that the Iraqi Army had amassed around 60,000 troops across the border, near the Kuwaiti town of Wafra, in as many as five or six divisions.Williams, p. 13. Infantry divisions normally consisted of three brigades with an attached commando unit, although some infantry divisions could have up to eight brigades–however most infantry divisions along the border were understrength, primarily due to desertion.Rottman, p. 51.
Armored and mechanized divisions normally made use of three brigades, with each brigade having up to four combat battalions; depending on the division type, these were generally a three to one mix, with either three mechanized battalions and one armored battalion, or vice versa.Rottman, pp. 51–52. Given the size of the forces deployed across the border, it is thought that the Iraqi Army planned to continue the offensive, after the successful capture of Khafji, in order to seize the valuable oil fields at Dammam.
The attack would consist of a four-prong offensive. The 1st Mechanized Division would pass through the 7th and 14th Infantry Divisions to protect the flank of the 3rd Armored Division, which would provide a blocking force west of Khafji while the 5th Mechanized Division took the town. The 1st Mechanized and 3rd Armored divisions would then retire to Kuwait, while the 5th Mechanized Division would wait until the Coalition launched a counteroffensive. The principal objectives were to inflict heavy casualties on the attacking Coalition soldiers and take prisoners of war, who Saddam Hussein theorized would be an excellent bargaining tool with the Coalition.Westermeyer, pp. 5–6.
As the units moved to the Saudi Arabian border, many were attacked by Coalition aircraft. Around the Al-Wafrah forest, about 1,000 Iraqi armored fighting vehicles were attacked by Harrier aircraft with Rockeye cluster bombs.Williams, pp. 14–15. Another Iraqi convoy of armored vehicles was hit by A-10s, which destroyed the first and last vehicles, before systematically attacking the stranded remainders.Williams, p. 15. Such air raids prevented the majority of the Iraqi troops deployed for the offensive from taking part in it.Williams, p. 16.
+ Iraqi armored fighting vehicles at Khafji T-72Zaloga (1993), p. 28. T-55Zaloga (2004), p. 29. T-62Zaloga (1979), p. 20. BMP-1 Weight 37.6 t (41.5 short tons) 36 t (39.7 tons) 40 t (44 tons) 13.9 t (15.3 tons) Gun 125 mm 2A46D smoothbore (4.92 inches) 100 mm D-10T2S rifled (3.94 in) 115 mm U-5T smoothbore (4.53 in) 73 mm 2A2B Grom low-pressure gun (2.9 in) Ammunition 44 rounds 43 rounds 40 rounds 40 rounds Road range Engine output Maximum speed (on road)
Coalition forces During the buildup of forces, the U.S. had built observation posts along the Kuwaiti-Saudi Arabian border to gather intelligence on Iraqi forces. These were manned by U.S. Navy SEALs, U.S. Marine Corps Force Reconnaissance and Army Special Forces personnel. Observation post 8 was farthest to the east, on the coast, and another seven observation posts were positioned each until the end of the "heel", the geographic panhandle of southernmost Kuwait. Observation posts 8 and 7 overlooked the coastal highway that ran to Khafji, considered the most likely invasion route of the city.Westermeyer, p. 9. 1st Marine Division had three companies positioned at observation posts 4, 5 and 6 (Task Force Shepard), while the 2nd Marine Division's 2nd Light Armored Infantry Battalion set up a screen between observation post 1 and the Al-Wafrah oil fields.Westermeyer, p. 10. The U.S. Army's 2nd Armored Division provided its 1st Brigade to give the Marines some much needed armored support.