Sometimes called the Gulf War because Kuwait lines the border of the Persian Gulf. Saddam Hussein lead an invasion into Kuwait in 1990 over a disputed oil field. Saddam believed Kuwait was profiting from the oil field and flooding the market to damage Iraq's economy. Kuwait faced pour odds against Iraq’s large army. Within a hours of launching an attack on kuwait, the country had been overrun. Saddam Hussein sought the grand wealth that the extensive oil fields yielded in Kuwait amounting for roughly 20% of the world's oil supply. Once Saddam had control of Kuwait he started to build up his forces, preparing for defence. The UN met on the subject because 20% of the world oil supply is really significant and could lead to Iraq becoming a superpower. A ban on all trade with Iraq was put in place. Talk of Operation Desert Storm became a reality when Saddam refused to withdraw his troops from Kuwait. The UN gave him a grace period, if troops were not withdrawn by January 15, 1991 allied forces would launch an attack on Saddam's 300,000 men. Outnumbered by the collective army of 32 nations, surmounting to 700,000 men. When Saddam Hussein failed to meet the deadline a series of air raids started, essentially uncontested by Hussien except for the launching of SCUD missiles at Israel and Saudi Arabia in an attempt to pull them into war. This effort was ineffective and shortly after ground troops were deployed and demolished Saddam’s forces. The four day battle that freed Kuwait from Iraq was very one sided when you look at the casualties of war, the opposition of Iraq suffered hundreds of death while Saddam’s troop body count went in to the tens of thousands.
Saddam Hussein Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti was the dictator of Iraq from 1979 to 2003. He was hung in 2006 by a group of people who captured him.