A day after the start of the US-led Second Gulf War against Iraq in 1991, Baghdad carried out its threat to bomb Israeli cities.
The sudden Iraqi military response began from January 18 to February 25, 1991, and included 19 missile attacks launched from western Iraq.
Timing and goal -
The Iraqi government - at that time - led by Saddam Hussein threatened that it would attack Israel with missiles in the event of a war against it, and this is what happened one day after the coalition attack, according to professor of the history of the contemporary Arab world Saad Mohsen al-Obaidi.
In his interview with Al-Jazeera Net, Al-Obeidi said that the aim of the bombing of Israel is to move the Arab street against their governments and pressure them, and indeed demonstrations took place in Egypt, Jordan and Palestine to support Iraq in its war against the Western powers.
He adds that what happened was a military maneuver and a media move to show it a battle between the Arabs and Israel, but Washington thwarted the scheme when it asked Israel to exercise restraint and not respond to the attack.
Rashid considered that striking Israel with missiles is a new Arab method for dealing with the Palestinian issue (Al-Jazeera Net)
The effects of the strike
According to the assistant professor of political science, Ali Muhammad Alwan, the Iraqi strikes were profound and influential, especially on the Israeli side, which has overcome the state of war since 1973.
Alwan explains, to Al-Jazeera Net, that what deepened this impact was the psychological warfare that the Iraqi and international media managed to plant in the Israeli personality, which appeared to be in the highest degrees of terror and fear.
For his part, assistant professor of political science Saddam Abdul Sattar Rashid notes that these strikes represented a great shock to the Arab peoples, who considered what is happening as a great victory for the Arab cause that was exhausted by lost wars, settlement arrangements and normalization, and the Arab body that seemed accustomed to the policy of submission instead of confrontation.
Rashid added to Al-Jazeera Net: The strikes marked the beginning of a new phase in dealing with the Palestinian issue after attempts to end it, and therefore it was a new dose of hope for the Arab body, to bring it back to the confrontation stage.
Al-Obaidi returned to explain that the information announced by the Israeli army recently indicated that Iraq had fired 43 missiles, and Israeli documents recently revealed the accuracy of these missiles in choosing the areas that were bombed.
And the history professor continues that Tel Aviv received the largest share of the Iraqi missiles, as 26 rockets fell on it, Haifa got 8 missiles, 4 rockets fell on the Shimron settlement council in the occupied West Bank, and 5 rockets in the Negev region in the south.
Late confession, and
after 3 decades of secrecy, Israel unveiled its losses in those attacks, admitting that about 14 were killed and dozens wounded.
Regarding this, the researcher on Iraqi affairs, Raad Hashem, says that the Iraqi media at the time and the media supporting the Palestinian cause were confirming the occurrence of losses despite the Israeli denial.
And he added, to Al-Jazeera Net, that Israel tried to dwarf the blow, and did not reveal the losses at the time in order not to give value to the Arab peoples and Iraq would not feel euphoric.
Hashem attributes the reason for the timing of the disclosure of these documents to the fact that they are now outdated after 30 years, according to the contexts of the worldwide disclosure of documents.
It is also likely that there will be US-Israeli coordination to uncover certain documents, with the aim of sending a message to Iran that "Iraq, which was strong and represented a threat to Israel, has become his fate, so they were considered," according to Hashem.
A convoy of Iraqi forces, while trying to leave Kuwait, was bombed by the United States (Associated Press - Archive)
Desert Storm,
the air campaign that began on the night of January 17th, targeted Baghdad for several reasons, including paralyzing the ability of the Iraqi regime to control its military parties in Kuwait, according to the assistant professor of political science, Abbas Hashem Aziz.
Aziz adds, to Al-Jazeera Net: After that, the campaign developed into striking Iraqi forces in Kuwait in order to exhaust it before the start of the ground military operations, which were launched after 40 days of heavy bombing.
And Salim Shaker, the front colonel in the army, previously indicated that US forces arrived on the outskirts of the city of Nasiriyah, in southern Iraq, and then received orders to leave Iraq.
Al-Jamali believes that the withdrawal of the Republican Guard towards Baghdad had a role in the breakdown of the army (Iraqi Press)
The road to death
. Al-Amami believes that the withdrawal of the Republican Guard to protect the regime in Baghdad had a role in the breakdown of the Iraqi army.
And he quoted army officers as saying that the soldiers were hungry and thirsty due to the lack of water and food supplies.
Al-Amami tells the story of Road No. 8 (Kuwait-Basra), which is known as the "Road of Death," where the Iraqi forces gathered in northern Kuwait after it was destroyed by the American warplanes, and at that time US Chief of Staff Colin Powell told President George W. Bush: Shame on the American chivalry to kill those in the desert.
Continuous repercussions
and the second Gulf War is one of the important files in the region, constituting a crucial point that changed many scales, and its effects were not only local, but also had regional and international effects, according to academic and researcher in political thought Tariq Abdul Hafez.
Al-Hafiz added, to Al-Jazeera Net, that the bombing was massive and destroyed important sites in Iraq, and most of the weapons were used for the first time, and some of them were internationally prohibited, according to United Nations reports, human rights and international committees.
He attributes the reason for the great destruction to the intensity of the bombing, which amounted to about 100 thousand sorties, which dropped up to 88 thousand and 500 tons of bombs on Iraq.
Al-Hafiz excludes the possibility of Iraq getting rid of the great repercussions of this war, in light of the current situation, because the neighboring countries learned a harsh lesson from that crisis, and became afraid of the existence of a strong Iraq.