Editing Gulf War (section)

==Aftermath==
{{main|Aftermath of the Gulf War}}

===Gulf War illness===
{{Main|Gulf War syndrome}}

Many returning coalition soldiers reported illnesses following their action in the war, a phenomenon known as [[Gulf War syndrome]] (GWS) or Gulf War illness (GWI). Common symptoms reported are chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia, and gastrointestinal disorder.<ref>{{cite web|title=Gulf War Veterans' Medically Unexplained Illnesses |url=http://www.publichealth.va.gov/exposures/gulfwar/medically-unexplained-illness.asp|publisher=U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs|access-date=25 February 2014}}</ref> There has been widespread speculation and disagreement about the causes of the illness and the possibly related birth defects. Researchers found that infants born to male veterans of the 1991 war had higher rates of two types of heart valve defects. Some children born after the war to Gulf War veterans had a certain kidney defect that was not found in Gulf War veterans' children born before the war. Researchers have said that they did not have enough information to link birth defects with exposure to toxic substances.<ref>{{cite journal |title=Gulf war syndrome; higher rates of specific birth defects in gulf war veterans' children|date=29 June 2003 |journal=Medical Letter on the CDC & FDA |page=14 |id={{ProQuest|211397084}}}}</ref>

In 1994, the US Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs with Respect to Export Administration published a report entitled, "U.S. Chemical and Biological Warfare-Related Dual Use Exports to Iraq and their Possible Impact on the Health Consequences of the Gulf War". This publication, called the [[Riegle Report]], summarized testimony this committee had received establishing that the U.S. had in the 1980s supplied Saddam Hussein with chemical and biological warfare technology, that Saddam had used such chemical weapons against Iran and his own native Kurds, and possibly against U.S. soldiers as well, plausibly contributing to the GWS.{{Citation needed|date=February 2023}}

A 2022 study by Dr. Robert W. Haley of the [[University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center]], ''et al.'', of 1,016 U.S. Gulf War veterans found evidence of a [[Causality|causal]] link between GWS and exposure to low levels of the nerve agent sarin, which was released into the air by coalition bombing of Iraqi chemical weapons facilities. Significantly, the study found an increased incidence of GWS not only among veterans who recounted hearing nerve agent alarms, but also among veterans with the RR or QR (as opposed to the QQ) forms of the [[PON1]] gene, which produces an [[enzyme]] that deactivates [[organophosphate]]s (including sarin) through [[hydrolysis]]. By contrast, GWS was ''inversely'' associated with higher levels of the type Q [[isozyme]], which is more efficient at breaking down sarin than its type R counterpart. The authors "found that the PON1 [[genotype]] and hearing nerve agent alarms were independent and the findings robust to both measured and unmeasured [[confounding]], supporting a mechanistic [gene–environment] interaction.&nbsp;... Moreover, the change in the combined effect from one category to the next was significantly greater than the sum of the independent effects of the environmental exposure and the genotype".<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Haley|first1=Robert W.|last2=Kramer|first2=Gerald|last3=Xiao|first3=Junhui|last4=Dever|first4=Jill A.|last5=Teiber|first5=John F.|title=Evaluation of a Gene–Environment Interaction of PON1 and Low-Level Nerve Agent Exposure with Gulf War Illness: A Prevalence Case–Control Study Drawn from the U.S. Military Health Survey's National Population Sample|journal=[[Environmental Health Perspectives]]|volume=130|issue=5|date=11 May 2022|page=57001 |publisher=[[National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences]]|doi=10.1289/EHP9009|pmid=35543525 |pmc=9093163 |bibcode=2022EnvHP.130e7001H |s2cid=248694742 }} cf. {{cite web|url=https://www.utsouthwestern.edu/newsroom/articles/year-2022/sarin-nerve-gas-gulf-war-illness.html|title=UTSW genetic study confirms sarin nerve gas as cause of Gulf War illness|publisher=[[University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center]]|date=11 May 2022|access-date=11 May 2022|quote=For Gulf War veterans with the QQ genotype, hearing nerve agent alarms—a proxy for chemical exposure—raised their chance of developing GWI by 3.75 times. For those with the QR genotype, the alarms raised their chance of GWI by 4.43 times. And for those with two copies of the R gene, inefficient at breaking down sarin, the chance of GWI increased by 8.91 times. Those soldiers with both the RR genotype and low-level sarin exposure were over seven times more likely to get GWI due to the interaction per se, over and above the increase in risk from both risk factors acting alone. For genetic epidemiologists, this number leads to a high degree of confidence that sarin is a causative agent of GWI.}}</ref>

===Effects of depleted uranium===
{{Main|Depleted uranium#Health considerations}}
[[File:GWI DU map.gif|thumb|upright=1.35|Approximate area and major clashes in which DU rounds were used]]

The US military used [[depleted uranium]] in tank kinetic energy penetrators and {{Convert|20-30|mm|abbr=on}} cannon [[Ammunition|ordnance]]. Significant controversy regarding the long term safety of depleted uranium exists, including claims of [[pyrophoricity|pyrophoric]], [[genotoxicity|genotoxic]], and [[teratogenicity|teratogenic]] [[heavy metals|heavy metal]] effects. Many have cited its use during the war as a contributing factor to a number of major health issues in veterans and in surrounding civilian populations, including in birth defects and child cancer rates. Scientific opinion on the risk is mixed.<!--<ref name=r1/>--><ref name="bostonglobe">Elizabeth Neuffer [http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/0126-03.htm Iraqis Trace Surge in Cancer to US Bombings] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130902013328/http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/0126-03.htm |date=2 September 2013 }} ''Boston Globe'' 26 January 2003, Page: A11 Section: National/Foreign</ref><ref>Larry Johnson [http://www.seattlepi.com/national/95178_du12.shtml Iraqi cancers, birth defects blamed on U.S. depleted uranium] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081120013734/http://www.seattlepi.com/national/95178_du12.shtml |date=20 November 2008 }} ''Seattle Post-Intelligencer'' 12 November 2002. Retrieved 25 January 2009.</ref><ref>{{cite news|author=Ron McKay |url=http://www.commondreams.org/views01/0114-01.htm |title=Depleted Uranium: The Horrific Legacy of Basra |newspaper=Sunday Herald |location=Scotland |date=14 January 2001 |access-date=15 February 2013 |archive-date=27 May 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130527015017/http://www.commondreams.org/views01/0114-01.htm}}</ref> In 2004, Iraq had the highest mortality rate due to [[leukemia]] of any country.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.who.int/entity/healthinfo/global_burden_disease/gbddeathdalycountryestimates2004.xls |title=WHO Data, 2004 |access-date=4 September 2013}}</ref><ref name="Doctor's Gulf War Studies Link Cancer to Depleted Uranium">{{cite news |title=Doctor's Gulf War Studies Link Cancer to Depleted Uranium |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2001/01/29/world/doctor-s-gulf-war-studies-link-cancer-to-depleted-uranium.html |website=[[The New York Times]] |date=29 January 2001}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |author=Hindin R. |year=2005 |title=Teratogenicity of depleted uranium aerosols: A review from an epidemiological perspective |journal=Environmental Health |volume=4 |issue=1 |page=17 |pmid=16124873 |doi=10.1186/1476-069X-4-17 |pmc=1242351 |display-authors=etal |doi-access=free |bibcode=2005EnvHe...4...17H }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last=Marshall |first=AC |year=2005 |title=An Analysis of Uranium Dispersal and Health Effects Using a Gulf War Case Study |publisher=[[Sandia National Laboratories]] |url=http://prod.sandia.gov/techlib/access-control.cgi/2005/054331.pdf |access-date=16 July 2012}}</ref>

Depleted uranium has 40% less radioactivity than natural uranium.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.publichealth.va.gov/exposures/depleted_uranium//|title=Depleted Uranium – Public Health|author=((US Department of Veterans Affairs, Veterans Health Administration)) |website=www.publichealth.va.gov}}</ref> Depleted uranium is not a significant health hazard unless it is taken into the body. External exposure to radiation from depleted uranium is generally not a major concern because the alpha particles emitted by its isotopes travel only a few centimeters in air or can be stopped by a sheet of paper. Also, the uranium-235 that remains in depleted uranium emits only a small amount of low-energy gamma radiation. However, if allowed to enter the body, depleted uranium, like natural uranium, has the potential for both chemical and radiological toxicity with the two important target organs being the kidneys and the lungs.<ref>{{cite web |title=Depleted Uranium Health Effects |url=http://web.ead.anl.gov/uranium/guide/depletedu/health/index.cfm |publisher=ead.anl.gov|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20130406015817/http://web.ead.anl.gov/uranium/guide/depletedu/health/index.cfm |archive-date=6 April 2013|access-date=2014-05-24}}</ref>

===Highway of Death===
{{Main|Highway of Death}}
[[File:Demolished vehicles line Highway 80 on 18 Apr 1991.jpg|thumb|Destroyed Iraqi civilian and military vehicles on the [[Highway of Death]]]]

In the night of 26–27 February 1991, some Iraqi forces began leaving Kuwait on the main highway north of Al Jahra in a column of some 1,400 vehicles. A patrolling [[Northrop Grumman E-8 Joint STARS|E-8 Joint STARS]] aircraft observed the retreating forces and relayed the information to the DDM-8 air operations center in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.{{citation needed|date=February 2023}} These vehicles and the retreating soldiers were subsequently attacked by two A-10 aircraft, resulting in a {{convert|60|km|mi}} stretch of highway strewn with debris—the Highway of Death. ''New York Times'' reporter Maureen Dowd wrote, "With the Iraqi leader facing military defeat, Mr. Bush decided that he would rather gamble on a violent and potentially unpopular ground war than risk the alternative: an imperfect settlement hammered out by the Soviets and Iraqis that world opinion might accept as tolerable."<ref>{{cite web |last=Chediac |first=Joyce |title=The massacre of withdrawing Soldiers on the highway of death |url=http://deoxy.org/wc/wc-death.htm |url-status=usurped |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140814211443/http://deoxy.org/wc/wc-death.htm |archive-date=14 August 2014}}</ref>

Chuck Horner, Commander of US and allied air operations, has written:
{{blockquote|[By February 26], the Iraqis totally lost heart and started to evacuate occupied Kuwait, but airpower halted the caravan of Iraqi Army and plunderers fleeing toward Basra. This event was later called by the media "The Highway of Death." There were certainly a lot of dead vehicles, but not so many dead Iraqis. They'd already learned to scamper off into the desert when our aircraft started to attack. Nevertheless, some people back home wrongly chose to believe we were cruelly and unusually punishing our already whipped foes.
...<br/>
By February 27, talk had turned toward terminating the hostilities. Kuwait was free. We were not interested in governing Iraq. So the question became "How do we stop the killing."<ref>{{Harvnb|Clancy|Horner|1999|pp=499–500}}.</ref>}}

==={{anchor|Bulldozer assault}} Bulldozer assault===
[[File:D7 armoured bulldozer on flatbed.jpg|thumb|An [[armored bulldozer]] similar to the ones used in the attack]]

Another incident during the war highlighted the question of large-scale Iraqi combat deaths. This was the "[[bulldozer]] assault", wherein two brigades from the US 1st Infantry Division (Mechanized) were faced with a large and complex trench network, as part of the heavily fortified "Saddam Hussein Line". After some deliberation, they opted to use anti-mine [[plow]]s mounted on tanks and combat earthmovers to simply plow over and bury alive the defending Iraqi soldiers. Not a single American was killed during the attack. Reporters were banned from witnessing the attack, near the neutral zone that touches the border between Saudi Arabia and Iraq.<ref name="Sloyan">Sloyan, Patrick. [https://archive.seattletimes.com/archive/19910912/1305069/iraqis-buried-alive----us-attacked-with-bulldozers-during-gulf-war-ground-attack "Iraqis Buried Alive{{snd}}U.S. Attacked With Bulldozers During War Ground Attack"] . ''The Seattle Times''. 12 September 1991. Retrieved 4 March 2014.</ref> Every American in the assault was inside an armored vehicle.<ref name="Sloyan" />

Patrick Day Sloyan of ''[[Newsday]]'' reported, "Bradley Fighting Vehicles and Vulcan armored carriers straddled the trench lines and fired into the Iraqi soldiers as the tanks covered them with mounds of sand. 'I came through right after the lead company,' [Col. Anthony] Moreno said. 'What you saw was a bunch of buried trenches with peoples' arms and things sticking out of them.{{'"}}<ref name="Sloyan 1991-9-12">{{Citation |title=Buried Alive: U.S. Tanks Used Plows To Kill Thousands in Gulf War Trenches |newspaper=Newsday |place=New York |date=12 September 1991 |page=1 |first=Patrick Day |last=Sloyan}}</ref> However, after the war, the Iraqi government said that only 44 bodies were found.<ref>{{cite web|newspaper=Frontline |title=The gulf war: appendix: Iraqi death toll |url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/gulf/appendix/death.html |access-date=4 December 2005}}</ref> In his book ''The Wars Against Saddam'', [[John Simpson (journalist)|John Simpson]] alleges that US forces attempted to cover up the incident.<ref>{{Citation |first=John |last=Simpson |title=The Wars Against Saddam |publisher=MacMillan |place=Basingstoke |year=2003}}</ref> After the incident, the commander of the 1st Brigade said: "I know burying people like that sounds pretty nasty, but it would be even nastier if we had to put our troops in the trenches and clean them out with bayonets."<ref name="Sloyan 1991-9-12" /> Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney did not mention the First Division's tactics in an interim report to Congress on Operation Desert Storm.<ref name="Sloyan" /> In the report, Cheney acknowledged that 457 enemy soldiers were buried during the ground war.<ref name="Sloyan" />

===Palestinian exodus from Kuwait===
{{Main|Palestinian exodus from Kuwait (1990–91)}}

A [[Palestinian exodus from Kuwait (1990–91)|Palestinian exodus from Kuwait]] took place during and after the Gulf War. During the Gulf War, more than 200,000 Palestinians fled Kuwait during the [[Invasion of Kuwait|Iraqi occupation of Kuwait]] due to harassment and intimidation by Iraqi security forces,<ref name="ir"/> in addition to getting fired from work by Iraqi authority figures in Kuwait.<ref name=ir>{{cite web|author=Shafeeq Ghabra|title=The PLO in Kuwait|url=http://www.greenleft.org.au/node/1457|date=8 May 1991|access-date=2 September 2013|archive-date=7 March 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230307074924/https://www.greenleft.org.au/node/1457|url-status=dead}}</ref> After the Gulf War, the Kuwaiti authorities forcibly pressured nearly 200,000 Palestinians to leave Kuwait in 1991.<ref name="ir"/> Kuwait's policy, which led to this exodus, was a response to alignment of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and the PLO with Saddam Hussein.

The Palestinians who fled Kuwait were [[Jordanian people|Jordanian citizens]].<ref name=jor>{{cite journal|author1=Yann Le Troquer |author2=Rozenn Hommery al-Oudat |title=From Kuwait to Jordan: The Palestinians' Third Exodus |journal=Journal of Palestine Studies|volume=28 |issue=3 |date=Spring 1999|pages=37–51|jstor=2538306 |doi=10.2307/2538306 }}</ref> In 2013, 280,000 Jordanian citizens of Palestinian origin lived in Kuwait.<ref name=mon>{{cite web |title=Jordanians of Kuwait |url=http://www.joshuaproject.net/countries.php?rog3=KU|work=[[Joshua Project]]|year=2013}}</ref> In 2012, 80,000 Palestinians (without Jordanian [[citizenship]]) lived in Kuwait.<ref name=monitor>{{cite news|url=http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2013/04/palestinians-open-kuwait-embassy.html|work=Al Monitor|title=Palestinians Open Kuwaiti Embassy|date=23 May 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130522150710/http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2013/04/palestinians-open-kuwait-embassy.html|archive-date=22 May 2013}}</ref>

Saudi Arabia expelled [[Yemen]]i workers after Yemen supported Saddam during the Gulf War.<ref>"[https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/yemen/8557546/Yemens-president-flees-for-medical-treatment-as-search-for-new-leader-begins.html Yemen's president flees for medical treatment as search for new leader begins] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180922211449/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/yemen/8557546/Yemens-president-flees-for-medical-treatment-as-search-for-new-leader-begins.html |date=22 September 2018 }}". ''The Daily Telegraph''. 5 June 2011</ref>

===Coalition bombing of Iraq's civilian infrastructure===
In the 23 June 1991 edition of ''The Washington Post'', reporter Bart Gellman wrote: 
{{blockquote|Many of the targets were chosen only secondarily to contribute to the military defeat of Iraq&nbsp;... Military planners hoped the bombing would amplify the economic and psychological impact of international sanctions on Iraqi society&nbsp;... They deliberately did great harm to Iraq's ability to support itself as an industrial society&nbsp;...<ref>23 June 1991, Washington Post, Bart Gellman</ref>}}
In the Jan/Feb 1995 edition of ''Foreign Affairs'', French diplomat Eric Rouleau wrote: 
{{blockquote|[T]he Iraqi people, who were not consulted about the invasion, have paid the price for their government's madness&nbsp;... Iraqis understood the legitimacy of a military action to drive their army from Kuwait, but they have had difficulty comprehending the Allied rationale for using air power to systematically destroy or cripple Iraqi infrastructure and industry: electric power stations (92 percent of installed capacity destroyed), refineries (80 percent of production capacity), petrochemical complexes, telecommunications centers (including 135 telephone networks), bridges (more than 100), roads, highways, railroads, hundreds of locomotives and boxcars full of goods, radio and television broadcasting stations, cement plants, and factories producing aluminum, textiles, electric cables, and medical supplies.<ref>"The View From France: America's Unyielding Policy toward Iraq," ''Foreign Affairs'', Vol. 74, No. 1, January/February 1995, pp.61–62</ref>}}
However, the UN subsequently spent billions rebuilding hospitals, schools, and [[water purification]] facilities throughout the country.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Rubin |first=Michael |title=Sanctions on Iraq: A Valid Anti-American Grievance? |journal=[[Middle East Review of International Affairs]] |volume=5 |issue=4 |url=http://meria.idc.ac.il/journal/2001/issue4/mrubin.pdf |pages=100–115 |date=December 2001 |author-link=Michael Rubin (historian) |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060907153101/http://meria.idc.ac.il/journal/2001/issue4/mrubin.pdf |archive-date=7 September 2006 |access-date=24 May 2017}}</ref>

===Abuse of Coalition POWs===
During the conflict, coalition aircrew shot down over Iraq were displayed as prisoners of war on TV, most with visible signs of abuse. Amongst several testimonies to poor treatment,<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/gulf/war/ |title=Frontline: War Stories |publisher=Pbs.org |access-date=1 February 2011}}</ref> USAF Captain Richard Storr was allegedly tortured by Iraqis during the Persian Gulf War. Iraqi secret police broke his nose, dislocated his shoulder and punctured his eardrum.<ref>Patrice O'Shaughness. "Gulf War POW denounces abuse of Iraqi detainees". ''New York Daily News''. 12 May 2004.</ref> Royal Air Force [[Panavia Tornado|Tornado]] crew [[John Nichol (RAF officer)|John Nichol]] and [[John Peters (RAF)|John Peters]] have both alleged that they were tortured during this time.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.johnnichol.com/The%20Beginning.htm |title=The Flight That Changed My Life |publisher=Johnnichol.com |access-date=1 February 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110429013825/http://www.johnnichol.com/The%20Beginning.htm |archive-date=29 April 2011 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/gulf/war/4.html |title=War Story:John Peters |publisher=Pbs.org |access-date=1 February 2011}}</ref> Nichol and Peters were forced to make statements against the war on television. Members of British Special Air Service Bravo Two Zero were captured while providing information about an Iraqi supply line of Scud missiles to coalition forces. Only one, Chris Ryan, evaded capture while the group's other surviving members were violently tortured.<ref>''The One that Got Away'' by Chris Ryan & ''Bravo Two Zero'' by Andy McNab</ref> Flight surgeon (later General) [[Rhonda Cornum]] was sexually assaulted by one of her captors<ref name=Time>{{cite news |url=http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,438760,00.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030404061056/http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,438760,00.html |archive-date=4 April 2003 |title=A Woman's Burden |magazine=[[Time (magazine)|Time]] |date=28 March 2003}}</ref> after the [[Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk|Black Hawk helicopter]] in which she was riding was shot down while searching for a downed [[General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon|F-16]] pilot.{{Citation needed|date=February 2023}}

===Operation Southern Watch===
{{Main|Operation Southern Watch}}
Since the war, the US has had a continued presence of 5,000 troops stationed in Saudi Arabia{{snd}}a figure that rose to 10,000 during the 2003 conflict in Iraq.<ref name="bbc">{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/2984547.stm|title=US pulls out of Saudi Arabia |access-date=29 November 2009 |work=BBC News |date=29 April 2003}}</ref> Operation Southern Watch enforced the [[Iraqi no-fly zones|no-fly zones]] over southern Iraq set up after 1991; oil exports through the Persian Gulf's shipping lanes were protected by the Bahrain-based [[United States Fifth Fleet|US Fifth Fleet]].{{Citation needed|date=February 2023}}

Since Saudi Arabia houses Mecca and Medina, Islam's holiest sites, many Muslims were upset at the permanent military presence. The continued presence of U.S. troops in Saudi Arabia after the war was one of the stated motivations behind the [[September 11 attacks|11 September terrorist attacks]],<ref name="bbc"/> the [[Khobar Towers bombing]], and the date chosen for the [[1998 United States embassy bombings|1998 US embassy bombings]] (7 August), which was eight years to the day that US troops were sent to Saudi Arabia.<ref>Plotz, David (2001) [http://www.slate.com/default.aspx?id=115404 What Does Osama Bin Laden Want?] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110810171041/http://www.slate.com/default.aspx?id=115404 |date=10 August 2011 }}, Slate</ref> [[Osama bin Laden]] interpreted the Islamic prophet [[Muhammad]] as banning the "permanent presence of infidels in Arabia".<ref name="holywar-p3">{{cite book|author=Bergen, Peter L. |title=Holy War Inc. |publisher=Simon & Schuster |year=2001 |page=3}}</ref> In 1996, bin Laden issued a [[fatwa]], calling for US troops to leave Saudi Arabia. In a December 1999 interview with [[Rahimullah Yusufzai]], bin Laden said he felt that Americans were "too near to Mecca" and considered this a provocation to the entire Islamic world.<ref name="guardian-20010926">{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/g2/story/0,3604,558075,00.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080119011449/http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0%2C3604%2C558075%2C00.html |archive-date=19 January 2008 |title=Face to face with Osama |work=The Guardian |location=London |date=26 September 2001 |access-date=30 June 2010 |first=Rahimullah |last=Yusufzai }}</ref>

===Sanctions===
{{Main|United Nations Security Council Resolution 661|Sanctions against Iraq}}
{{Wikisource|United Nations Security Council Resolution 661}}
On 6 August 1990, after Iraq's invasion of Kuwait, the UN Security Council adopted Resolution 661 which imposed economic sanctions on Iraq, providing for a full trade [[embargo]], excluding medical supplies, food and other items of humanitarian necessity, these to be determined by the council's sanctions committee. From 1991 until 2003, the effects of government policy and sanctions regime led to [[hyperinflation]], widespread poverty and malnutrition.{{Citation needed|date=February 2023}}

During the late 1990s, the UN considered relaxing the sanctions imposed because of the hardships suffered by ordinary Iraqis. Studies dispute the number of people who died in south and central Iraq during the years of the sanctions.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.unicef.org/newsline/99pr29.htm |title=Iraq surveys show 'humanitarian emergency' |website=UNICEF |date=12 August 1999 |access-date=29 November 2009 |archive-date=6 August 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090806193122/http://www.unicef.org/newsline/99pr29.htm }}</ref><ref name=Spagat>{{cite magazine |url=http://personal.rhul.ac.uk/uhte/014/Truth%20and%20Death.pdf |title=Truth and death in Iraq under sanctions |first=Michael |last=Spagat |date=September 2010 |magazine=[[Significance (journal)|Significance]] |access-date=21 December 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180711190050/http://personal.rhul.ac.uk/uhte/014/Truth%20and%20Death.pdf |archive-date=11 July 2018}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last=Rubin |first=Michael |title=Sanctions on Iraq: A Valid Anti-American Grievance? |journal=[[Middle East Review of International Affairs]] |volume=5 |issue=4 |url=http://www.iraqwatch.org/perspectives/meria-rubin-sanctions-1201.htm |pages=100–115 |date=December 2001 |author-link=Michael Rubin (historian) |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121028003924/http://www.iraqwatch.org/perspectives/meria-rubin-sanctions-1201.htm |archive-date=28 October 2012}}</ref><ref name="Dyson & Cetorelli 2017">{{Cite journal|last1=Dyson|first1=Tim|last2=Cetorelli|first2=Valeria|date=2017-07-01|title=Changing views on child mortality and economic sanctions in Iraq: a history of lies, damned lies and statistics|journal=BMJ Global Health|language=en|volume=2|issue=2|pages=e000311|doi=10.1136/bmjgh-2017-000311|pmid=29225933|issn=2059-7908|pmc=5717930}}</ref>

===Draining of the Qurna Marshes===
{{Main|Draining of the Mesopotamian Marshes}}
The draining of the [[Qurna Marshes]] was an irrigation project in Iraq during and immediately after the war, to drain a large area of [[marshes]] in the [[Tigris–Euphrates river system]]. Formerly covering an area of around {{Convert|3000|km2|abbr=on}}, the large complex of [[wetlands]] were nearly emptied of water, and the local Shi'ite population relocated, following the war and 1991 uprisings. By 2000, the [[United Nations Environment Programme]] estimated that 90% of the marshlands had disappeared, causing [[desertification]] of over {{convert|7500|sqmi|km2}}.{{Citation needed|date=August 2010}}

The draining occurred in Iraq and to a smaller degree in Iran between the 1950s and 1990s to clear large areas of the marshes. Formerly covering an area of around {{Convert|20000|km2|abbr=on}}, the large complex of wetlands was 90% drained before the [[2003 Invasion of Iraq]]. The marshes are typically divided into three main sub-marshes, the [[Hawizeh Marshes|Hawizeh]], Central, and [[Hammar Marshes]] and all three were drained at different times for different reasons. Initial draining of the Central Marshes was intended to reclaim land for agriculture but later all three marshes would become a tool of war and revenge.<ref name="American University School of International Service" />

Many international organizations such as the [[United Nations Commission on Human Rights|UN Human Rights Commission]], the [[Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq]], the [[Wetlands International]], and Middle East Watch have described the project as a political attempt to force the [[Marsh Arabs]] out of the area through water diversion tactics.<ref name="American University School of International Service">{{cite web |url=http://www1.american.edu/ted/marsh.htm |title=Marsh Arabs |access-date=1 August 2010 |publisher=[[American University School of International Service]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100627142037/http://www1.american.edu/ted/marsh.htm |archive-date=27 June 2010}}</ref>

===Oil spill===
{{Main|Gulf War oil spill}}
On 23 January, Iraq dumped {{convert|400|e6USgal|m3}} of [[crude oil]] into the Persian Gulf,{{#tag:Ref|Note: The cited supporting source<ref name=dukemag030403 /> uses the term ''Arabian Gulf'' to name this body of water. This article uses the proper name ''Persian Gulf''. For more information, see the [[Persian Gulf naming dispute]] article.}} causing the largest offshore [[oil spill]] in history at that time.<ref name=dukemag030403>{{cite web |url=http://www.dukemagazine.duke.edu/dukemag/issues/030403/oil1.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100613021006/http://www.dukemagazine.duke.edu/dukemag/issues/030403/oil1.html|archive-date=2010-06-13 |title=Duke Magazine-Oil Spill-After the Deluge |author=Jeffrey Pollack |date=Mar–Apr 2003 |work=Duke Magazine |access-date=1 February 2011}}</ref> It was reported as a deliberate natural resources attack to keep US Marines from coming ashore (''Missouri'' and ''Wisconsin'' had shelled [[Failaka Island]] during the war to reinforce the idea that there would be an amphibious assault attempt).<ref name="Desert Storm">{{cite web|title=V: "Thunder And Lightning"- The War With Iraq (Subsection:The War at Sea) |work=The United States Navy in "Desert Shield" / "Desert Storm" |url=http://www.history.navy.mil/wars/dstorm/ds5.htm |publisher=[[United States Navy]] |access-date=26 November 2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061205022732/http://history.navy.mil/wars/dstorm/ds5.htm |archive-date=5 December 2006 }}</ref> About 30–40% of this came from allied raids on Iraqi coastal targets.<ref>{{cite book|author=Leckie, Robert |title=The Wars of America |url=https://archive.org/details/warsofamerica00robe |url-access=registration |publisher=Castle Books |year=1998|isbn=978-0-7858-0914-2 }}</ref>

===Kuwaiti oil fires===
{{Main|Kuwaiti oil fires}}
{{See also|Environmental impact of war}}
[[File:Operation Desert Storm 22.jpg|thumb|Oil well fires rage outside Kuwait City in 1991.]]
The Kuwaiti oil fires were caused by the [[Military of Iraq|Iraqi military]] setting fire to 700 oil wells as part of a scorched earth policy while retreating from Kuwait in 1991 after conquering the country but being driven out by coalition forces. The fires started in January and February 1991, and the last one was extinguished by November.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://earthshots.usgs.gov/Iraq/Iraqtext|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20021028200910/http://earthshots.usgs.gov/Iraq/Iraqtext|archive-date=2002-10-28|title="Iraq and Kuwait: 1972, 1990, 1991, 1997." Earthshots: Satellite Images of Environmental Change|last=Wellman|first=Robert Campbell|date=14 February 1999|publisher=U.S. Geological Survey|access-date=27 July 2010}}</ref>

The resulting fires burned uncontrollably because of the dangers of sending in firefighting crews. [[Land mines]] had been placed in areas around the oil wells, and a military cleaning of the areas was necessary before the fires could be put out. Somewhere around {{convert|6|Moilbbl|m3|-4}} of oil were lost each day. Eventually, privately contracted crews extinguished the fires, at a total cost of US$1.5&nbsp;billion to Kuwait.<ref>{{cite book|last=Husain |first=T. |title=Kuwaiti Oil Fires: Regional Environmental Perspectives |year=1995 |publisher=BPC Wheatons Ltd |location=Oxford |page=68}}</ref> By that time, however, the fires had burned for approximately 10 months, causing widespread pollution.{{Citation needed|date=February 2023}}