(Image: US Air Force, public domain)
The Highway of Death – a six-lane road connecting Iraq to Kuwait that, over the course of a couple of days in February 1991, became a scene of carnage that has endured as one of the most recognisable symbols of war.
(Image: US Air Force; US Navy, public domain)
During that time, coalition aircraft bombed a retreating column of Iraqi tanks and armoured vehicles as well as civilian cars, trucks and buses that had been commandeered by military forces.
(Image: US military, public domain)
The devastating attack resulted in the destruction and abandonment of more than a thousand vehicles on Highway 80 north of Al Jahra (the official ‘Highway of Death’), and several hundred more on the lesser known Highway 8 to Basra.
(Image: Christiaan Briggs, cc-sa-3.0)
The crushing physical and psychological impact on the Iraqi military combined with negative media coverage fuelled by graphic images of death and destruction, stories of civilian casualties and claims of a ‘turkey shoot’, urged President George H. W. Bush to end Persian Gulf War hostilities the next day.
(Image: US Army, public domain)
The final death toll has been a matter of debate and controversy. Some commentators have claimed that up to 10,000 people were killed and 2,000 captured. But the Project on Defense Alternatives (PDA) suggests a minimum figure of 800 to 1,000.
(Image: US Navy, public domain)
Meanwhile, Globalsecurity.org asserts that many escaped across the Euphrates river, while the US DIA claims that 80,000 troops from defeated divisions in Kuwait successfully fled to Basra.
(Image: Bryan Dorrough, cc-4.0)
Highway 80 runs from Kuwait City to Basra via the border town of Safwan. The road was used by Iraqi forces during the invasion of Kuwait and was repaired after the Persian Gulf War.
(Image: US Marine Corps, public domain)
The twisted remains of abandoned tanks and armoured vehicles, as well as the scorched shells of civilian cars and buses, were simply pushed to the side of the road – which was used by US and British forces in the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
(Image: Bryan Dorrough, cc-4.0)
They remain there today, infamous relics of a war waged more than a generation ago amid a landscape that remains hazardous to this day.
Keep reading – Explore more articles related to Operation Desert Storm.
